Instead of the mainstream media distorting women’s images, young girls are now distorting their own using retouching apps. Exacerbated by phone time during the Covid pandemic, 80% of girls now use retouching apps. This practice is leading to selfie dysmorphia, a rise in cosmetic surgery and teen suicides.

Through the experiences of real girls, we created a Print campaign that shined a light on the pressures of social media and the dangers of editing apps to children around the world. We didn’t use any actors in the campaign. Just real girls aged 9-13 who edit their selfies for social media. With two contrasting portraits, we showed two sides of the girls we cast. First their natural selves and then their heavily manipulated, digital selfies. In the edited portrait, we asked them to manipulate their selfies with retouching apps exactly how they do online. We used precisely what they did.