It’s no surprise that magazines constantly create the illusion of unattainable body images with a little help of Photoshop magic.
What is surprising, is how one 13 year old from Maine is taking a stand and urging Seventeen to commit to just ONE unaltered photo spread every month.
Julia Bluhm‘s Seventeen Magazine: Give Girls Images of Real Girls petition reads:
“Girls want to be accepted, appreciated, and liked. And when they don├óΓé¼Γäót fit the criteria, some girls try to ├óΓé¼┼ôfix├óΓé¼┬¥ themselves. This can lead to eating disorders, dieting, depression, and low self esteem.
I├óΓé¼Γäóm in a ballet class with a bunch of high-school girls. On a daily basis I hear comments like: ‘It├óΓé¼Γäós a fat day,’ and ‘I ate well today, but I still feel fat.’ Ballet dancers do get a lot of flack about their bodies, but it├óΓé¼Γäós not just ballet dancers who feel the pressure to be ‘pretty’. It├óΓé¼Γäós everyone. To girls today, the word ├óΓé¼┼ôpretty├óΓé¼┬¥ means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It├óΓé¼Γäós because the media tells us that ├óΓé¼┼ôpretty├óΓé¼┬¥ girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin.
Here├óΓé¼Γäós what lots of girls don├óΓé¼Γäót know. Those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake. They├óΓé¼Γäóre often photoshopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.
That├óΓé¼Γäós why I├óΓé¼Γäóm asking Seventeen Magazine to commit to printing one unaltered — real — photo spread per month. I want to see regular girls that look like me in a magazine that├óΓé¼Γäós supposed to be for me.
For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I├óΓé¼Γäóm stepping up. I know how hurtful these Photoshopped images can be. I├óΓé¼Γäóm a teenage girl, and I don├óΓé¼Γäót like what I see. None of us do. Will you join us by signing this petition and asking Seventeen to take a stand as well and commit to one unaltered photo spread a month?”
Beyond inspirational!
Since posting her petition on Change.org, Julia’s received over 8,000 signatures and we only expect that number to grow.
If U want to sign CLICK HERE for more info!
What do U think about all this?!! Should Seventeen step it up and limit their Photoshopping of young girls?!!
[Image courtesy of Seventeen.]