Ok, so Seventeen Magazine is debuting their Body Peace Treaty in the mag’s August issue. It is a declaration to “never change a girl’s body or face shapes,” and to only feature “real girls and models who are healthy.” This was brought on by a petition started by a 14-year-old who plead for Seventeen to cut down on the Photoshopping and give girls more realistic images in the magazines they read.
All deep-rooted self-esteem issues that still linger today aside, I would not be as fashion-conscious as I am now without those unattainable body images flooding my psyche each time I read a Teen Vogue in 2003. Most people I see out and about everyday are not cute – even in fierce New York City. Imagine how much greater the proportion of non-chic to chic would be if all women began their impressionable teen years looking up to “realistic looking” models. If this were the case, maybe we’d all wear burlap sacks in the same complacent manner in which we currently wear high-waisted cut-off jorts and ill-fitting tees.
Yes, I probably have some underlying body issues that are deeply and unhealthily suppressed somewhere, but I took one for the team – that team being America – and became just one more well-dressed citizen because of the outrageously high bar set by the magazines of my teenhood. Dear 14 year-old, trust me, you and the rest of teen America will turn out prettier if you let those editors do their thang.
