Tranee (37)

Los Angeles, CA

The Ugly Duckling

Tranee’s obsessive relationship with beauty can easily be attributed to her youth as an awkward, unattractive and unkept young girl. Growing up, she was bullied and teased in school because of her looks. She had a Class 3 overbite which means that not only was her lower jaw protruding past her upper jaw, but her upper jaw was also receding. Other kids would call her names like “Witch.” She was used to name calling, stares, onlookers and bullying. It made her insecure and feel terrible about herself. She was often ostracized and left out. It didn’t help that she wore glasses and was involved in the “nerdy” clubs and organizations in high school. She was never beautiful or popular when she desperately wanted to be.

At 30 years old the comments about her underbite were finally too much for Tranee to bear, and she decided to schedule her double jaw surgery - an extreme procedure that broke her jaw in two places, requiring intensive recovery and healing. Little did she know; this experience would alter her view of beauty forever. During recovery, Tranee was prescribed various strong medications including a cancer medication, prednisone, and codeine which she became unknowingly addicted to. When she was off her medications, she experienced major withdrawal symptoms and felt that her body was not being cared for the way she needed it to be. It was during this time that she discovered traditional Chinese Medicine, and her obsession with natural beauty began.

Tranee left her 15-year-long law career in litigation and enrolled in acupuncture school dedicating all of her time to restoring her body and becoming the most naturally beautiful person that she could be. Without surgeries or procedural alterations, Tranee will try everything to reach natural perfection - and she much prefers to do it all herself. First, Tranee performs her own acupuncture which is the process of sticking needles into her own skin, causing micro traumas that lead to various health and beauty benefits like tightening skin and even removing scars. She is in school for it, so why not practice on herself?

Outside of sticking needles in her face she develops her own herbal, natural concoctions in her kitchen, or what she calls her “lab” and tests them on herself with the ultimate goal of starting a natural cosmetic business. She has drawers and cabinets full mushrooms, fruits, vegetables, oils, tonics and tinctures which she experiments with. Her showering and bathing rituals also take hours and involve two different soaps. One for her body and one for her intimate areas.

Though Tranee’s natural beauty habits could be seen as technically good for her health, her family worries that they might also be detrimental to her wellbeing. Tranee is seeking to achieve a goal that is unachievable, they say - she has expressed a desire to look just like Beyonce, for example. She uses AI and photoshop to create versions of herself that she aspires to be in real life, but those around her know that those images can only ever be just a fantasy. Tranee’s brother, Robert, feels especially stuck because he can’t reprimand Tranee for being “healthy,” (she uses all natural, good-for-you beauty products), but he does worry that she’ll waste so much of her time and self-esteem trying to be something that she’s not, leading to a life of unhappiness.

Tranee is looking forward to graduating with her acupuncture license this year, and finally taking the next step toward becoming the natural beauty guru that she has dedicated the last seven years to becoming. The days of her old career, and of her old beauty standards which included physical surgeries and procedures are over. She has even considered pushing the envelope and giving herself her own vampire facial. This particular facial involves drawing blood from a person, putting it into a centrifuge and reapplying via needles back into one’s own face. It’s one thing to have done through a licensed professional, quite another to draw your own blood at home and stick it back into your own face! Moving forward, it’s all about natural beauty - but she won’t stop until she has reached her version of perfection.