Teens take on Teen Vogue

When 17-year old Emma Stydahar and 16-year old Carina Cruz open up Teen Vogue, they don’t like the models they see. “Yes we are opposed to the ‘perfect’ models, with perfect bodies, and no blemishes. We believe they are digitally altered and don’t represent real girls.” So the two teamed up with SPARK, a girl activist group, and staged a demonstration outside Conde Nast in New York City, publisher of Teen Vogue. They petitioned the magazine to feature unaltered, and unretouched girls. The teens argue that Teen Vogue and other magazines, read by vulnerable young readers, present an unrealistic notion of beauty, threatening their self-esteem and leading to depression and eating disorders.  Teen Vogue did issue a statement saying it makes a “conscious and continuous effort to promote a positive body image among our readers..we feature healthy models on the pages of our magazine and shoot dozens of non-models and readers every year and do not retouch them to alter their body size. Teen Vogue pledges to continue this practice.” Stydahar and Cruz vow to continue their campaign against  Teen Vogue and other teen magazines. They’d like to see a pledge inside Teen Vogue, like Seventeen magazine’s recent “Body Peace Treaty”, promising more transparency about their photography practices and to “always feature real girls and models who are healthy” and “never change girls’ body or face shapes