No Hiding From High Definition

It's hard to pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading something derogatory about a certain celebrities' appearance. Whether they've stepped out to the local shop in their jogging bottoms or haven't got round to touching up their roots, the press are obsessed with pointing it out. Fame doesn't make people superhuman; they're still normal and have the same problems as the rest of us. If we were papped 24/7 we wouldn't look perfect in every single photo.


Pixie Lott recently attended the Dark Knight Rises premiere and was absolutely hounded for having "hairy armpits". The way headlines made out I thought she must have 11" of hair tumbling beneath her arm. When I actually saw the picture of her armpit, there was virtually nothing there. She apparently "drew attention" to her "hairy underarms" by posing with her hand on her on her waist. Forget the fact Pixie looks beautiful in her stunning blue floor length dress, instead let's focus our attention to the fact she had a tiny bit of stubble on her armpit. It was refreshing to see her taking to twitter to laugh it off, rather than dwelling on it, she moved on like the rest of us should have.

You'd have thought after Pixie explaining herself (which she shouldn't have felt compelled to do anyway) it would all go away but no. The following day at The Art of Rap premiere Pixie wore a gorgeous lace dress with short sleeves and was picked on once again for "covering up to avoid embarrassment once again". This meant reminding the nation, once again, of her "faux pas" from the day before. In amongst all of the drama, columnists felt it necessary to bring to our attention other stars that have been caught out in the past, Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Sharon Stone all on the shame list.

Why can't we just leave them alone? Shouldn't their talent matter more, I think we should go back to talking about the reasons as to why they're actually famous. It all comes back to the world caring more about appearances than ability, Kate Middleton's £35 dress is more important than the sports project she's attending with Prince William and Prince Harry and an A-listers weight is more front-page than their charity work. The media is so desperate to feed the public's lust for celebrity imperfection, it would be nice to go back to celebrating their talent instead.

They say the camera never lies, but does it?

My generation has grown up with the media manipulating images. Small adjustments, here and there, making a models waist smaller by a couple of centimetres or raising her eyebrows slightly. These are done in such a way that it's impossible to tell what isn't real.

Modelling is probably one of the harshest industries out there because it is all based on looks. Regardless of qualifications or personality you must be of a certain build; tall and skinny. These people starve themselves and do everything to perfect their appearance, yet it's still not good enough. For who, though? I would love to see some real looking girls on the cover of magazines. When I'm out, I see so many beautiful girls that look stunning in the flesh, without any airbrushing. So why isn't that good enough? The girls that are being airbrushed aren't unattractive without it. What kind of message does that send to young girls? Will they never be good enough either? How can an 8 year old girl understand the concept that the girls she want to be aren't real... Well, they are real but nothing like the enhanced pictures.

Demi Moore is the new face of beauty brand Helena Rubinstein. The shots for the campaign have just been released and when I first saw them, I couldn't even tell who she was because they are so overly airbrushed. Demi looks incredible for a woman of 49 and women her age would give anything to look that good, even with the recent stress she has been under but she looks nothing like herself in the new campaign.

It's quite self evident which is the airbrushed shot and which one is Demi naturally. The computer has completely rounded her jawline and she is barely recognisable, her complexion is so flawless and unnaturally youthful. Surely we should embrace ageing rather than being ashamed of it? It really is something you can't prevent and it happens to everybody, so it's hard to understand why the image is made into something absurd.

Beyoncé is known for her amazing curves but on the cover of Harper's Bazaar her thighs had been thinned so much that they were completely out of proportion with the rest of her body. 

She's probably admired as one of the most beautiful women in the music industry but if her legs were really like this it would be extremely unhealthy and it's just not achievable. 

A rather amusing example of airbrushing was Adam Levine's missing torso in Vogue. At first glance you don't necessarily notice it but with a closer look it's clear that a computer had interfered with the image.

Should airbrushing be illegal? It seems extreme but it appears to be the only way that society can move forward. Brands want to make their models look the best they can to show that their product works but surely by airbrushing the image it just causes controversy that the product obviously doesn't work. There should definitely be more restrictions so that we, the public, see more of the real thing. There's already a professional team of stylists, hairdressers and make-up artists, which the average woman doesn't have, what's the need for airbrushing too?

Dove have created a video called "The Evolution of a Model" which shows how different she looks at the beginning of the shoot and in the final photo used. This video really made me think, the difference is remarkable! 

Just remember nothing about these photos is real.