14-year-old campaigns against use of Photoshop in Seventeen magazine

At just 14 years old, 8th grader Julia Bluhm felt strongly enough to campaign against what she (and many others) feels is the overuse of Photoshop in Seventeen magazine. She created an online petition asking Seventeen to produce one photo spread per month without the aid of Photoshop. The petition was a massive success, with over 26,000 people signing it. Bluhm was permitted to hand-deliver the petition to editor of Seventeen, Ann Shoket.

Bluhm said, “We know that Photoshop can be very harmful to girls because they think they have to look like these images. But it’s not even real, it’s Photoshop. So it’s kind of impossible to look like that in real life.”

Seventeen made the following statement:

“We’re proud of Julia for being so passionate about an issue – it’s exactly the kind of attitude we encourage in our readers – so we invited her to our office to meet with editor-in-chief Ann Shoket this morning. They had a great discussion, and we believe that Julia left understanding that Seventeen celebrates girls for being their authentic selves, and that’s how we present them.”

The statement is perhaps a little vague, and makes no promises toward decreased use of Photoshop in their photo spreads.

Via: PopPhoto.com Source: Jezebel

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