tonight on "nightline" -- new face, new year. this 14-year-old spent her summer vacation getting a new nose, chin and ears paid for by a nonprofit because kids at school made fun of her looks. but is a surgeon's knife really the answer? asleep at the wheel. these drivers aren't drunk. the most widely prescribed sleeping pill. tonight, our reporter tries it herself to find out the hazards on the open opens. and fiercely funny. a wildly successful comic who does it from his garage.

judd apatow comes here to talk shop. good evening, i'm bill weir. be well, back to school means new classes, a fresh new face. while it's type to find some high schooler who doesn't suffer from some form of body angst, one nonprofit paid for cosmetic surgery of a 14-year-old who was bullied over her looks. abc's bianna finds out. >> reporter: nadia got a new face. at just 14 years old, nadia spent her summer vacation going under the knife. getting a nose job, her chinned

and ears pinned up. are you going to do modeling? >> i'd like to. >> reporter: it's a radical transformation for a girl who said she felt like dirt after years of relentless teasing. what did they say? >> they called me dumbo, elephant ears. >> reporter: nadia tried to keep the bullying from her mom linda. >> there were were actually points in school when i started crying and i'd try to hold it in as much as i could. usually when i walked home from the bus stop, i usually started crying and cried myself to sleep, too. >> reporter: how does that make you feel hearing that? >> i'm heartbroken over it. i didn't realize it was that bad. you know i love you. >> reporter: you didn't want to burden your mom? >> no. >> reporter: having recently been laid off, nadia's mom was already coping with mounting

medical billses for her son josh. nadia's 9-year-old brother has cerebral palsy and will have to undergo surgery soon. for nadia, whatever issues she had felt superficial. she came convince the solution was plastic surgery. after years of nudging her mom agreed. in fact, the surgery is the most classic among teens with 11,000 performed over last year. >> every child has to make their own decision over what they want to do. i let nadia make the decision. she's been begging me for a long time to get her ears pinned back so i just supported her. if nadia, let's say, was overweight and getting bullied at school for kids who were calling her fat. would you agree to liposuction? >> let's just say this, it's no different than somebody that

requires braces. >> reporter: linda turned to the baby's face foundation that provides surgery around the world for children with facial categories. a category that dr. romo said nadia falls into, even though with the naked eye it may not seem extreme. >> with the jaw, the ear, the nose, and the patient brings those complaints and then you have the overlay of the bullying, it makes it into the criteria of someone who could have surgery to correct that. >> reporter: nadia originally wanted her ears pinned back but dr. romo also suggested the chin implant to balance her face and a nose job to fix a deviated septum. all of that provided free. >> she wasn't bullied because of that. she was picked for her surgery because of her deformity. >> tell me what you see in the

mirror. >> i see a new me. >> reporter: while nadia's procedure may have helped her overcome the trauma, experts claim cases like her should be the exception, not the rule. >> some of these awkward adolescents who feel they need some urgent fix actually evolve into the beautiful swan. >> reporter: nadia is thrilled with her new look. but she and her mother acknowledge it was an extreme measure to end her bullying. >> do you worry at all for having been bullied for having gotten the surgery? >> yeah, i have thought about it. but they're the ones who pressured me into getting the surgery done in the first place. >> when you surgically alter the victim of a bully, isn't it questionable that the message we're sending that the burden lies on the victim and not on a culture that is fueling some bullying trend that we know is going on?

>> reporter: we caught up with nadia after her first day in ninth grade. hair up, showing her ears off for the first time in years. she said she's more confident than ever. >> a lot of people said i was different. i was really beautiful. i'm excited about that. >> but despite the surgeries, nadia and her mom are under no illusions that nadia's problems have all been solved. her mother plans to sign nadia up for counseling sessions to help overcome the years of hurt. for "nightline," i'm bianna gola dreeg ga. and our reporter examines first hand the sleep driving. tools are uncomplicated. w ? nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really.

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this year, americans will fill about 60 million prescriptions for sleeping pills, including ambien and highway cops are fast learning that the innocent pursuit of sweet dreams can lead to nightmare scenarios on the open road like kerry kennedy's crash just last month. and these drugs can stay in your system and affect motor skills for up to 12 hours. to show you exactly how they affect your motor skills, abc's lisa stark turned herself into a sleepy guinea pig. >> reporter: are drinking and driving, it's terrifying, alcohol has long be a killer on the roads. >> ah! >> stop, stop, stop. >> reporter: now a new and growing hazard, a substance usually not detected and used every day.

ambien, the nation's most popular, 40 million annual prescription. in new jersey police arrested this woman who appeared drunk. it wasn't just alcohol. she had popped ambien, gone to bed had no memory of getting behind the wheel. >> you hit something with your car. >> reporter: in texas a woman who mixed wine with ambien also ended up unknowingly on the road. she runs over a family in their yard, severely injuring an 18-month-old. she got probation. her lawyers argued she had no intention of driving. she took the sleeping pill, expected to go to sleep. researchers say it's important to understand how the brain functions when it's on sleeping medication. the results were eye-opening to say the least. i'm driving a car and i clearly shouldn't be. weaving in and out of lanes. but don't worry, we won't put anyone's life in danger. for our road test we came to the

