The HOW and WHY I Became an Aesthetic NP
I didn’t start out in medicine. My first love was French. The language, the culture, the art. In college, I spent countless hours absorbed in Baudelaire’s poetry, mesmerised by Degas’ impressionist paintings, and reflecting upon Voltaire’s political satire. I guess you could say that I was fascinated by aesthetics in the classical sense: how humans have always sought beauty and meaning in the world around us. How the way we see ourselves and our world fundamentally shapes our experience of being alive.
I graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in French, and with the unparalleled experience of two amazing semesters abroad in Paris and Aix en Provence, France. However, I was uncertain how to translate my liberal arts degree into a career. It was also in the midst of the 2008-2009 Great Recession, which compelled me to choose a pragmatic profession; ideally, one that highlighted my desire to better the world. With that self-knowledge, as well as having come from a family steeped in medical education and tradition, I found my professional match in nursing. It felt like coming home to a different kind of calling: one grounded in science and service.
After completing a three year graduate program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, I became a nurse practitioner. I moved back to San Francisco and took a provider position at the SF VA hospital, ultimately landing in pulmonary medicine, specializing in lung cancer and ALS. Many of my patients were at the end of life, people for whom “quality of life” wasn’t an abstract concept, but was now the entire point. I frequently found that seemingly little efforts like asking how they’re coping, placing an extra cushion on the exam chair or paying compliment to their new sneakers were equally appreciated to me ordering their next diagnostic PET/CT scan, biopsy or blood panel. I learned that my role as their healer wasn’t just to increase the quantity of life, but to maximize the quality. To help them enjoy life, to feel alive, to feel confident, to feel seen.
The work in pulmonary was incredibly profound and rewarding. However, spending the majority of my daytime hours enmeshed in the world of terminal diagnoses, was emotionally taxing; my quality of life had taken a hit. I knew I needed a professional change. I took time to reflect on my educational and career experiences to date, examining where my experiences, skills and passions intersected. I realized my ultimate professional dream was to practice medicine that also uplifts the patient. This is where I found the field of aesthetic medicine.
I hesitated before making the leap into aesthetics. There’s a perception that the work is superficial. Frivolous. I worried about what my esteemed colleagues would think. I worried that I’d be trading meaningful work for something less important.
But there is nothing surface-level about helping someone feel happy in their own skin. The desire to feel beautiful, to present ourselves to the world with confidence, to align our exterior with how we feel inside. None of these are trivial concerns. They’re deeply human. And in a healthcare system that often treats bodies as things to be fixed, rather than people to be seen, aesthetic medicine offered me a way to honor the whole person.
In aesthetics, I get to use both sides of my brain. The left side analyzes facial anatomy, understands pharmacology, assesses medical appropriateness. The right sees proportion and the subtle asymmetries that make a face uniquely beautiful. Medicine meets artistry, and I’m endlessly fascinated by both.
I also deeply value the relationships I build with my patients. In aesthetics, I see the same people over months and years. I learn their stories. I watch them evolve. I become part of their journey toward feeling more confident, more themselves.These longitudinal relationships are some of the most rewarding aspects of my work.
Also - the innovation. Aesthetic medicine is one of the most dynamic fields in healthcare. New techniques, new technologies, new understandings of facial aging and skin biology—there’s always something to learn, always a way to refine my craft.
Aesthetic medicine allows me to be the kind of healer I’ve always wanted to be. I get to help people find confidence, joy, and beauty. I get to practice medicine that honors the whole person: their goals, their emotional and physical well-being, their right to feel at home in their own reflection. And I get to witness, every single day, the profound impact that feeling beautiful can have on how someone moves through the world. I am so passionate about my work, it’s a great privilege I don’t take for granted.
-Tess