Everybody’s talking about: Face Value

Nana Wereko-Brobby, Editor, 25

The media is making bold efforts to highlight society’s prejudice based on looks, but where does age prejudice come into it?

Last night Channel 4 aired the programme ‘Katie: My Beautiful Face’, the extraordinary story of model Katie Piper who was scarred for life in 2008 when an ex-boyfriend arranged for her to be doused in acid. She was left blind in one eye and had to endure hours of operations to rebuild the skin on her face. She remains disfigured but with an inspiring outlook on life that has led to her setting up her own charity, the Katie Piper Foundation, which helps people come to terms with disfigurement and also raises money for post-operative treatment. On a personal level, the programme goes some way into looking at how she continues to deal with her own issues. In a spoiler at the end, Katie is en route to a date and amusingly points out on that this is the first date where she wasn’t totally sure he would fancy the pants off her; she frankly no longer considers her looks a freedom pass.

When Teenage Meets Old Age

Sinead Rippington, Contributing Editor, 22

It’s not often that you see two teenage boys leading a group of elderly people in a rousing rendition of ‘Bleeding Love’ by Leona Lewis. However, last night viewers of BBC2’s ‘When Teenage Meets Old Age’ were lucky enough to be treated to just this spectacle, as the channel broadcast the first of a three-part series on interaction between younger and older generations.

The premise of the programme is a simple one: young people these days spend little or no time with their elders. Luckily, BBC 2 has stepped in, sending four teenagers to work as carers in a retirement village and nurturing the development of some rather touching intergenerational friendships.