Melissa Suffield has hit out at celebrities who "constantly fake their looks" with online filters.
Melissa Suffield
The former 'EastEnders' actress, who has 12-month-old son River, believes it is "damaging" for people to touch up their online images, and insists stars have a responsibility to "stay authentic".
She said: "Let's face it, no one looks perfect all the time and it's damaging to constantly be faking your looks.
"Friends look at pictures of filtered celebs and say to me, 'But I don't look like that.' And I respond, saying, 'No one looks like that.' It's a computer-generated image.'
"You have a responsibility to yourself not to constantly touch up imperfections and stay authentic, otherwise people are constantly striving for something that isn't even real.
"My mantra is no filter, no judgement, no b******t.' "
Melissa - who played Lucy Beale on the BBC One soap from 2004 to 2010 - admitted she has "so many stretchmarks" after giving birth to River in March 2020, but she avoids hiding them because she doesn't want her son to have an "unrealistic view of what women look like".
And the 28-year-old star takes a zero-tolerance approach to trolls.
She added to Closer magazine: "When I see trolls criticising my body, I just think, 'Go f*** yourself.'
"I pity them as they must have really sad lives.
"Everyone is on their own personal journey and it's important to learn to embrace your flaws and feel comfortable in your own skin; you don't need to pretend to be a fake digital model."
In January, Melissa admitted she "detests" her post-pregnancy body some days.
She wrote: "Some days, I absolutely detest the body that pregnancy has left behind.
"I'm not unrealistic. I did not expect for one second that my body would snap back as soon as I'd given birth.
"What was left was a woman I didn't recognise anymore. She was a stranger, and she was upsetting me, so in return I wasn't kind to her. The message is clear. Love yourself! (sic)"