Before and after beauty filters

Singer and songwriter Harry Styles recently made headlines after being spotted without his iconic curls and sporting a buzz cut. Despite the ‘minor change,’ fans panicked, and the media immediately began grilling him. A haircut had caused Styles to lose 100,000 followers on Instagram, and even his mother, Anne Twist, left a message on Instagram speaking out on the negative reaction.

Harry Styles, however, is not the only celebrity attacked over a change in their appearance. When actress Rebel Wilson began to lose weight, her team quickly expressed concern and caution. In a recent interview, she touched on the discussion with her team: “Why? Why would you wanna do that? Because I was earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl and being that person,” she told the BBC.

Rebel Wilson feared for her image and career as she often portrayed the “funny and fat” character and did not want to portray thinness as the only kind of ‘beautiful.’ However, celebrities are not the only ones who receive criticism for their appearance. 

Teenagers worldwide aspire to recreate their favorite celebrities’ lifestyles and appearances, and when they fail, it hurts. Although, celebrities are not the only ones influencing teens; social media plays the most impactful role in displaying beauty standards at all times. They are unrealistic and often unattainable, but there is a solution for this: beauty filters.

Instantly changing your face with a click. You can create bigger lips, a smaller nose, longer lashes, or whatever you desire to feel ‘beautiful.’ Once you are happy with your newly designed face, you can post your picture on a social media of your choice. Then, all your friends, peers from school, and, unfortunately, strangers on the internet can see. People who do not know you will think that is the real you, while your friends may observe a change but will not be able to pinpoint it exactly.

Beauty filters build unrealistic versions of ourselves for our online personas, which do not follow through in the real world. What does follow you into the real world is the mental health problems caused by this. Teenagers all over the world are left with low self-esteem and the feeling of not being attractive enough. Eventually, we need to recognize we are all humans who can not always live up to these standards. It is necessary for us to all take a step back and look at what makes us human: our imperfections.