by Philipa Booyens
Star Magazine's June 20th 2011 issue featured eating disorder confessions from celebrities. The issue featured Ashlee Simpson, RHOBHs Taylor Armstrong, Courtney Love, Tara Reid, Keira Knightley, Gretchen Rossi, Taylor Momsen, and Victorias Secret model Candace Swanepoel on the cover. The quest for perfection has far reaching consequences.
The recent Kelly Clarkson cover on SELF magazine caused quite a controversy when they edited her photo in order to make her look her personal best. This is just one example of the many that are out there, ads and advertisements claiming perfection.
With this constant bombardment of picture perfect images from the media and correlating recent statistics stating that 1 in 5 women struggle with an eating disorder or disordered eating (National Institute of Mental Health), I thought it would be appropriate to give you a more insightful perspective
My mother owns a prominent modeling agency in Nashville, TN and although my mothers agency teaches sound healthy habits in fitness, nutrition and skin care it is sadly not the norm. Therefore, I have had the, sometimes unfortunate, pleasure of growing up in the modeling and entertainment industry and feeling pressure to look and be perfect.
Do you ever feel this way? Pressure to look or act a certain way?
Like me, you have most likely felt similar pressure, either from some sort of entertainment. You are not alone! However, I have learned that a lot of the media images we think we have to live up to are not realistic at all.
I would like to first introduce you to the amazing world of Photoshop...
In my modeling career and working at a prominent modeling agency myself, I have seen much worse done to other photos in the industry, proving once again that often times what we end up seeing as the final product, is not real at all.
I am just writing this to say that the many of the images we see in the magazines and online are not real at all. There seems to be a lot of expectation and pressure in Hollywood, but I think the important thing may truly be that we are all unique and original. What a blessing that is!
So what do you think? Do you feel pressure to look a certain way? Or even act a certain way? Would love to know your thoughts and how you deal with these expectations.
