Everyday thousands of people use Snapchat and it’s “fleeky” filters to amp up their image and to have fun with, but have you ever stopped and thought, how did we get here? Snapchat was founded in September 2011 and almost 8 years later exactly that very same app is igniting controversy for it’s filters and what they are doing to our outlook on body image. This conversation has been an ongoing one, but just this month it has gained even more traction and publications then ever- so let’s ask ourselves how did this all come to be.

Snapchat was originated as a multimedia messaging app to be used globally and started the unique feature of the disappearing photo. From that, it then gained the messaging feature which revolutionized the way that one could talk. Snapchat developed sound features, geo-filters, and “best friends”- but the timeline doesn’t stop there.

The app also introduced location features, animated emoticons, and also filters. Starting all the way back as a simplified app used for messaging and pictures, the use of filters specifically changed the game. Filters like halos, face smoothing effects, and makeup enhancers may have started out as a harmless tool, but has turned young and old alike to seek new ideals of beauty as time has passed.

Snapchat was created as a “teen novelty” but through the years, has become somewhat of a plight for teens when it comes to body dysmorphia. The features that the filters demonstrate are used to enhance the look of it’s user, but at what cost? Teens and young people alike are seeing themselves all smoothed out, big doe eyed, and glammed up on the app, and when off- there is an automatic skepticism of their own natural, authentic beauty.

With all this self doubt, the landscape of Snapchat is creating a rise in body dysmorphia since it has started. In order to look more like these self-perfecting filters, the age of teens who are searching for a solution to “correct” themselves is getting younger and younger, their solution being plastic surgery. Teens are already subjected to a lot of self-hate during this transitional time, but with extra added pressure to look like an unrealistic version of themselves, the “filter effects” to their mental health can be immense.

While the app was originally created to connect people, and I must say still does quite a good job in doing so, the filters have got to go. Social media in general is already creating a climate of body image issues, but with one of their newest filter innovations and a rise in plastic surgery, we must look at ourselves without the bunny ears or fake freckles with pride.

For those silent sufferers of social media’s effects on their body image and mental health- fear no more. This past week more and more celebrities like Jameela Jamil, Demi Lovato, Camilla Cabello, Billie Ellish and several media personalities spoke up on their issues of body image through social media and lended a hand to end the stigma of body dysmorphia.

Jameela Jamil has always been an influencer and activist upon body image issues, but this week the star opens about her struggle with body dysmorphia and introduces an idea of body ambivalence– trying not to judge oneself rather than preaching the idea to “love yourself” in hopes of attaining a reasonable mental health goal despite social media’s standards.

While Jamil has been a corner stone to ending body dysmorphia stigma throughout various platforms, a new face to the mission has surfaced. Demi Lovato posted an unedited picture of herself on Instagram opening people’s eyes to the shame those hide under in editing their photos and to embrace your natural being in all its glory.

Lovato has spoke about her body issues in the past, but this freeing celebrity revelation of hers is not the only awakening tale of transparency. Nabeela Noor, a plus sized influencer, in some ways paved this path in posting a bikini picture to combat Instagram‘s subtle ways of making someone feel like they must be thinner in order to be pretty a month back.

Camilla Cabello also recently opened up about her boycott of social media to preserve her mental health and to not fall into the pressures of negativity that such social media platforms often bring. This ban of stars, also including UK’s Chessie King and Jaclyn Hill are bringing this controversial issue to light at rapid speed. With strong celebrities coming out with their stories, it sparks conversation not just in the lime-light, but to anyone dealing with body image issues to embrace their bodies for what they are and to seek help. With the social media climate only worsening when it comes to body dysmorphia, be sure to be mindful of the content you are exposing yourself to and start a dialog with friends, family, and loved ones- you are not alone!

This post is to show influencers who are connected to body dysmorphia and social media and how they go about discussing this disorder through a media lens.

Jameela Jamil Instagram : Jameela Jamil is an actress/activist who stands up to body image issues imposed with airbrushing, tuning apps, and editing.

FaceTune Instagram : FaceTune is an app that is used to alter one’s body or face and constantly posts their before and after pictures-lots of controversy with what it does to one’s body image.

