Pop hitmaker Zendaya has become an increasingly outspoken proponent in the battle against unrealistic body and beauty standards in our perfection-obsessed society. Earlier this year, the “Replay” chanteuse made headlines after responding to a series of racially insensitive comments made about her decision to wear her hair in dreadlocks on the Oscars’ red carpet.
Today (Oct. 21), Zendaya has become the newest celebrity to speak out against a publication for posting Photoshopped images of her body in their pages.
In photos from a shoot with Modeliste Magazine, it is evident that Zendaya’s already slim frame has been slimmed down significantly in the hips and waist. There has also been some color correction in the photo, which gives the impression of much more tanned skin. Zendaya took to social media to post the heavily-manipulated image alongside the original, making the retouching increasingly obvious to her fans.
“Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked that my 19 year old hips and torso [were] quite manipulated,” Zendaya commented on the image.
The young artist went on to explain that the retouching perpetuates unrealistic body standards and has a negative influence on young women:
“These are the things that make women self conscious, that create unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have.”
She went on to thank Modeliste Magazine for removing the shopped images from their circulation.
Huge props to Zendaya for promoting a healthy and realistic body image. Frankly, we think that she looks infinitely better in the original photo, so we’re glad to see that she agrees!
This September, Zendaya’s Oscars look was commemorated and celebrated by Mattel with the release of a Zendaya Barbie doll. Zendaya spoke highly about the honor, commenting that “it’s definitely time to have a Barbie doll like this: It’s opening doors for a lot of women, women of color, of all different backgrounds.”
We couldn’t agree more!
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