"Verily": A Magazine for Women That Doesn't Believe in Photo-shopped Fairy Tales

I've been a Vogue, Seventeen & Cosmopolitan magazine reader since before I was in any position to participate in anything that the glossy pages presented. I enjoyed the color, the wonder, the articles and of course, the fashion. Yet for some females, so much as a glance at any fashion magazine is enough to send them running to the nearest bathroom with a bad case of nausea. The models are flawless. Literally. The drawn line that should separate what is real from what is imagined is no longer as clear. We live in an age of perfect hair, perfect skin & perfect bodies. At least that's what fashion magazines catered to women tell us. But what do statistics say?

Students:

• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always.”5
• 86% report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages of 16 and 20.6
• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.7
• 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8
• 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight-management technique.3
• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old.4
• Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.17
• In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss, 44% were of normal weight.16

The above numbers are shocking right? More shocking than a 5'11, size 2, 110 pound super model? not so much. Real people are striving to become an unreal version of themselves. And an ongoing array of polished print ads are encouraging them to do it. So what gives?

While I can't speak for every fashion editor, photographer or model, I can speak for common sense. Real women have real flaws; even the ones on runways. We owe it to ourselves to honor, protect & cherish ALL of who we are. Flaws and all. That to me is where true beauty lies.

Luckily, the creators of "Verily" Magazine seem to agree. Out of a sea of photo filters,  airbrushes & computer editing comes a women's magazine that pulls no punches when it comes to whats REAL. Founded & Operated by a group of diverse & professional women, "Verily" aims to bridge the gap between what is authentic & what is celebrated by refusing to touch up its photographs using popular editing tool "PhotoShop".

"Whereas other magazines photoshop to achieve the "ideal" body type or leave a maximum of three wrinkles, we never alter the body or face structure of our models with Photoshop."- Verily Magazine

Citing research presented by Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers at the University of Pennsylvania-Wharton School that suggests that “women’s happiness has fallen both absolutely and relative to men’s in a pervasive way", it is the sincere aspiration of Verily to encourage a new dialogue between women that highlights who they are and what they aim to be that is inspired by & focused on real life.

A browse of Verily's Instagram page yields tons of images of fresh faced beauties busily blogging, lunching, laughing & enjoying life as real women; something that most magazines spend millions of dollars in advertising to emulate.

And although " Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" , we can only hope that mass media will join the ranks of the "No Photoshop" movement sooner than later.

Visit www.verilymag.com for more.




Statistics taken from : http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/