Vanity Fare

It's hard enough to be a teenage girl without the mixed messages we give them about what counts as beauty. One minute we're scolding celebs for being unhealthily thin, and the next, we're scolding them for letting themselves go. The latest development in this arena appears to be the airbrushing of Kelly Clarkson on the cover of Self Magazine. Self Magazine editor Lucy Danziger's very lame explanation included this gem:

When I ran the marathon five years ago, I was so proud of myself for completing it in under five hours and not walking a single step. But my hips looked big in some of the photos (I was heavier then), so when I wanted to put one of them on the editor's letter in SELF, I asked the art department to shave off a little. I am confident in my body, proud of what it can accomplish, but it just didn't look the way I wanted in every picture.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome one of the key purveyors of content and images for our generation! With messages and messengers like this, we have a lot to overcome when it comes to shedding our own vanity and helping our own children to accept their physical selves. On the other hand, kudos to Kelly Clarkson for not buying into what everyone else seems to want her to buy into, and for exercising because it makes her feel good and keeps her healthy and not because it forces her into somebody else's body mold.