You get a school photo. You give it to your parents. It looks like you, so as a teen, you hate it. Your parents like it, because it looks like you. So what happens when you get your photo back and it doesn’t look like you – because someone has photoshopped it?
It is quite possibly the most dreaded day of the calendar year: school photo day.
The day where everyone brushes their hair (if they’re lucky) to have a portrait taken by a man who tells you you’re never quite sitting up straight enough.
And while many things about schooling may have changed over the years, we can all still rely on that one day of acne-riddled, braces-filled glory.
Or can we?
School photoshops girl students’ yearbook pics. But not for the reason you’d think.
One horrified teen took to reddit to complain after her school edited her yearbook photo “to make me appear thinner”.
Yep, a young girl told Reddit readers yesterday:
I go to an all girls high school and today every senior got a new student ID. We had gotten one in the beginning of the school year and we were all unsure as to why we were given a second. After closer inspection we realized that our photos had be retouched far past smoothing out blemishes.
It seems that photoshopping of the girls photos at this all girls school was expected to some degree (which is fairly shocking to us to begin with):
When we go and have our photos taken we are flat out told that our skin will be retouched to hide blemishes. We are not told, however, that more drastic changes are made.
And drastic they were:
“I was outraged! I have a round face that I have grown to love and now I get my photo back with a different face,” she wrote.
“The new photo no longer even looks like me but rather a prettier twin sister.”
The teenager also posted a list of all the alterations that had been made alongside the photograph, which included:
- face smoothing
- skin recoloring
- lip recoloring
- eyebrow smoothing and reshaping
- face thinning
This girl is very impressive. And doesn’t pull her punches when she calls out her school’s hypocrisy:
Going to an all girls school we are constantly reminded about positive body image and accepting ourselves for who we are. Having these changes made to make me appear thinner makes me wonder how must our school practices what they preach.
Needless to say, after meeting with her school, the teen has said that original picture will be the one used in the yearbook after all.
Body image is about so much more than your weight.
Apparently the school realised that having pictures of their students digitally “corrected” was wrong.
Maybe they realised it. Or perhaps they are just trying to smooth things over…
Have you heard of schools retouching their student’s photos?
Top Comments
God, I WISH someone photoshopped the zit off my cheek in my year 12 photo :(
I work in the school photography industry & the only time I have heard of a school requesting photoshop is at a Catholic school, of boys with earrings, which do not adhere to the school rules.
I am however shocked by the number of parents who, after receiving their beautiful child's school photos, request reprints and Photoshop to their child's portraits. Taking away blemishes, visible sores from a weekend accident, even major work on a child with a lazy eye. The kicker?? The majority is for children in primary school!