I think it’s great. Why should your daughter be stuck with a school picture that looks terrible forever just because she had an outbreak that day? It’s a school picture, not a police mug shot.

I’m shocked that they touched up her pictures! I have never heard of that for 12 year olds, I don’t know if thats a good thing, but my daughter (13) came home with her pictures and all she could do was criticize her hair and face it might make the kids feel good but it also might give them an unrealistic view on their self image. I know everyone has bad pictures from when they were young but with touch ups they’ll never have anything to look back and laugh at.

School picture companies are in the business to sell pictures. As such they probably feel from experience that parents will buy pictures which show their children in the best light. That is their rationale for touching up pictures.

I think that each parent should have a choice and indicate whether they want touch ups or not.

When my daughter was in ELEMENTARY school, the photographers offered the option for EXTRA MONEY to air brush the children’s photos!!! I totally agree with you. As a mom with a daughter, it is already hard enough to instill self esteem. I have consciously worked to make her feel good about her body and looks since she was a baby and she STILL has self esteem issues! They come from TV and from peer pressure at school! It’s insane!

I constantly tell young girls to stop looking at women on TV or magazines and to look at all the women around them they admire (mothers, teachers, etc.). That’s who they should choose to emulate and that’s who our society needs to start emulating – not a bunch of air-brushed, anorexic drug addicts!!!

In a world that expresses so often hey u r not good enough u can fix it with surgery yes I would be outraged. It is instilling poor self esteem in her self. Basically it is telling her hey we airbrushed your photo because you did not look good enough so we fixed it. Having acne is bad enough for a teen but directly pointing it out is just downright wrong. I would do something about this

Yes,it’s a terrible thing that in this world vanity is so important.Sadly,children will have to deal with everyday,from how their hair grows,to what their face looks like,how fat how skinny yadda yadda etc etc. Truth is we cannot shelter them from it. We have to face our children at some point and let them know the world can be cruel. I mean don’t sit there and let them think they look different or just the same. In fact that picture your daughter took,you should talk to her about it.Always remind your children how beautiful they are to you and how even though in this world beauty may be seen as “perfection” beauty is in who sees it. Instilling self esteem in young children comes from letting them be assured of who they are. Let your daughter decide if she likes the picture or if she likes it the way it would have looked without airbrushing.Either way let her know the picture is beautiful and your not looking at the skin or the background,your looking at the beautiful child who and others know personally. Even models are airbrushed,there is no model with perfectly inched thighs or skin.You must let them understand,the world will percieve beauty how ever it sees it,and the child has to see beauty in themselves.They are more important then the fashionalbe shirt they wear or the fancy shoes on their feet. It’s also okay,when your daughter wants to feel pretty and do their hair and nails and so on and so forth,just always reassure them that they are beautiful how ever their nails and/or hair are colored,styled whatever. Giving self esteem to children starts at home and if we show our children we are okay withour selves,they will see that the outside world is all airbrushed. Now,when they see mom or dad screaming or whining that they can’t go out because they have no make up or hair gel,sure they are going to feel they need to look a certain way to go outside,now if you teach your child,that whatever they decide to do or wear,they should be assured that their personality will help make them look beautiful or ugly.Now a bad attitude on a beautiful face,will make them so ugly and you can’t airbrush that. A beautiful smile is priceless,but everyone has a different smile and it’s ours and it’s what makes others see we are proud of ourselves and it’s okay to laugh at ourselves and it’s okay to be ourselves,no matter what magazines tell our kids. Always help children see that outside world is what is,because we can’t hide the truth,but do so without scaring them. Also don’t analyze and discriminate in front of them. We can’t hide the world from them. We can’t hide them from the world.We just have to let them know,except the beauty they all have,whether airbrushed in pictures or sold on a rack in a clothing store.We can be angry as parents because we don’t want our children to think or feel bad about themselves,but we can’t shelter them from booboos and bff fights. We can only guide them and let them understand.Sheltering them will only hurt them in the long run.Like I said,ask your daughter how she feels about the air brushed picture. Talk to her about it. Make sure she is okay with her acne because in a picture or a mirror we see ourselves and whether we like the reflection or not,we have to be proud of ourselves and how we look,of course we can always buy hair gel and put on make-up,but we have to also love who we are without that stuff on.We forget that we show our children that we put on these things to create an image,but do we ever remember to let our children know,it’s okay to be natural and/or it’s okay to wear make up and hair gel just as long as we are not trying to hide anything. We just want to gloss up our already given beauty.

🙂 We have to also let our children know to except and respect others and how they look. This also helps children know to respect themselves as well.

It isn’t cool that vanity is such a big deal,but in society,either we can be angry about it,live in it,or just know we are happy in our own skin,glossed up or el naturale 🙂