If You Don't Like Something, Change It

BREAKING NEWS! Thanks to the efforts of Julia Bluhm, SPARK Summit, the Keep It Real! Challenge and numerous others including the AWESOME kids featured in this video and the AWESOME people viewing and commenting on it, SEVENTEEN HAS AGREED NOT TO PHOTOSHOP GIRLS' BODIES IN THEIR MAGAZINES!
The work isn't yet over though: We're now focusing on TeenVogue! Sign the petition! http://www.change.org/petitions/teen-...

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE PETITION! https://www.change.org/petitions/seve...

HERE IS THE LINK TO SPARK'S WEBSITE: http://www.sparksummit.com/

Every year, millions of girls are exposed to "Seventeen Magazine" and its many articles, advertisements and photoshopped models. This can cause serious self esteem issues for young women, as well as a skewed image of beauty. SPARK Summit Bloggers Julia Bluhm and Izzy Labbe went into a Maine Junior High in search of what kids REALLY think about "Seventeen".

NOTE: There are a few spelling mistakes that will hopefully be changed in the near future.

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  Nonprofits & Activism

[charles008ify]

4:17 whats wrong with wearing a bikini? o.O cool video though!!!! like its ridiculous how so many images in the media are so photoshopped :(

[Izzy Labbe]

Hello! Thank you for watching and enjoying. Style of dress is kind of up to the person you're talking to, and since we were interviewing real kids, sometimes opinions differ. :)

[RoyACui]

Love that you girls did this on your own and have had such a huge impact. You partially inspired me to do my video about the truth about retouching in the media (I Don't Know What Happens Next). I know about it, because I'm a Digital Retoucher.

Congrats on your success with Seventeen magazine's commitment to reducing the retouching that they will use. Imran at Miss Representation let me know the other day. VICTORY!!!

Now time to move on to the next magazine. ;)

[Izzy Labbe]

Wow! That is SO AWESOME! Thank you so much!

[KatieMarie023]

Good job, guys.

Keep up the good work, but don't forget,

You can always just ditch the magazine altogether. (:

[Izzy Labbe]

Thank you for your comment. Our biggest objective is to change the magazine for girls who don't know any better than to believe that photoshop and the media's image of girls is okay. We can ditch the magazine, sure, but they can't ditch that mindset.

[bugly1]

May I make a suggestion though? Since it's a bit hard to understand what some of them are saying, you could make annotations or captions for the video. That would also be helpful for people who are deaf.

[bugly1]

So many great responses. 'They're not major!' 'No one is that symmetrical.' 'No one is that shiny.' 'I don't know what that's supposed to make me want to buy.' 'All the teachers are like 'What the crap are they doing?'' And that one girl was right. They are very contradictory. 'You should be confident! Look at this fake girl!' And that one group is spot on about companies using these fake images to get us to buy their products and with the freak show comment. You have smart kids at your school.

[charles008ify]

yeah...wait didn't Seventeen say they never photoshopped girl's bodies and faces? it never really seemed like they dramatically photoshopped anything

[charles008ify]

^^my thoughts exactly lol

[yellowdancer1996]

Besides the noise, which does make it hard to understand what the people in the video are saying, I thought you guys ( Izzy and Julia) did a great job. I also found it made it seem real because I know all the people in the video:)

[Izzy Labbe]

Thank you for your honest comment. Of course, a lot of the girls are alarmed because what they're seeing in a magazine isn't what they normally see in real life. There are definitely girls who have the body types of girls in "Seventeen", and there is nothing wrong with that- we would just like to see more girls who aren't that size, as well as girls who aren't digitally altered to look that size. :)

[June July]

Just a comment -- so many girls are saying "they are too skinny!" "no one is that skinny". Actually, a lot of people are that skinny. And they aren't underweight or have an ED. And of course the majority of girls don't look like models because models are chosen specifically because they DON'T look like the ordinary. Seventeen doesn't photoshop every nook and cranny of the girls. It's great what you are doing, but I think you're sort of overreacting.