I Got Rid of My Buccal Fat Years Ago and Never Looked Back

I just couldn’t take it anymore. The comments started when I was a baby. “Look at those cheeks!” strangers would cry when they saw my full, Churchillian face. And while an angelic moon face is adorable on a child, mine never really went away — and neither did the comments. Whenever I showed up at a family function, someone would pinch my cheeks. What began as an affirmation of my cuteness curdled into something negative as the decades wore on. Even when I was at my lowest, scary-skinny weight as a teenager or entering adulthood in my 20s, my cheeks were a focal point and I hated them. I desperately wanted cut-glass cheekbones and a snatched jawline. “But you’ll be so happy you have those cheeks when you’re older,” people said whenever I would express my discontent, implying that my full cheeks would stay plump even as the less robust faces of my peers naturally sagged with age. You know what’s not fun to hear? That you’ll have to wait decades to be happy with your appearance.

If you resolved to eat less meat this year, consider going the “social omnivore” route. The grandmother of cozy indie bookstores, Joyce Meskis, has passed away. Go buy a hardcover at your local shop in her memory. If you assumed the historic flooding in California would alleviate drought conditions, think again. CVS and Walgreens confirmed that they will carry abortion pills after the recent FDA ruling. Have you heard of baby boxes? Despite recent protests and activism, U.S. police killed a record number of people in 2022. And in case you missed the wildest internet story this week: A romance author reappeared two years after supposedly dying by suicide — a ploy, it now appears, to sell more books.

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