Teenage Girl Petitions to End Photo Retouching in Magazine

This really is a refreshing story. A fourteen-year-old Maine teenager was peeved that her favorite magazine was using photo editing software to enhance the models who grace their pages. Here's the kicker - the magazine, Seventeen, is geared toward teenage girls, hence the models are all in an age bracket that shouldn't require any photo enhancement. Their skin is perfect, they haven't had children yet, they're in the prime of their youth. They will never look better than they do right now, so why the retouching?

This article caught my attention, because I've always thought of retouching as cheating anyway. I mean, sure, if you want to edit out some acne or a scar, that's understandable. But to actually change the shape or appearance of physical attributes and facial features is dishonest. It also has a negative impact on society, because impressionable females try to live up to impossible standards, and males expect that females should look picture perfect and airbrushed all the time.

I've frequently wondered if it harms the model as well. Think about it. Let's say that's you on the cover, all airbrushed and "ideal" looking. Not much of it is real at all, but that's the image you're projecting, and that's what people expect you to look like, so you desperately try to live up to it. Imagine how mortified you'd feel every time someone saw you "as is", without having had your hair and make-up done perfectly, without having your cellulite edited out, and without having your cup size enhanced. Not very empowering, is it?

That's not the message young Julia Bluhm thinks is appropriate to be sending young girls. I agree with her wholeheartedly. Ms. Bluhm started an online petition earlier this year urging Seventeen to feature completely untouched photographs monthly. The petition gained a lot of support, and it has also made an impact with the magazine. Hopefully, this is just the beginning. I don't know about you, but I'd like to see all magazines completely do away with gratuitous photo refinishing.


Don't believe just how much digital alteration photos of models and celebrities go through? Check out this Youtube tutorial. This is one of the more basic ones - it doesn't alter the shape of her body, change the color of her skin or teeth, or any of the other common changes that are made to mag pictures.