university of iowa, to the nation's most advanced driving simulator. where i am the first person to undergo this simulation while under the influence of ambien. >> we can expose people to things like alcohol and drugs and study how they affect people's driving. >> reporter: omar ahmed is the director here. inside a chevy malibu. from the control room, researchers simulate my virtual road and monitor my every move. >> we can see the speed your vehicle. we have cameras pointed at your eyes and track your movement. >> reporter: before i take the sleeping pill, i'm a pretty good driver. and i pass the sobriety test with perfect coordination. then the pill is designed to work quickly, very quickly. there's a clear warning with ambien, in fact, all sleeping

pills for at least seven to eight hours. do not drive until you feel fully awake. but we know that doesn't always happen. and it's not just sleep driving. some impaired drivers report taking the medication just 15 minutes before being pulled over. others, including kerry kennedy, say they may have popped a pill by mistake before hitting the road. >> we're going to wake her up and ask her to do her first drive. lisa. >> reporter: it's just 30 minutes after i've taken the pill. i start swerving immediately. >> lisa's now driving in the passing lane. this is very dangerous. >> she literally stopped blinking. she's zoned out. >> reporter: 90 minutes in, the drugs are at their peak, and i'm back on the road. i was so drowsy, i swiped a big rig. >> no. >> if she was in a real car,

this would be the end. >> reporter: after my disastrous drive, i attempted the sobriety test once more. >> closed your eyes. >> no it wasn't? it was? >> reporter: and one more attempt in the car, four hours after taking my sleeping pill. see that red light? i blew right through it. remember that new jersey woman, attorney richard uselin usually used the first ambien defense to get her off. >> when you're taking sleeping aids you're playing russian roulette because you would not necessarily have any indication whatsoever that you can actually sleep drive and be a danger to yourself and others in this instance. >> reporter: the drug's developer ambien said the drug has a 20-year track record is perfectly save when taken as directed. they point out that sleep driving is very drive and also as a result of drinking alcohol.

as i found out, it's not a medication to be taken lightly. as soon as the car turned off, i did, too. for "nightline," lisa stark, coralville, iowa. >> our thanks to lisa for that. just ahead, one comic, his garage, some favorite friends and a smash hit comedy podcast with hundreds of thousands of dedicated fans. 's good. call in the engineers. call in the car guys. call in the nerds. build a prototype. mold it. shape it. love it. give it a starting price under 16 grand. take it to the track. tweak. tweak. tweak. stop. take it to the car shows. call the critics. call the marketing team. get a celebrity endorser. he's perfect. i am? [ male announcer ] yes, you are. making a groundbreaking car -- it's that easy. ♪

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well, it seems like a comedian is really baring his sul on stage, odds are it's still a calculated part of the act. but there is one place the funniest place on the planet people go to open up. the garage of marc maron with his act to get into the heads of robin williams and louis c.k. with results. abc's david wright pays a visit in tonight's "seriously funny." >> reporter: it's a program whose name you can't even say over the radio. it's time for "wtf." what the [ bleep ] let's do this -- >> reporter: marc maron doesn't need the public airways to do his show. he does it out of his garage.

>> i'm if my garage. even more magical than i'd imagined, yeah. >> reporter: maron's podcast is regularly one of the top ten downloads on itunes. >> we're doing about 700,000. which is fascinating. >> reporter: so successful, the independent film festival fashioned a tv show. are you surprised with the success? >> absolutely. i can really be who i am. >> reporter: he's kind of the charlie rose or better still, the james lipton with laughs. you know that guy from inside the actor's studio. >> are you writing a book? >> reporter: okay, maron's not an actor like that guy, but when he sit downstairs with the biggest names in society -- >> i don't watch you on television. >> we speak the same language. >> this is going to be super disappointing to you. i did drama in high school. >> you're not the man! >> i was not a junior version of candy powers when i was a kid.

>> i'm going to split but see you at school. >> reporter: not just danny mcbride. all the big names, judd apatow, steven wright, robin williams. >> he's a great guy. he's actually shy in a way. >> robin williams is shy? >> i think so. >> let's hear it for mr. marc mar maron! >> i've been doing stand-up comedy for more than half my life, is that it? i did my graduate work for chopping lines of cocaine for sam kinison. >> reporter: highs and lows he brings out interviews. >> it seems like you're part journalist, part therapist and part kindred spirit. >> yeah, i don't consider myself a therapist, but i've had to do that. >> reporter: in one accept

society, he confronts carlos mancia on joke stealing. >> is there a chance you don't know you're doing that? >> with openers, possibly. >> and then you kind of went easy on ben stiller. i'm not interviewing war criminals here. >> reporter: at other times, he's more of a father confessor. norm macdonald told him about his struggles with gambling addiction. rainn wilson told him about his baha'i faith. in 1995, maron shared a magazine spread with louis c.k. and sarah silverman. they went on to do big things. maron didn't. >> oh, my god, marc maron. >> reporter: and that led to a long-staing feud between maron and louis c.k. just this week --

>> thank you. >> what's up? >> there's a history there, whether i'm jealous or not, anybody that's capable of a jeel je real genius, it's him. >> reporter: maron never got the movie career but the podcast has upped his career. >> i'm not a judger. i don't say anything when people say, hello, judge, because you didn't take away my hobby. >> reporter: do you feel like you've beaten the system? >> no, i'd like to be in a movie but i'm more well-known for what i'm doing in my garage which is fine. >> reporter: it took him 25 years, but now on his own terms, marc maron is an overnight success. i'm david wright for "nightline." >> huge fan of "wtf." thank you for watching. jimmy kimmel is up next. good night.