Girls, seriously, stop Photoshopping yourselves to look like a fashion model clone in every single photo you post online.
When it comes to personal style blogging, you are sharing your personal style. This includes the dilemmas of bad skin days, and fat days, and my-hair-hates-me days, etc. Don't tell me you don't have those days, because everyone has them. These are very 'human' things, and are also things your readers can relate to.
I'll be the first to tell you- I'm suffering from a huge breakout at the moment. Yes, I have skin problems. But you won't see me Photoshopping my imperfections out of my photos, especially when I'm keeping a diary of my life- an acne breakout is a part of my life... This is a small example.
I've heard of girls who not only routinely edit their skin and hair, but also make themselves look thinner- stomach, thighs, etc. And I'm appalled.
Style blogging isn't about changing your image to look like a high fashion model, but rather, showing off who you really are, the person that people admire (even if you don't see it right now). Not everyone is going to like their body 100%, but the old adage is true- it really is what's on the inside that matters. It does take some time for people to accept this, generally speaking, but it's a necessary realization.
I think, as a style blogger, it's more about creation of character, much as an actor would, but the character is your actual self. You can be anything you want to be, as long as you have the faith in yourself and your means. We all have our little quirks and imperfections, and it's up to us to accept them as a part of who we are, and still go on, being the best we can be.
And if you're so worried about being the "perfect blogger" to appeal to brands, think again-
Look at me- pretty much everything about me goes against what society views as 'beautiful'- I have many tattoos and piercings, a masculine haircut, I cuss like a sailor, make terrible [terribly awesome?] sounds with my keyboard and guitar, and you're more likely to see me in black skate sneakers than high heels. And yet, somehow, the vast majority of people view me as beautiful. And I'm doing just fine as far as brand partnerships go, BTW...
Why is this?
I don't give a shit. That's it. I don't care what people think about me, or how I look, or what I do. I know I'm doing what I need to be doing right now, and that's what matters. It's about confidence and not doing what society mindlessly tells you to do, when your gut is telling you what's really right for you.
I don't take myself, or life, too seriously.
Be yourself, and don't be ashamed of who you are. If you are doing good things and always being honest [with yourself, as well as others], you have nothing to feel guilty about. Stop beating yourself up, and be the best 'you' you can be! It doesn't matter what you look like- don't hide yourself away from the world!
Stand up straight and always carry yourself with confidence, even at times when you seem to be lacking. Write about the things you feel strongly about. Focus on your best physical assets (and stop kicking yourself over the ones you don't like! No one really cares!).
Be good to yourself. Reward yourself for your accomplishments. Take some time to pamper yourself, as well as being alone and quiet, and being at one with your intuition. Feed yourself well (but refrain from overeating), and focus on being healthy. Get to know and love who you are, and be kind to yourself.
That's it. That's all that really matters. Once you learn how to love yourself, you can finally learn how to truly love others. The rest kind of falls into place on its own...
...And you won't care about Photoshopping your images. Seriously.
When you stop caring about what others think about how you look, and are proud to be who you are, Photoshopping a tiny blemish that people really don't give a crap about seems trivial and unnecessary. The same goes for making your thighs thinner and your belly smaller or your boobs bigger. It just doesn't matter. What does matter is that you are a great person and have something good you can bring to the world. Do what you love the most, and don't worry about the naysayers.
As always, your posts bring a smile to my face. From a photographer's perspective (if you'd call me a photographer), photoshopping is offputting to me. To me, it diminishes the photography aspect of photography. I should clarify that not all photoshop falls into this category. Sharpening, adjusting curves and levels, saturation, and things of that nature don't bother me. These are all things that are fundamental to the art of processing; people did this in darkrooms or by use of filters before computers existed. The way people view images on computer screens and screen calibration changes things so dramatically anyhow. This is just the digital extension of such things. The ridiculous airbrushing and altering a person's body is annoying, though. Five minutes looking at before and after photography will tell you everything you need to know about what "photography" is today. It's not about the photograph, it's about how good the people do in post-production. To me, part of photography is understanding light and angles. EVERYONE has good angles and bad angles, and your job as a photographer is to capture the good ones and, just as it is to understand light and set it up so that it is flattering and doesn't create a poor image. I hate that commercial photography has very little to do with photography these days. Everyone has a certain beauty, and it used to be the photographer's job to see it and capture it, but now it is just up to some graphics wizard to create an image to create whatever conventional sort of beauty is mainstream. So yeah, fuck everyone else who photoshops like that, too :P
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