The Body Positive Twitter : The body positive is an account that tries to fight against body dysmorphic disorder and other related body issues by spreading positive content on the subject matter.

Body Dysmorphia Twitter : This twitter account displays stories and content all on body dysmorphic disorder doing so through a social media lens.

Positive Body Memes : Body Positive memes gives insight and turns this serious problem into a more compact, interesting way to laugh and learn more about the community who suffers with body dysmorphic disorder.

Health Care News Blog : This blog goes through each celebrity who is suffering with body dysmorphic disorder and how they came out about it/their stories and how to help their community who is also suffering.

Psycom.net : A more medical/ psychological analysis on eating disorders/ body dysmorphic disorders and how it affects mental health.

BBD Blog : This blog is from an organization that deals with body dysmorphia and those who have suffered writing about their experiences with the disease.

Blog In Hot Pants : Blog in hot pants deals is a girl who has suffered with body dysmorphia which takes the reader through her personal journey and shares what it is like on a very open matter.

Health Prep : This blog deals with a way to combat and deal with this disease- gives me another side for my stories by giving readers a way to find a community and help live with this disorder.

Fashion designer Victoria Beckman captured headlines with her new fashion campaign and not necessarily because of the glamorous stylings. On August 30th, Beckham posted a picture on Instagram of an extremely thin model igniting an uproar in comments of disapproval and the hashtag #FeedTheModel.

This kind of accusation is not new to Beckham. The designer has had controversy with her model selections in the past and was told by many followers to stop promoting eating disorders. As far back as 2015, she was slammed for using a tiny, young woman in her new sunglasses campaign which blew up on social media for promoting body issues in young girls. Then again in 2016, when she uploaded a GIF of an anemic looking woman sashaying around the New York Skyline.

Beckham has been under controversial eye for quite a while for her promotional choices, but nothing in the past amounts to the pressure she now has to face with her followers and fashion community. People question whether she thinks about her young seventeen year old daughter with the message she is broadcasting online and on the runway concerning beauty ideals.

Followers are asking the designer to include more body types so that all women do not feel that they must be rail thin in order to live up to the idea that skinny is the only kind of beautiful. Without the social media presence of women of all shapes and sizes in campaigns such as this one- we face the real threat of body dysmorphia in young girls along with increasing mental health concerns within our society.

by: Jenna Kijauskas

You may be wondering what exactly is body dysmorphia or why should I care about this-I don’t have it? Body dysmorphia is a mental disorder where one obsesses over one or more flaws that they perceive in their own appearance. This disorder takes over half the population at some point without them even knowing it, and is progressively growing within our youth with more apps like Snapchat and Face Tune prevailing. We may think these masking editing apps are harmless, but with impressionable youth and a rise in the need for perfection amongst fellow social media users- the need to self perfect go from on screen to off.

The constant editing of our image that we put out to the public, whether that be with Face Tune or Snapchat filters, is distorting the way that we look at ourselves in day to day life. People are just starting to speak out and question the ideals of beauty that we set for ourselves on social media and how it is connected to body dysmorphia within these apps.

 From everyday people to celebrities, people are being subjected to the harms of body dysmorphia by editing, even internet sensation Logan Paul. Paul is a YouTube blogger who posted a picture of his severely battered leg that then got picked up and was edited by FaceTune2. Instead of anyone asking Paul what happened, the Face Tune Twitter account airbrushed the picture away, along with any true concerns for Logan Paul which was shown through not only the photo, but the “Logan Paulers” comments.

Thankfully, a few sources and stars are starting to see the true harm that the airbrushing, FaceTuning, and Snapchat crazed world is bringing on. Stars like Jameela Jamil, actress from The Good Place and sufferer of body dysmorphia herself, spreads her message of how she refuses to be airbrushed or have her photos tampered with to help her with her pre-existing body dysmorphia condition as well as calling upon other celebrities to do the same.

It is time that we take a stand and take our image back without any editing, but celebrate ourselves for exactly who we are and embrace our differences in a positive manner. Let’s put an end to body dysmorphia in social media.