Photoshopped

Have you ever found yourself standing in line at a supermarket, about to check out, when you glance over at the magazine stands and see a celebrity lavishing a front cover that looks a little too perfect? The celebrity is either a little too thin, a little too buff, or having no imperfections whatsoever. And you probably think to yourself, how? How could someone be so unbelievably attractive? The simple answer: Photoshop.

Photoshopping the celebrities on front covers of magazines has been an all too common trend with many magazine companies these days. They’ll make sure the males have a bit more muscle, and the females a smaller waist, without considering if the changes they’re making are even physically possible.

And while not all Photoshop jobs are as bad as the one depicted to the right, they’re still very damaging to teenagers both male and female.

When young people, who are already susceptible to harsh insecurities, look at these magazines and see the hardly feasible bodies celebrities seem to have, those insecurities grow into much more serious and harmful disorders. One example came from the 2014 February edition of a Seventeen magazine, where “Pretty Little Liars” star Troian Bellisario had an interview in which she opened up about her eating problems, and was featured on the cover next to the caption, “Get An Insane Body: It’s Hard, But You’ll Look Hot!” a statement that completely negated the story belonging to the featured celebrity.

The thing about fashion and beauty magazines, according to an article from Beauty Redefined, is that they all depend on two things: “females believing happiness, health, ability to be loved is dependent on their appearance,” and, “females believing they can achieve physical ideals through certain products/services.” This basically means that the goal of all beauty magazines is to sell women products at the expense of their own self-image.