I recently read an article titled, Tips for Middle-Aged Women on How to Look Stunning in Photos and my first thought was, “you’ve got to be kidding me!” When I finally read through the end, while cursing in my head, I saw the tags at the bottom of the article said “humor” and “satire”. Let me explain why this article had my blood boiling. First of all, this article was written by a woman! She may have thought this article was humorous but for those women that really feel they need a filter, it’s not at all funny. I don’t think women of any age should use a filter on their photos. Here’s a list of reasons why I am against this:

  1. You’re not fooling anyone. Everyone can tell you’ve put a filter over your face and guess what? It’s not any more flattering than your actual face.
  2. I get we all want to look our best, myself included, that’s what make-up is for. You don’t need technology to alter your face to look fabulous. You don’t need to make yourself look like the Joker to look good in a photo.
  3. Lighting and angles can do the trick. I’ll be the first to admit if I don’t like a photo of myself I have the luxury of deleting it. We’ve all done it. Just think, 20 years ago we didn’t have the means to simply hit delete on a photo. That thing was sitting in a CVS envelope just waiting to be ripped up.
  4. You’re sending a message to other women that our natural faces aren’t good enough to grace the pages of social media sites. We’ve come too far for all that nonsense. Women are supposed to empower one another – faking your face is not empowering. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. It’s telling others how insecure you are and that you’re not comfortable in your own skin. A recent report said in the last year alone, 55% of plastic surgeons have seen patients seeking surgery or other procedures that could help them look better in their selfies (girlscouts.org). We all have imperfections – embrace them, don’t erase them. 
  5. Just like we all have imperfections, we also have amazing features that we love – enhance those the natural way. Your gorgeous eyes or smile will not look even more amazing with a filter over them. 

Let’s all take a lesson from Dr. Suess who said, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” The only thing we should be filtering is negativity.