Beautiful Thinking

Beautiful, gorgeous, pretty - things that we all want to be - to a point. Wouldn't it be awful if everyone was beautiful to the point of boring. In the book "Uglies" a world exists where eveyone is pretty which begs the question - should we strive so hard for beauty at the expense of our own individuality.
The book "Uglies" tells the story of a girl named Tally who lives in a town called uglyville. When a person turns sixteen they undergo and operation to make them drop dead gorgeous, also known as "Turning Pretty." The summer before Tally is to turn pretty, she meets a girl named Shay. After spending hte summer with Tally, Shay tells her of a place called "The Smoke" where people do not have the operation and do not turn pretty. A radical concept to Tally. Shay goes off to find the smoke but leaves coded directions for tally that told her how to get there. Tally still wanted to turn pretty mat at the hospital she was told that she had to bring shay back before she could turn pretty. After a long journey using Shay's directionis, Tally finds that people ware beautiful even if they haven't had surgery. She finds that it is important to be yourself and not what everyone else wants you to be.
Unfortunately, our world is closer to the world in "Uglies" than we think. Many people may read this book and think that they could never be so concieted as to undergo major surgery in an effort to be like everyone else. But that same person may go put on the most stylish clothes money can buy and go put no globs of make up just to look like everyone else. Many people believe that individuality is great but very few people ever try to be thier true selves.