Pictures of the week: In My Skin, by Michelle Sank

At the age of 20, Hannah (above) has already had a lot of plastic surgery: lip fillers, breast augmentation, Botox, liposuction and rhinoplasty. You can always better yourself, she told photographer Michelle Sank, which makes it sound a lot like she has no intention of stopping.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

Cambell, 16 (above), hasn’t actually had any surgery, but is a boy living as a teenage girl. Their bedrooms are a girl’s fantasy of what a worldly woman’s boudoir looks like: satin sheets, New York-at-night triptychs and leopard-print bedding.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

Sank’s work broadly focuses on young Brits on the cusp of adulthood – that often difficult, transitional time when we try to work out who we are, or want to become.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

In her latest project, she photographs people under 25 who are, in different ways, so unhappy in their skin that they are actively changing their bodies.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

Some are transgender, struggling with a body they don’t believe belongs to them. Some have had cosmetic surgery, from plumped lips to enlarged breasts.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

Others take supplements or bodybuild, such as Jason, 19 (above), whose bulky frame looks, Alice In Wonderland-like, too large for his room.→ Photograph: Michelle Sank

Their youth, and the lengths to which they have gone to change their appearance at such an age, is frightening, Sank says. 'It’s sad that they can’t celebrate who they are.'→

• This gallery was edited on 15 April 2013. The image shown here was added to replace one of a previous subject, who asked for it to be removed for personal reasons.
Photograph: Michelle Sank

Few teenagers love their bodies, but most are able to live with them as they are. These youngsters can’t – and are doing something about it. Photograph: Michelle Sank