How do you feel about the way you look and how do you feel about whether you should do something to change it?

What a question. For the last several months, we have been asking you, our listeners, to tell us stories about your beauty interventions, what you've decided to invest time and

money in, like plastic surgery, elaborate skin care routines, fillers, Botox, things to look younger

or hotter or, quote-unquote, healthier. Or maybe you're one of those listeners who is clear that big interventions are a bridge too far for you.

Plastic surgery, no.

And also you've decided taking GLP-1s or using hair dye means participating in cultural ideals that you would rather reject.

But what do you feel about teeth straightening, or even that nice thick face cream at the drugstore?

When you're deciding to make an investment for your looks,

which part is for you and which part is trying to control how the rest of us treat you.

Conventionally attractive people make more money and are treated better by teachers and law

enforcement. And we live in a time where social media's broad reach is narrowing what we consider

beautiful. In our Slate Plus episode this week, we get into social media even more.

I talked to a researcher who's a dermatologist and a medical anthropologist who is studying the

proliferation of skin care routine videos on TikTok made by and for kids, some as young as seven years old.

Let's start with your stories about your appearance and how some of you pay to manipulate it.

We heard from a lot of you about a push and pull of feeling like improving your looks was a frivolous pursuit,

and also that looking a certain way felt core to some of the most important things in your life, your romantic relationships,

your work, and feeling desired and worthy.

I'd like to think of myself as a person with depth, a person who values intelligence and kindness,

and, you know, doing the right thing. And yet sometimes I worry that my appearance in the doors

that my appearance have opened, those are going to close if I don't continue

to look this particular way.

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