Kelly Clarkson: Comfortable in her own skin?
Without putting your mind and body through the trauma and torment of surgery, increasingly more and more celebrities are turning to the man behind the camera to find their best side. Some may argue that airbrushing is a safer and better alternative to the all the weird and wonderful cosmetic procedures that are readily to hand today. However, it still poses the same moral and ethical questions as to whether this is sending out a healthy message to the rest of us girls that have niggles about our bodies, everything from our nose, or tummies to our bums. Others may say - where is the harm in a little technological tweak? A little nip there and tuck there? You are still the same person and look like yourself in 'real life' and it is important to feel good about yourself. The hype surrounding it is just the result of our unforgiving, self conscious and judgemental society.
It has been highly publicised that US Pop Idol winner and singing sensation Kelly Clarkson was the supposed subject of some serious photoshop handywork for the cover of Self magazine.
Either the usually curvaceous Clarkson changed her entire body structure or this photograph been airbrushed.
Lucy Danzinger Editor-in-Chief of Self magazine has spoken to the press about the photograph saying: "Yes of course we do retouching, did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best."
Of course, a little touch up does go a long way to helping shadows or bags under the eyes, a couple of spots or blemished skin, but many have said Kelly's figure is barely unrecognisable and while she looks fabulous is this the real her and the 'skin' she has always professed to be comfortable in?
Kelly even said in the September issue she fronted: "When people talk about my weight, I'm like, 'You seem to have a problem with it; I don't. I'm fine!' I'm never trying to lose weight - or gain it. I'm just being."
What some celebrities neglect is that those tiny imperfections to them are nothing to the rest of us.
There are girls all over the world that would kill to have most A-listers bodies, with the fame and fortune to go to the best beauty theropists, spas and use the best products that make them as close to perfection as heavenly possible.
And whether they like it or not, the price that comes with those expensive bodies is the expectant role model tag that no amount of money can remove.
Surely the more that airbrushing techniques are used to reduced bum sizes, increase bust areas, brighten skin tone, remove wrinkles, define lines and enhance muscle tone, when a 'real' photograph of a celebrity does materialise, running around in the hectic daze that is everyday life the shock will be more severe to the public they have tried so desperately to deceive.
Love it or hate it - airbrushing does what is says on the tin and we need see past the perfection and know that it is an illusion created by Hollywood.
Rather than caking on the make-up and having an hour or two in post-production, perhaps all our modern day celebs need is a little reassurance, and realise they have the same flaw and habour the same dark secret as the rest of us...insecurity.
All this leads us to one conclusion: Celebrities are not the perfect creatures they would have us believe and what's more...they know it!
FemaleFirst Jenna Fordie