19 year old actress, Zendaya, was featured in Modeliste’s magazine a couple months ago and something went very wrong with the pictures. She spoke out on Instagram (below) saying upon viewing the pictures she found “her 19 year old hips and torso quite manipulated.” The editor and chief of the magazine said that they would pull the magazine and put the original photos back where they belonged.
I have a real problem with this whole situation. For Zendaya being so young and a role model for girls her same age if not younger, this is sending a horrible message. She is a beautiful girl who in no way, shape, or form needs to be altered. The picture on the right in my opinion (the original one) looks better. With all of the photoshopping that is happening to models these days, the some readers are bound to look at them and feel self conscious or insecure about themselves.
Front page covers are the first thing that grab people attention and they are almost always beautiful models that are stick thin. Or at least appear to be. I feel that so many readers would benefit knowing how real these celebrities look versus how they are perceived because they have to look good on a magazine. They are people just like you and I. So, why make them into these individuals that seem to be better or more important? Celebrities have insecurities too, if not more than the average person. I really hope at some point that modeling companies and magazines will start to realize that.
More discussion about Zendaya’s photoshoot:
To Photoshop or Not To Photoshop 