At just 19, Disney actress Zendaya Coleman has shown maturity beyond her years. First she took the Fashion Police to task for derogatory statements about the dreadlocks she opted to wear at this year’s Academy Awards. She’s become a champion of being yourself and has taken on another target, Modeliste Magazine.
Zendaya is the magazine’s November 2015 cover subject. She took issue with one highly retouched image in particular, on the grounds that it was a fictional representation of her. Zendaya posted the retouched photo alongside the unretouched photo side by side on Instagram Wednesday. The comparison included a reprimand of Modeliste, reading in part, “These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it ”
Recognizing that the level of retouching was offensive, and wanting to address the backlash from readers and Zendaya fans, the magazine’s editor in chief to the unprecendented step of pulling the issue before it was officially released. They are updating the issue to include the unretouched images from Zendaya’s shoot. Amy McCabe, Editor-in-Chief, also penned this open letter, acknowledging their misstep.
“Thank You Zendaya for raising a very important issue.
In light of our not-yet-released November issue, with Modeliste’s Cover Girl, Zendaya and the swirling controversy in regards to any re-touched images, I am compelled to publicly address this situation which was brought to my attention yesterday, personally by Zendaya. Upon review of the final edited images which had been submitted to us by an independent editing company, together, as a collaboration between myself, Zendaya and her parents, we concluded that the images had been retouched to an extent that was not acceptable and not true to the values and ideals we represent and promote in our publication. I, therefore, made the executive decision to immediately pull the issue in order to have this rectified and have the images restored to their original, natural state which will reflect the true beauty and radiance of Zendaya.”
The statement goes into more detail about a specific aspect of the retouching that illustrated the existence of flawed ‘standards’ of beauty:
“I absolutely loved that when personally speaking with Zendaya on the phone in regards to the re-touching, that she specifically had noted that her fine baby hairs had been photoshopped from her forehead. As we had so many different hair styles throughout the shoot, this was something I hadn’t noticed; however, it was incredibly profound that this was something in particular in which she loves about herself, and what is a part of what makes her who she is. What one person may see as a “flaw” is someone else’s “fabulousness”. We are proud that Zendaya has taken this as an opportunity to address this situation, and create a very necessary honest and open dialogue.”
In explaining why it was so important to use unretouched photos (including the one above) the second time around, McCable had this to say:
“It is our hope that these images and the truthful portrayal of these unedited images brings attention and awareness to this issue. It’s important that we learn to be uplifting not only to one another, but to ourselves. That we learn to embrace our differences, our unique gifts and those aspects and qualities that make us real and who we are.”
Read the full statement here.
Colby C.