Who says you can’t make a difference? Seventeen magazine announced this week that it will no longer digitally alter girls’ faces or body shapes, after 14-year-old Julia Bluhm from Waterville, Maine launched a petition back in April asking the magazine to print one unaltered photo spread each issue.
“I want to see regular girls that look like me in a magazine that’s supposed to be for me,” Julia writes in the petition going on to say, “For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up. I know how hurtful these photoshopped images can be. I’m a teenage girl, and I don’t like what I see. None of us do. Will you join us by signing this petition and asking Seventeen to take a stand as well and commit to one unaltered photo spread a month?”
It didn’t take long for the petition to go viral and receive more than 85,000 signatures. The magazine responded to the mounting pressure with a “Body Peace Treaty” that promises to “celebrate every kind of beauty” and to “never change girls’ body or face shapes.” The photoshopping won’t completely stop — the magazine explains they need to edit flyaways or clothing wrinkles for example — they have pleased Julia who wrote, “Seventeen listened! They’re saying they won’t use Photoshop to digitally alter their models! This is a huge victory, and I’m so unbelievably happy.”
Julia is now targeting Teen Vogue, with SPARK activists Emma and Carina. Considering Vogue recently announced they will ban models who are too-thin or too-young, there is definitely a shift going on in the fashion world and we’re fans.
Tags: Julia Bluhm petition, Seventeen magazine Body Peace Treaty, Seventeen magazine stop Photoshop, Seventeen model petition, Seventeen stops digitally altering models, stop digital alteration on models, Vogue magazine ban models