We’re all guilty of a little FaceTune and Photoshop here and there, whether it’s smoothing out our skin or making ourselves a little less bloated- but what would happen if you handed over control of the way you look to strangers?
Dietitian Lyndi Cohen decided to conduct the social experiment by posting photos of herself on Instagram and asking her followers to “Photoshop her beautiful”…but she could’ve never predicted the results would be quite so shocking.
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A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT
To the 28-year-old’s surprise, in almost every Photoshop edit her slender size 10 frame was made to look thinner.
In a candid Instagram post, she wrote: “I asked a bunch of strangers to photoshop images of me. And without me asking, they all made me slimmer. They removed my birthmark from my shoulder. They even made my bone structure smaller. They created an image of what they thought was beautiful and healthy – and the result worries me.
“When all we see is photoshopped images of already slim people – it’s difficult to think of beauty or health as anything else. I tell you my friends… there’s nothing wrong with my bone structure or my birthmark or my stomach or my natural body shape.
“The problem is that every photo we see is photoshopped, causing us to question whether the girl in this picture, with the stomach rolls, is actually healthy. My stomach rolls are not the problem. Our culture’s obsession with the thin ideal and photoshop is.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT
A post shared by LYNDI COHEN(@nude_nutritionist) on Sep 18, 2018 at 12:02am PDT
Releasing a series of before and after shots, Lyndi made it clear that Photoshop and body ideals we have as a society are far from reality, and that we should be celebrating our bodies, flaws and all. And as a pro-nutritionist, we trust her opinion, to say the least.
So next time you go to amp up the teeth whitener on your selfie, remember that championing your inner “yes I forgot to brush my teeth this morning” could just earn you 60,000 followers…