I don't know if any of you saw this, from a few months ago. It made me really sad to see how she suffers, and how kids bully her so much, that she had to leave school. Kids can be so cruel. It's easy for people to say just feel positive about yourself, but imagine looking so much older just at 13! It will get worse as she gets older, since this disorder has no cure and even if she got a facelift, she will continue to age and need one again soon.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCl3f-F4uNY

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"Zara Hartshorn of Rotherham, England often runs into trouble when riding the bus or going to the movies. No one believes she is only 13-years old, and always demands she pay an adult fare. But she really is only 13; she just looks like she's 50.

Zara has lipodystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes fatty tissue underneath the skin to crumble, despite the fact that the skin is still growing. This results in an aged, wrinkly appearance. Only 2,000 people in the world suffer from this ailment, including Zara's mother and her two siblings.

But Zara definitely got it the worst. She is teased and ridiculed at school, telling NBC News that her peers call her "Grandma." It is a challenge to find the courage to go to school everyday, where she fears she will be bullied and beat up.

“I don’t think there’s any way to protect her,” Zara's mother, Tracey, told NBC. “She’s always going to have somebody somewhere that will be willing to pick fun, ridicule her.”

Zara's only stab at a normal life would include plastic surgery to fix some of the skin on her face, but it's definitely out of price-range for her family living on public assistance. "I feel if I have my face done," Zara says, "it will give me some more confidence.” (NBC News)


http://www.bettyconfidential.com/ar/ld/a/Rare-Disease-Makes-13-Year-Old-Girl-Look-Like-Shes-50.html

Maybe, but how much Sculptra would it take to fill in the loose skin? I thought Sculptra takes a while to actually fill in volume, and it's not meant for very large areas. But maybe it can work to create more collagen..but I would think she still needs to remove the excess skin.
I know in NYC, it's over a thousand for just a cc or two. She would need much more, and her family lives on govt. assistance so that cost would be too high. Unless it's cheaper in the UK.

According to this article, her mother got a facelift when she was 13 (she's 40 now) and she started to look older in a few yrs again, since the aging continued even worse as she got older.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/25/i-look-like-an-old-woman-but-i-m-only-13-115875-21993085/

[fat grafting would be better if she has fat to harvest]

I doubt she has enough.

[but how much Sculptra would it take to fill in the loose skin?]

A lot. It's what they use on lipodystrophic patients. But she probably does need a lift as well. Her disorder is not only a lack of subQ fat but also looks like an excess of skin combined with inadequate connective tissue. A lot of men in their late 20s have very little subQ fat and marked hollows but they don't have that kind of sagging. So there's more to it than a lack of fat in her case.

Lets think about this logically. This woman knew she had this condition.....and yet she decided to bring a child into this world knowing damn well there would be a good chance the child would have the same condition. I mean she had to know it was hereditary.

If someone has a serious hereditary condition like this....they should NOT bring a child into this world. The responsible thing to do if you have a hereditary condition like this is get sterilized (to just never engage in sexual activity).

Yeah yeah I know "reproductive rights" "women's rights" blah blah blah...none of that justifies voluntarily bringing a child into this world when there is a good chance he/she will have a horrible condition that will cause him/her a lifetime of hell.

No I agree with Yatterman entirely.

While I don't want to judge the mother, since she's had her own problems and still does, due to her condition, I tend to agree that it would be ideal not to have a child if you know there's a high chance of passing down a debilitating genetic disorder. This condition is not solely physical, but it will cause her medical problems later since it appears that all the fat cells in her body are affected, and fat is essential for many functions.
I am not sure how much this woman knew about the odds of passing down the disorder, but she does have two older children with it as well, though not as severe as Zara.
She says she had them with different men, due to bad relationships, most likely due to her own insecurities, as a result of her condition. Maybe her children weren't planned and she wasn't thinking logically. The mother seems to be suffering as well, and has a lot of guilt.
Some people make better decisions than others, and yet some don't even think it through. I feel for the whole family, especially for Zara.

Kids are always mean to other kids who don't fit the perceived 'norm'. It is the pack behaviour, sadly. That poor child must suffer terribly. I feel really sad for her.