I get really passionate about certain subjects I come across when doing my free life coaching and talk therapy work and recently I met a group of young women on a mission to get magazines, the media, TV and big brands to stop airbrushing and photo shopping in their brand marketing.

These young women believe airbrushing to be damaging by putting unrealistic pressures on them to be tall, slim and perfect, something few of us are in reality. I am not sure how much this growing problem is being taken seriously by big advertisers and brands, as many times I find myself playing guess the celebrity under the airbrushed mask. Only today I saw J. Lo in the press looking very average in one shot shopping with her daughter and unrecognizable in the other shot later that evening airbrushed for a magazine front cover.

We have to stop letting the big brands be in charge of our thinking when it comes to what we choose to spend our money on. If the bar is set so high it becomes unattainable, eventually our aspirations die and we end up left fat, frumpy and miserable, so my advice to the big brands desperate for an audience is simply be more real.

Life is already stressful enough without having the pressure of having to look as good as the girl in the ad, wearing the mascara you bought into that didn’t make your lashes look luscious, any longer or anything close to the girl's in the picture. Making the best of what you already have requires nothing more than loving yourself with confidence, being able to stand alone without insecurities and relying only on personality to stand out from the crowd.

Sounds easier said than done I can hear you mumbling under your breath as you find this challenge to not critisise someone who doesn't look perfect to you, we all do it because our perception is skewed, an impossible mountain to climb but every journey that leads to your happiness starts with one single step. Get moving. stop critisizing, stop immediately buying in and stop being stuck with unrealistic envy that is only making you sick.

Photo by: Darius Bashar Unsplash