Someone called Lady Gaga has touched off a new fad. In the singer’s video, “Bad Romance,” her eyes appear bigger than life in a bathtub scene.
“Wow,” said the teen-agers who watched. “Let me look like that!”
With profit prospects hot, makers of bootleg contact lenses leapt to comply.
It is illegal to make or sell contact lenses that will be pedaled to all-comers without prescriptions, but with cash. That barrier apparently proved to be an incentive.
Now millions of wide-eyed girls and young would-be Gagas are prancing around high school and college halls with so-called “circle contacts” inserted that not only make their eyes look larger but also change the color of their pupils to purple, foggy grey or —mercy me — lime green.
Because they are illegal, they aren’t sold by optometrists who, along with opthamologists, warn that wearing them without professional guidance might result in serious injury, even blindness. Instead, they are purchased online from manufacturers in Malaysia or wherever, as a result of free advertising provided by postings on YouTube, Facebook or some other social network by gushing Gaga-istas (or Gaga-ettas, whichever is the proper plural) who use the word “cool” a lot.
In a manner of weeks, wide-eyes, wild colors, were in, coast to coast.
The lenses cost $20 to $30 a set. Some girls say they have 20 or more pairs. A color to match any outfit, any mood.
Maybe the recession isn’t that deep after all.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
