Fourteen-year-old Julia Bluhm is taking a stand: against Photoshop. Julia, who blogs for the “girl-fueled activist” web site SPARK Movement has started a petition asking Seventeen magazine to include one photo spread free of retouching in each issue.
“To girls today, the word ‘pretty’ means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It’s because the media tells us that ‘pretty’ girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin,” writes Julia. And it’s true. So much of what we see in magazines today is Photoshopped—pimples are smoothed over and stomach rolls are erased. Stars and models who are already gorgeous are made to look impossibly perfect.
Tomorrow at 11am, to help spread her message, Julia will be staging a mock photo shoot outside Seventeen‘s headquarters in NYC. Supporters will be able to take photos in front of a backdrop holding up dry erase boards with their messages to Seventeen and then Julia will deliver her petition (which now has over 14,000 signatures) to the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief.
What do you think of the use of Photoshop in magazines? Answer our poll!
Yes. Please get rid of Photoshop and at the same time hundreds and thousands of jobs… Seems legit. Parents should parent and teach kids that the pictures are there for entertainment value and that they are fake and people are fine the way they are. Also, a 14 year old girl has no concept about how the world works, thus she really needs to shut up.
Actually its you who needs to shut up. Photoshop shows kids that all these people are perfect and in order for her to also be perfect she needs to be skinny have perfect skin etc. Parents could tell their kids its photo shopped but that doesn’t mean they will all believe them. And a 14 year old girl sees everything first hand she sees magazines and newspaper articles which are generally who the target is teens. And majority of people with the pressure to be perfect and skinny are teens. Thus you need to shut up.
It’s not only photoshopped pictures that tell teens to look a certain way. Bullies in school will tease you for being too big or not having the best looking clothes. Alot of teens use photoshop to make them for better about themselves.
While that’s TOTALLY true, Photoshop is also a big self-esteem toll. But bullying can be a big factor. You might not notice how much better these people look, but when you do, it can take a toll. The point is, photoshop makes it WORSE.
A 14 year old girl knows exactly how 14 year old girls feel when they see photoshopped images so her opinion is very important. How can you believe that it’s okay to constantly show people unachievable beauty as long as it gives people jobs? Money is not the most important thing.
I don’t think photoshop should be used cause it does not give the reader a feel of who the person really is or what they really look like who is on the cover. It leaves the person on the cover so un-self confident in their body when it is photoshopped. So I think the magazines should not even use photoshop.
So I think photoshop should be banned in magazines period. So I give this girl props for what she is doing.
Good for her. 
I guess it’s fine if you fix a tiny mistake, but not the whole person’s body or face. I want to be able to see the true person they are.
Photoshop should be banned go Julia!
I agree, it’s fine to use to fix those tiny little blemishes her and there, as long as the perfections don’t go entirely over board. You’ll still be seeing the model for who they are. I mean, if I were to be a model for Seventeen, I wouldn’t exactly want people to see blemishes on my face in case I had recently broken out or something. It’s totally unnecessary to ban Photoshop, I think that’s taking it a little bit too far. It can be used for good too, guys.
I think that only magazines should only be allowed to use photoshop on really obvious and embarrassing things.
i think photoshop should be banned … it does show teens that to be perfect you have to be super skinny and not have a single zit on your face and if you do have a pimple or your not as skinny as the people in the magazines then your ugly . go julia dont give up
Photoshop isn’t the real problem. Society is. Society says you have to be a size 0 and have perfect skin. I don’t fit into that AT ALL. It makes me feel worse to see that the stars are all beautiful and thin. I guess photoshop can make kids like me feel worse. We just want to fit in.
For me, it’s both combined. Society reads magazines, society sees size 0 girl (who really isn’t size 0), society thinks others should be size 0 (and starts bullying those who aren’t), magazine prints more size 0 girls. And then it continues. BUT if magazines stopped using Photoshop, the circle would be broken and people would be as pressuring after a while.
[...] Post. The remonstration also succeeded in motivating numerous online publications such as popstaronline.com and HLN to question whether or not magazines should airbrush and retouch photographs, in turn [...]
[...] Post. The remonstration also succeeded in motivating numerous online publications such as popstaronline.com and HLN to question whether or not magazines should airbrush and retouch photographs, in turn [...]
Why punish Adobe Photoshop creators for the misuse of magazine publications of the program? Even if you take away Photoshop, magazines will still find ways to make their models look impossibly perfect. They will use angles, props, photo effects, etc just to hide what they perceive ugly. And you can’t entirely blame magazines for having low self-esteem. With proper knowledge and upbringing, there would be less bullies and girls with no self-confidence.
i think, as a 14 year old, she has a great perception of what life is like at that age, how it feels to be imperfect and want to change that. people saying she doesn’t know anything about the world are misjudging what this topic is and how it affects people, especially teen girls! she is doing a good thing and i am glad someone as young as her is making a stand for the right thing. photoshopping gives people i very unreasonable image of what a perfect person looks and therefore try to be something that they cannot achieve, not even the people in the magazines look like that even after hours of make up and hair work and already being thin – they are still changed. it gives people unrealistic expectations and can cause a lot of harm.