Letter to the Editor: Photoshop Hurts Self-Esteem

Photoshop. The invention that has completely changed the way that the media has portrayed women and has heightened the inability for women to meet societal beauty standards.

It’s not just a problem that society has. It’s a disease that has plagued my friends and family.

I’ve seen girls since high school strive to attain these different unattainable standards of beauty and do increasingly strange things.

Ever since my freshman year, the popularity of apps like Facetune or Perfect365 that are used for getting rid of blemishes or making your eyelashes longer have exponentially increased. There seems to be a want among younger girls to attain such lofty beauty standards, and in today’s world, this has become super accessible to larger amounts of women.

This desire for this level of beauty is something that goes deeper than just wanting to look a certain way, it is a part of a want to be accepted. Because mainstream society has made it seem like acceptance is caused by someone’s outer beauty, girls of all ages are looking for easy ways to modify their looks so that they too can find this acceptance.

Jo King

Sophomore - Communication Major