What a hopeful and uplifting read in this morning’s New York Times: Fourteen year-old Julia Bluhm is unhappy about the Photoshopped images of young women in magazines, and is fighting back.
Julia says, of her favorite magazine Seventeen, “I look at the pictures and they just don’t look like girls I see walking down the street.” She believes the super-polished images contribute to young girls feeling bad about their bodies and their faces. She’s a blogger at SPARK, a site dedicated to combatting the sexual objectification of girls and young women.
Blogging about the Photoshopped images wasn’t enough for Julia, though: she started an online petition asking Seventeen to “commit to printing one unaltered — real — photo spread per month.” She has 46,000+ signatures already.
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| Image via Women’s Rights Petition site |
The article gives fair time to Seventeen as well, who say they are not the sole, nor the most grievous, purveyors of the “perfect” image. But Little Sister started with her favorite magazine, and one of the most popular in the country, so here’s a huge salute, cheer, and Hallelulah for girls like Julia.
As a woman and the mother of a 9 year old daughter, Julia, I salute you! Let's spread the word!!!! Real is beautiful!
that is just freaking awesome. i hadn't heard about this, so thank you for posting it, patti!
xo
kym
bitty.and.bunny
I agree!
Good for her! I hope her campaign gains the traction it needs to force the magazines to embrace a permanent change in their practices.
May her effort succeed!
Yes, start young and nip it in the bud. Now if we could only get the "grown up" magazines to feature some unaltered photos!
This is great…good for her. I think I never became a fashion magazine reader for many of the same reasons. When I was a teen, I would occasionally buy them but more for certain articles and of course all the quizzes (remember those?). When my friends branched out from "Seventeen" to "Vogue" and "Bazaar", I had a subscription to "Victoria". It would be great to see this little lady influence "Seventeen" in this positive way…hopefully we would see a trickle down effect
Hi Patti!
On the subject, there is a movie coming out called Girl Model.
They are exposing the fact the fashion industry is using very young girls and the way they are treated. They are trying to change thing so the fashion industry will use girls over 18.
What we see in magazines is unrealistic!
Have a great weekend
Ariane xxx
A very aware and determined young woman. Makes me feel hopeful about the future!
Amen!
Good for her! I applaud her efforts and hope Seventeen will pay attention.
I add my 'hurrah' for Ms. Julia!!!
"images" oops!
I used to read 17 and I know what that was like. Seeing all those perfect iamges. I mostly felt horrible about the way I looked. Something like that can hold you back from doing so many things. I think it's great what she is doing and I hope 17 decides to take a stand along with her.
What a brilliant idea! I am going to send a link to this post to my 17 yo stepdaughter who reads "Seventeen" every month.
I think one unaltered photo is not too much to ask. I hope "Seventeen" agrees.
Have a lovely Friday, Patti. I am already thinking about what I will wear for Visible Monday 🙂
xo, A