Body positive fashion blogger Dana Suchow is getting a lot of attention because she fessed up to Photoshopping a handful of pictures of herself that appear on her blog, Do The Hotpants. She didn't have to fess up, no one was questioning her about it, plus she's gorgeous, thin and fashionable so it's not like you would think that she NEEDS to Photoshop anything about herself and really no one really NEEDS Photoshop. So why did she do it? When asked she responded, "I stopped manipulating my weight in photos… about a year ago… But I just felt like I had lied to my readers and needed to come clean."
I suggest you check out Suchow's before and after Photoshop images below, but more importantly I suggest you listen to her message, that "It's not about a skinny girl wishing she was just a bit more perfect. It's about every woman feeling ugly and imperfect no matter how little the imperfection." Tell me you don't know what she's talking about?
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In this picture and at this size it's even hard to tell that Suchow flattened her tummy, but she did and that just points to the fact that no matter how stunning a woman looks it's all too easy for her to see an "imperfection."
Here's another instance of when Suchow used Photoshop to flatten her tiny belly pooch.
In these photos Suchow evened out her skin and got rid of a blemish.
Suchow points out, "Just remember, Photoshop isn't the enemy. It's an amazing program that can make a cloudy day look sunny, it can bring out the greens and blues of a dress so they pop, and it can make a blurry photo look like it was taken with a steady hand." I agree with her 100 percent. I love me some Photoshop and I use it pretty much on every picture that I post on my own blog because it can take a picture that is ho-hum and turn it into WOW! That being said, I haven't ever used it to make myself look thinner probably because I don't know how.
The message here is not, Photshopping or airbrushing pictures is evil. The message is that not everything you see in photos is real, you should not be comparing yourself to those images and go on and rock the awesome you that you are.
I'd like to say thank you to Suchow for the reminder. I can't count how many times I've avoided being in family pictures since I've become a mother because I'm uncomfortable with my post-children weight, with my appearance, with my everything and that NEEDS to stop NOW. My family loves me just as I am and I NEED to embrace that and love all of me too. Do the same for yourself, 'kay?
Images via dothehotpants/Instagram, Dana Suchow
