My teen aged daughter had been visiting a friend and returned home with a popular women’s magazine. The front page featured a famous celebrity in a bathing costume, looking in good shape. Several pages into the magazine, the exposée continued with more celebrities, including ones known for their ‘hot’ bodies.

The problem I had with it was the purpose behind the photographs. There, next to the beautiful slim bodies were close up shots of cellulite and saggy skin tone. My immediate thought was “So what? A good 80% of women have cellulite and stretch marks. Why should women publish a magazine that shows women looking natural and try to make shocking news out of history?”

However, my next thought was to let my readers understand something. These celebrities are under enormous pressure to stay slim, even underweight. They have extremely low self esteem and therefore try to be body perfect in order to remain somewhat confident in the eyes of their adoring fans. It is not surprising to see saggy skin tone on a celebrity in their prime because any extra weight gained is banished through the latest fad crash diet. Fast results on the scale but the skin doesn’t get time to adjust at that speed and is left looking a little lumpy and saggy.

I understand the headlines saying that seeing celebrities with cellulite makes the rest of us feel better about our own imperfections- but isn’t it the media who made us feel that we were imperfect by photo shopping and airbrushing the cover girls in the magazines? Dear readers, don’t let these mixed messages make you feel bad about yourself. It is all clever marketing. Do your best to love your body.