Day 2 in the #atozchallenge!

Over the past few years we’ve seen a rash of Photoshop backlash. You can search on YouTube for “Photoshop model before and after” and find almost 50,000 videos: a mix of how-tos and fails and calling out the practice of making real humans look fake.

We all like seeing these videos because it is vindication that even the perfect models and actresses aren’t perfect—they’re actually more like the rest of us! Normal. With variations in skin tone and regular hair thickness and average-sized eyes (and other body parts.)

More people are asking: Why do we do lift up fake images like these in our culture? What messages are we sending to our kids about true beauty?

Yet, the practice still goes on. We like looking at pretty images (Pinterest, anyone?) We comment, we grouse, but there is no change in the industry or the culture.

Or is there?

1. The curtain is pulled back.

At least now, with these exposés, we can show our kids: look! It’s all fake. Don’t get caught up trying to look like these computer-generated images. I can tell my daughter, “God made you unique and you look just the way you are supposed to look.” And I can tell my son not to expect his future wife to go around in hair extensions and false eyelashes 24/7.

2. Seventeen Magazine makes a change.

I love the story of the teen girls who challenged Seventeen magazine (via a petition on Change.org) to print one unaltered spread per issue. They got 86,000 signatures. In the end, Aug 2012, Seventeen published an article called Body Peace Treaty where the editors promised not to alter girls’ faces or body shapes.

3. Kylie Bisutti is no Angel.

She is a former VS model who wrote I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model telling young girls what goes on behind the scenes in the modeling world.

In this video Kylie address a group of teens. You’ll probably want to slide along to around 23 min mark where she starts talking. (There is a long lead-in.)