Women's Magazines: We Want the Truth!
Tell Seventeen and Teen Vogue to start representing REAL women!
Growing up female is tough these days. With so much emphasis placed on women's looks, it's a struggle to go through life without falling prey to stereotypes and images of the perfect body.
The media is the worst offender. You can't walk down the street without being confronted with images of skinny girls and beautiful models. Imagery like this is what perpetuates eating disorders and anguish girls experience in trying to fit the mold.
Even teen magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue do nothing to stop enforcing the stereotype; airbrushed photos and tiny models are still the norm. But that's not the norm. These magazines are tricking girls into thinking their dreams can come true if they are thin and beautiful.
We need magazines to join the fight in helping girls reach their fullest potential — no matter what they look like or choose to wear.
Ask Seventeen and Teen Vogue to ditch the deceit and GET REAL!
Dear Ann Shoket, Seventeen Magazine Editor-in-Chief, and Amy Astley, Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief:
While I realize you have an inherent interest in selling magazines, I believe you have a greater moral responsibility to girls and women.
You see, your publications depict nothing but thin and conventionally gorgeous females. In doing this, you are perpetuating a dangerous stereotype that causes millions of girls to lose their self esteem and develop eating disorders.
As prominent American publications, you have a unique opportunity to change the way the media sees women; in essence you can help the world value women for more than just their looks or how much they weigh. And since adolescence is the time in which girls are most vulnerable, yours is an especially extraordinary chance to shift this diseased thinking.
I am writing to ask that you start featuring girls of all shapes and sizes, without airbrushing, and show us how much you truly value natural beauty.
You can help change the world and save girls from unnecessary pain and suffering.
Thank you.
