14 year olds are a lot smarter than we think. They’re also ready to take the world and rub its insanity in its own face. Julia Bluhm is a teen who set up a protest outside of Seventeen Magazine today. No, she didn’t want her money back. She wanted the magazine to be one of the first teen magazines to stop airbrushing and photoshopping their article models. Article is here… Petition is here…

Admit up to it, how many times have you opened a yahoo article named “Blah blah blah overrated actress seen without makeup. Oh noes!!!” You know you’ve done it. I’ve done it and I’m a tomboy. Why are we so interested in this stuff? Because we want to know they’re just as imperfected as we are. I’m completely ok with this. I know that sounds wrong, but I am. It makes me feel good to know they had to be photoshopped and slathered in makeup to look that good. And some of them don’t even look good. That lady on the Trinity whatever channel is… not ugly… I’m not going to go there… Interesting? Is that that right word? I’d bake someone a cake if they showed me a picture of what she really looked like. It’s natural curiosity on that one though.

Part of it is because I hate putting on makeup. I do. I like how it makes me look, I hate applying it and keeping up with it. I’m not a make up hater. No worries. I think it serves it’s purpose. But just like food, MODERATION PEOPLE!

Most of the women reading this, who just said “Hell yah!” to the moderation bit, probably grew up just as insecure as I did. I had a flawless sister, a GQ brother, and I was a duck. If I didn’t put on the makeup, no one knew how little it would actually help. That’s at least how I felt at the time. Now, looking back at my childhood pictures, I’m realizing I wasn’t that bad looking of a kid. The poof bangs and the floral bibbed dresses were a bad choice, but there was nothing wrong with my face. And I was of course overweight, but not as bad as I remembered it.

So all grown up now, realizing my insecurities were unjustified, why would I be ok with media shoving unattainable perfection down my throat? Because I’m at a point in my life where looks are what they are. I know photoshop is fake. I know celebrities don’t really look like that and have to pay someone to make them look good. I know plastic surgery can turn a woman into a man and probably a penguin into a horse. I’ve grown up. I’ve gotten wise. I’m cocky for no reason now.

I still grew up insecure. And that’s what our youth is facing at a higher level than we ever did. Photoshop was not big when I was growing up. I don’t even know when it was made. Kelly Kapowski was a hottie just because she wore makeup and had long hair. That’s all it took back then. Now they have photoshop, parents paying for plastic surgeries for their kids, perfect cup bras advertised more for the youth, and it’s shoved down their throat constantly. It’s all over twitter, facebook, Degrassi, tumblr, and I’m pretty sure there’s a phone app for “Here, let me give you a quote to make you feel ugly. Do you have an eating or mental disorder yet? You don’t fit in unless your body is perfect and you have a disorder.”

And who’s in charge of all of that? US ADULTS! We make the websites, the magazines, and invented the disorders. So why are we not stopping it? And why are we even ok with it at our level of media?

Media is a bitch. I know my sister is going to read this and say “Boo, stop cussing.” It’s still a bitch. It barks and barks and barks until it makes you crazy, eats up your belongings, sleeps with your neighbors dog leaving you with puppies to take care of, and then pees all over your living room. It’s purpose is not to inform anymore, it’s to conform. It’s turning us into mindless idiots who work a billion hours a week to spend our money on trying to be perfect for people who are so busy trying to be perfect themselves that they don’t care about you. The rich are getting richer off of our moronic tendencies and loving it.

Our youth has done something wonderful. They’ve gotten a voice. They’re telling us they feel heavy and hurt. They’ve started petitions. They’ve started support groups. THEY’RE getting the message out that they don’t want to lead these fake lives. And they need our help. I say we help them. I say we get life back to natural. Let people start being who they want to be and not what a magazine told them to be. Let people who are who they are feel like part of the group again.

WHY ARE YOU STILL READING AND NOT SIGNING HER PETITION?

  Seriously, I’ll bake you cake if you show me what she really looks like.