Butt implants by age 12 and intestine removal by age 16 are reportedly par for the course at Venezuelan “miss factories.” Young girls are said to be going to extreme lengths in a bid to become Miss World. Inside the beauty academies in Venezuela, girls are also reportedly wearing “crushing painful” straps around their waists for weeks at a time in order to “improve” their figure.

Venezuela has produced more beauty queens than any other country in the world. To date, the nation has crowned six Miss World, seven Miss Universe, six Miss International, and two Miss Earth crowns. There are hundreds of miss factories in Venezuela, and poor parents often go into debt to pay for the mandatory classes, dresses, and select cosmetic surgeries. Some parents reportedly inject hormones in girls as young as 8 in order to prevent the onset of puberty in an effort to increase height.

Extreme poverty in the country has prompted many girls, and their parents, to go to extreme lengths to garner a beauty pageant title in search of money and fame. According to a Caracas beauty academy operator who recently spoke with the Daily Mail, some girls choose to go under the knife for “cosmetic surgeries they need,” but in some cases, the parents make the decision for butt implants, nose jobs, breast implants, and for plastic mesh to be sewn into the tongue to thwart the ability of the girl to eat solid food.

Beauty pageants, especially Miss Universe, are almost a national obsession in Venezuela, says beauty academy operators. When a Miss Venezuela pageant was interrupted for 15 minutes due to a speech by then president Hugo Chavez, Venezuelans shot guns in the air and banged pots and pans outside their windows until the pageant came back on the air.

Removing parts of the intestine is an extreme weight loss measure used on girls who have not been able to lose the pounds deemed necessary in order to win a beauty queen title. When the intestines are shortened, food passes through the body more quickly and without being digested properly.

Both heavy straps and custom-fit plaster casts have reportedly been used to shrink the waists of Venezuelan girls seeking to become “a Miss.” The tight-fitting devices often leave extensive bruising on the skin of the girls. Each year in Venezuela, dozens of teen girls died due to cosmetic surgery complications. A new health campaign aimed at middle school age girls is working with schools to share information about the dangers of liquid silicone butt injections.

The NO to Biopolymers, YES to Life foundation was created by Mary Perdomo. The young Venezuelan beauty academy alum ultimately died from butt implants she had received four years earlier.

“Every girl here dreams of being a ‘Miss.’ We Venezuelans see those people as the perfect women. When you live in a country where a beautiful woman has greater career prospects than someone with a strong work ethic and first-class education, you are forced into the mindset that there is nothing more important than beauty,” group representative Maria Trinidad said.

Venezuelan beauty queen Debora Menicucci, 23, is currently preparing to compete in the Miss World competition in London.

What do you think about the extreme lengths some Venezuelan miss factories use to create pageant queens?

[Image via: Missology]