Content Warning: This section of the guide references and discusses physical appearance body image issues.

One of the main ideas in Uglies is that beauty is not everything. The first section of the novel establishes the importance of beauty in the novel’s utopian culture, but the final two sections poke holes in that culture’s ideology, challenging not only that society’s beliefs about physical attractiveness but also our own.

Westerfeld establishes the value of attractiveness by making beauty a rite of passage. The pretty surgery is a way of equalizing humanity, allowing almost everyone to become physically perfect. This surgery comes with advantages like strong bones and healthy immune systems, but what society emphasizes to children is their potential to have the most “biologically” attractive body possible. Tally, as the last person among her friend group to turn 16, longs for the surgery and the sense of belonging that will come with it to the point that she breaks her promise to Shay. By presenting the story from Tally’s point of view, the novel encourages readers to empathize with her in this desire.

However, Westerfeld challenges this ideology even before Tally arrives at the