Would you retouch your kid's photos?
Categories: Just for moms, Kids 5-7, Teens & tweens, Just for dads, Development, That's entertainment
On the table next to my bed I have Ellie's first grade school photo. It's the last thing I see each night before I turn out the lights and it never fails to make me smile. In the photo, her hair is a little messy, the collar of her shirt is turned up and I am pretty sure that's a smudge of jelly in the corner of her mouth. I love the picture because it is just so perfectly....her.
While I love that photo of Ellie in part because it is imperfect and looks just like the kid I see every day, some parents would have a problem with those same imperfections. According to this article in Newsweek, many of those parents turn to photo retouching to make their children look more like models and less like real kids.
Danielle Stephens works for a photo studio and says that nearly every middle- and high-school photo order that she gets comes in with retouching requests. She herself would never do that with her daughter's photo. "I have a 12-year-old, and I'd be afraid that if I asked for retouching she'd think she wasn't good enough," she says.
While there aren't any real numbers available about photo retouching for kids, all the agencies contacted for the article say there is a definite trend and the kids being retouched are getting younger and younger.
In 2004, Dove surveyed 3,000 women and girls and found that just 2 percent consider themselves to be beautiful. Another survey finds that 42 percent of first to third grade girls say they want to be thinner and 81 percent of 10-year-olds worry about getting fat. In my opinion, a parent who will spruce up a child's photo to erase imperfections is likely contributing to this negative self image our daughters are growing up with.
While I love that photo of Ellie in part because it is imperfect and looks just like the kid I see every day, some parents would have a problem with those same imperfections. According to this article in Newsweek, many of those parents turn to photo retouching to make their children look more like models and less like real kids.
Danielle Stephens works for a photo studio and says that nearly every middle- and high-school photo order that she gets comes in with retouching requests. She herself would never do that with her daughter's photo. "I have a 12-year-old, and I'd be afraid that if I asked for retouching she'd think she wasn't good enough," she says.
While there aren't any real numbers available about photo retouching for kids, all the agencies contacted for the article say there is a definite trend and the kids being retouched are getting younger and younger.
In 2004, Dove surveyed 3,000 women and girls and found that just 2 percent consider themselves to be beautiful. Another survey finds that 42 percent of first to third grade girls say they want to be thinner and 81 percent of 10-year-olds worry about getting fat. In my opinion, a parent who will spruce up a child's photo to erase imperfections is likely contributing to this negative self image our daughters are growing up with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cathy 2-22-2008 @ 10:10AM
Parents aren't asking that their kids be completely photoshopped. They are just asking for the monster pimple to be reduced to a red dot.
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Monica 2-22-2008 @ 11:18AM
I paid for the retouching services for my daughters graduation pictures. She's embarassed by her acne and would like it gone from a picture that she's planning to display for much of her life. I have however refused to do it on her annual school photos.
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Jessica 2-22-2008 @ 11:28AM
No, I wouldn't. We all go through the phases of life and I wouldn't pretend that my kids did not.
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Brandon 4-09-2008 @ 11:45PM
I have to be honest, I'm not a parent. I'm still in high school, but I think retouching is a great thing. Normally my skin isn't atrocious, but it seems like whenever the ol' picture day is coming up, I break out. My mom just casually asks me if I would like it done or not, which I most always answer "yes" to. It's not like its not the "real me" or anything, it just helps with self-image. When you look back at old photos, if a scar, acne, rashes, or anything is present ON YOUR FACE, I think that one of your first thoughts will be about it. I'm 99% sure that when you look at your old pictures, you would like to think, "Wow, how beautiful I was!" not, " Oh my gosh, that thing's huge!" It's just a matter of self-image: Do I like the way I look? I'm not saying make your children look like that....thing... of a girl on this page, but a little touch-up may make your children smile. But what do I know...
Anji 2-22-2008 @ 11:43AM
I do remove the little scabs which seem to perpetually appear on my toddler's face, and I have been known to edit out snot/crumbs/blobs of food. I don't take it further than that though - basically, I edit it to make it look like I bothered to wipe his face before taking the photograph. ;oP I do the same with photographs which contain my carpets. Who needs a vacuum cleaner when you have Photoshop?
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Katheryn 2-22-2008 @ 11:49AM
The first year of my son's life he had awful exzema. We finally found things that worked and cleared it up, but a year ago I was looking at his first year pictures, and it was hard to get past the rashes. So I went in and photo shopped his skin. They aren't all perfect, but they're so much better, and now you can focus on the whole picture, and not just the rash on his face, neck, and arms.
I don't see that there's anything wrong with this. Just like when I go back and take out a few zits from my face!
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Jenn 2-22-2008 @ 12:47PM
I edit all the pictures I take, usually just to even out the colors of the photos, that sort of thing. But I do sometimes take out snot or crumbs (although given the number of "messy baby" pictures I have, obviously I didn't do that too much).
As she gets older, I'm not sure what I'll do. It will probably depend on the photo itself, and what it's intended for. Candid shot taken and kept for the family photo album or a frame on mom's desk? Leave as is. Formal photo shoot for graduation or whatnot? (Not school photos, but the studio pictures.) Just like you take care with your makeup and put on your best clothes, I'd definitely edit those to bring out the best.
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lisa 2-22-2008 @ 3:09PM
I do retouch but only glaring blemishes. I used to have a huge scar on my nose (which has since been corrected by plastic surgery) and yeah, I paid gobs of money for retouching for years (all those wedding photos, whew!), and even took a Photoshop class so I could retouch most of my snapshots at home too. I have not needed to retouch any of my kids pictures (they did not get their beautiful skin from me!) but will probably retouch acne when they are teenagers. I was absolutely traumatized by acne and hate every picture of me as a teenager that hasn't been fixed. I did not retouch the baby acne my oldest daughter had and generally request that my photographer not retouch anything but stray hairs in our portraits. We did, however, lighten a black-ish eye my younger daughter had on her first birthday from falling and striking her face on the coffee table (ouch!) but we didn't take it out completely. Basically, we know it's there but only really observant people who haven't been told would notice it.
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Michelle 2-23-2008 @ 12:06PM
That picture looks like a doll, and not as in "your little girl is a doll", as in daughter of Chucky!
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isisaquaria 2-25-2008 @ 2:54PM
That was my first thought too.
I have had some retouching (glasses glare, blemishes) on the 12yr old photos, because they look more like she does normally. She has the great skin , but picture day at school--if we have more than a day notice-she'll get a zit every time. And when she wore glasses in them, you lost the big brown eyes.
Eva 2-23-2008 @ 8:33PM
I can't imagine retouching children's photos, either.
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Amanda 2-25-2008 @ 2:38PM
anji...that's funny :D I have been guilty of cropping photos so that you cannot see my fuzz/dust bunny covered carpet :D
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