We are constantly exposed to images of celebrities and models with perfect skin, a slim stomach, and enhanced body features from magazines and social media. Because we see perfection so often, many women believe that we should live up to these standards. It is not a secret that the photos we see in the media are Photoshopped and that many models spend up to six hours a day working out, but why do we forget these facts when we begin the compare the photo to ourselves? Photos posted on social media apps such as Instagram are now commonly edited and the detox skinny teas instafamous people are advertising do absolutely nothing. We must stop buying into these ideas that we must look a specific way only because Kylie Jenner does. Will it truly make you happy at the end? Will it matter in five or even ten years?
Take the following quotes of celebrities admitting the fakeness of their photos and bashing on Hollywood’s ideal body image as a reminder that what you see in the media is not truly who they are and that you shouldn’t compare yourself to something that isn’t realistic.
Shailene Woodley
“I saw somebody — what I thought was me — in a magazine once, and I had big red lips that definitely did not belong on my face. I had boobs about three times the size they are in real life. My stomach was completely flat. My skin was also flawless. But the reality is that I do not have those lips and my skin is not flawless and I do have a little bit of a stomach. It was not a proper representation of who I am. I realized that, growing up and looking at magazines, I was comparing myself to images like that — and most of it isn’t real.”
Jennifer Lawrence
“Of course it’s Photoshop; people don’t look like that.”
“Confidence makes a woman sexy. Women should not get caught up in someone else’s definition of beauty. We are too obsessed with what a perfect nose is, or perfect hair, but there is nothing more beautiful than loving yourself and being confident.”
“The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly I don’t desire to look like that…”
Rihanna
“You shouldn’t be pressured into trying to be thin by the fashion industry, because they only want models that are like human mannequins…You have to remember that it’s not practical or possible for an everyday woman to look like that. Being size zero is a career in itself so we shouldn’t try and be like them. It’s not realistic and it’s not healthy.”