A 14 year old girl brings together Seventeen magazine and the National Eating Disorder Association to give girls a healthier body image.
“We vow to … never change girls’ body or face shapes. (Never have, never will),” Says Seventeen magazine. This is in regards to the “Body Peace Treaty” that is featured in the August 2012 edition.
This treaty was created after a push led by a Maine 14-year-old to combat the practice of altering pictures and picking models whose appearance give teens an unrealistic perspective on what is attractive and trigger eating disorders.
The treaty and accompanying note by editor-in-chief Ann Shoket promise that Seventeen will “celebrate every kind of beauty” and feature ”real girls and models who are healthy,” while vouching that the magazine always has done just that.
However, more than 84,000 people who signed a Change.org petition, started by teenager Julia Bluhm, clearly believed Seventeen and other publications didn’t always present the full, human truth in their magazine images.
The petition said, “Those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake.” The petition went on to request one unaltered, real , photo spread per month.” “They’re often Photo shopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.”
In addition to going public in its commitment, Seventeen states in its latest edition it is partnering with the National Eating Disorders Association and the Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls.