Are Photoshopping and filters just fun or potentially damaging?
The use of Photoshop and filters became a hot topic last week when former EastEnders star Melissa Suffield uploaded candid, raw, unedited photos of her post-baby body. Melissa – who played Lucy Beale in the soap – had her son River last year, and to celebrate one year of breastfeeding him, she stripped down to her underwear and confidently laid her pregnancy stretch marks and post-baby tummy bare. The 28-year-old wrote, “Finishing breastfeeding after a year, I’m like OH HEY BODY, WELCOME BACK. It feels good to know I can start to concentrate on myself again, and take back some ownership after pregnancy and pumping.”
Fans applauded her for her honest post. One wrote,
“It’s nice to see a natural girl without any filters”.
Meanwhile, former TOWIE star Lauren Goodger, 34, was faced with backlash after fans noted how different she looked in posed pictures from her baby gender reveal when compared to her video appearance from the same shoot. One fan wrote, “Looks like two different people, why does she edit so much,” and another said, “The photos are not the same as her on film.”
Photoshopping and its impact on body image has been a growing concern with the increased popularity of social media, and statistics released by Mental Health Foundation with YouGov in 2019 claimed that just over one in five adults (22%) and 40% of teenagers said images on social media caused them to worry about their body image.
Here, Closer talks to both Melissa and Lauren about their views on the digital craze…