Lili Reinhart Just Called Out Photoshopping Apps for Contributing to Unrealistic Body Expectations
Lili Reinhart is taking photoshopping apps to task — and she’s holding nothing back.
On Sunday, November 17, the Riverdale star shared on Instagram that she had been searching for an app that would resize her photos when she stumbled upon BodyTune, an app that allows you to retouch parts of your body to look skinnier. Reinhart also posted an ad from the app, which documented the process of making a model’s arm and waist appear smaller.
“This is not okay,” she wrote in her story, adding that “social media has become hazardous to our health” and “people have unrealistic expectations of their bodies” because of apps like this. “Looking skinnier on Instagram is not worth the detrimental psychological effects that these photoshopping apps have given our generation,” the actor professed. “My heart goes out to those people who feel like their bodies aren’t good enough.”
Reinhart also implored her fans and followers not to use apps like this, explaining: “Our bodies should not conform to ‘one size fits all.’”
On social media, fans are applauding Reinhart for speaking out. “Thank you for your message on body image and those apps,” one fan tweeted, while another reacted by writing: “The struggle is real with all these apps to change your body. It’s hard not to let it get to you at times but your words are a great reminder that most of the stuff we see on social media is not real.”
This isn’t the first time Reinhart has spoken out against the dangers of photoshop; in March 2018, both she and Camila Mendes criticized Cosmo Philippines for seemingly altering the actors’ waistlines. “It's an everyday battle sometimes,” she said at the time about her own body image. “And to see our bodies become so distorted in an editing process is the perfect example of the obstacles we have yet to overcome.”
And it seems as though this issue is personal for Reinhart; the 23-year-old has been candid about her own struggle with body dysmorphia, recently telling Glamour UK: “Even today, I see myself in the mirror and think, this doesn’t look the way the world tells me it should. I don’t have a cinched, minuscule waist. I do have curves, I have cellulite, my arms aren't stick thin. This is my body and we’re told that it should fit certain proportions. There’s such a disgusting problem right now with people photoshopping their bodies. Obviously, there’s a reason why people do it, they’re insecure, they feel like they’re not good enough, and that’s incredibly sad.”
While there are a host of things that could lead to body dysmorphia or eating disorders (photoshopping apps certainly aren’t the only contributor), there can be a correlation between what we see on social media and how we feel about our bodies.
But with celebrities like Reinhart emphasizing the importance of self-love (and acknowledging that the process isn’t always easy), it helps the rest of us know we aren’t alone. “Remind yourself that this perfect world you see online or in magazines…in movies and television…are presented to you through many different filters,” the actor said at Glamour’s 2018 Women of the Year Summit. “Do not set impossible goals of meeting those fake standards. It’s unrealistic to think that your body or my body will ever look like anyone else’s. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. We are all imperfectly beautiful.”
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Originally Appeared on Allure
