Renee Zellweger’s drastically different face at a recent red carpet appearance set blogs, gossip sites and entertainment television abuzz.

Speculation rose as to whether the actress, best known for her starring role in Bridget Jones’ Diary, had gone under the knife to achieve such a look.

A leading plastic surgeon in New York City suggested the 45-year-old had her upper eyelids lifted, her forehead lifted and received injectable fillers that may have widened the planes of her face. The actress may have also benefited from laser or ultrasound procedures that tighten the skin, the surgeon proposed.

The Royal Gazette’s Lifestyle section asked women to weigh in. Should females allow themselves to age naturally, or is a little nip and tuck okay?

Public relations expert Mikaela Pearman, 28, believes women should have the right to get plastic surgery — although it’s not something she’d do herself.

“I do believe that a strong, confident woman accepts her flaws and knows they add to her beauty,” she said. “In my opinion, plastic surgery makes a woman look insecure. Ageing is natural. We can slow it down, but we can’t stop it.

“I look at my 75-year-old nana who has obviously aged, but has the most amazing skin. I look at my 50-year-old mother who accepts her grey hair and knows she looks fabulous. Neither would ever dream of getting plastic surgery, and honestly, I wouldn’t either.”

Entrepreneur Tauria Raynor, 38, isn’t opposed to women having a cosmetic procedure to improve a flaw but thinks it’s going “a bit overboard” when surgery makes a person look totally different.

“You could argue that to change your looks to the point of unrecognition is a sign of insecurity or an insult to your parents or genetics,” she said, “but as I said, it all comes down to personal choice.”

She believes that a celebrity who totally transforms themselves might actually end up harming their career. Such was the case with Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey, who had difficulty finding work after she had a nose job.

Said Ms Raynor: “If someone is really not happy with a flaw, I have no issue with them changing it. As a woman in my mid-to late 30s, I have seriously considered, am not opposed to and undergone minor body modifications myself.

“As long as I’ve done thorough research on the procedure, the doctor, the risk and possible complications, then it’s all good in my book.

“As the saying goes: ‘What the good Lord didn’t give you, a great doctor would’.”

Photographer Sacha Blackburne, who is in her 40s, believes women are extremely hard on themselves.

“As a photographer, I spend a lot of time on the computer looking at people’s faces and thinking how beautiful my clients are,” she said.

“So often I will have been swooning about the happiness and beauty of a client and when they get the pictures, it’s almost always the mums who say they love the shots of the children and their hubbies, but hate the pictures of themselves.

“This breaks my heart to hear. I will not have seen any of the flaws the woman sees. And I am sure nobody else sees them either.”

She believes that obsessing on those flaws only serves to steal one’s happiness.

She admits that having cosmetic surgery has crossed her mind once or twice but realised it wouldn’t necessarily make her feel better about herself.

Ms Blackburne said: “I had not seen the recent pics of Renee Zellweger, but now that I have, what I find most interesting is that although she looks nothing like how she used to look, with those unmistakable sweet empathetic eyes, she still looks 45.

“She looks lovely for 45, but still 45. And this is one of the things I find interesting about having cosmetic work done. One still looks the age you are, even after work.

“Of course the idea of getting a little something done has crossed my mind in so much as thinking how nice it would be to not have great bags under my eyes, or to not have so much sun damage on my chest (can they even do something about that?), or lessen the wrinkle between my eyebrows. But there are several things that keep me from doing it.

“Firstly, it’s costly, and I feel like that money could be better spent on my family, my home, or frankly, good causes if I were to have so much money lying around!

“Secondly, and this should show I am not totally stuck on a high horse of what I deem to be right, I am scared! Scared of general anaesthetic, scared of them messing up, and scared of anything which could possibly go wrong.

“But thirdly, and most importantly, I deeply believe it is about self- love and happiness. If you lack those things, you think that if you just do this one thing, or have this one thing, that you will be happy.

“What I believe is that once you fix one thing on your body, you will only start to notice something else, and the root of that never-ending spiral is in two things — you are still ageing, so the process will not stop if you change one thing, but also (here is the cliché) if you’re not happy with yourself [on the inside], then you will always find something external to be unhappy about. The cure is not in a nip or tuck, it is in the mind and point of view.”

Journalist Rebecca Zuill, 54, argues that when done right Botox, fillers and plastic surgery can all play a vital role for women.

“The reason? As women ‘age’ in the traditional sense, they become increasingly invisible to their communities: at home, at work and further abroad,” she said. “They lose their voice much more quickly and completely than men do.

“How your face appears — and how your skin, and the muscles, fat, blood and lymphatic system that underlie it are faring — tells the people around you a lot about your health.

“The bottom line is that it’s not only important to actually be healthy — and that is the most important thing — but in order to keep your voice, to look as healthy as you can. And that’s where Botox, fillers and plastic surgery come in.

“It is important to remember that looking after your general health and your skin will mean the best results when you get Botox or other cosmetic treatments. In this day and age it is not unusual to see the incongruous sight of a very young-looking person struggling to walk down the street due to age-related decline.

“A proviso — go only to the very best practitioners for any of these treatments. This is about looking your very best and when it comes to your face, only the best will do. If you are tempted to cut corners, then don’t do it at all! The risks of it going wrong and making you look slightly odd, or even very odd, are real. And that’s not the message that you want to send to your world.”

Former model Diane Whittaker, 69, said there was a lot of pressure put on women, and even men, in certain careers to always look good.

“I will not have plastic surgery, but some people — not just women — really feel the need and sometimes their career is dependent on them looking good,” she said.

“Others just want to stay young- looking for as long as possible.

“I personally feel that with the right diet, exercise, a good skin care routine, fashion sense and style, the right hairstyle and hair colour, groomed hands and feet, and a great attitude, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking older. I say, bring it on!

“What matters most is what’s inside: who you are, how you are and how you treat others. I will be holding workshops on exactly these issues soon so hopefully my class is full with women who are interested in looking their best at any age. In my view, everyone deserves to be the best they can be, right?”