Julia Bluhm is a 14-year old ballet dancer from Maine trying to make a difference in the lives of other girls. Recently she started a petition on Change.org asking Seventeen Magazine to print at least one unaltered photo spread each month. So far Julia has collected 81,456 signatures.“I’m a teenage girl, and I know how it feels to think you’re not good enough,” Bluhm says. “I want girls to be able to feel good about themselves, and being able to relate to the images in the magazines we read will help.”
In her petition letter Julia writes about her own experiences being a ballet dancer. Everyday day she hears other girls calling themselves fat or not being happy with how they look. What's even worse is that people give the "flack about their bodies". She also notes that "[I]t’s not just ballet dancers who feel the pressure to be “pretty”. It’s everyone. To girls today, the word “pretty” means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It’s because the media tells us that “pretty” girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin."
Julia is currently a blogger for the SPARK Movement, which is a girl-led movement fighting the sexualization of women in the media.
Do you think Julia is doing the right thing demanding unaltered photos in magazines? Leave us a comment below.
Source: Change.org, Mashable
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