We live in a world full of photographs. In the media we are constantly exposed to images of people, places, and things that look too good to be true. Most of the time, these things are too good to be true. Photoshop has existed for about 25 years, and it has allowed for easy manipulation of photographs.

Almost every human in any given magazine has been tucked, trimmed, added to, and taken away from. The media has created a standard of “perfect" that is physically impossible for any real person to meet. The models themselves do not even reach this standard.

Aerie, a lingerie and apparel company by American Eagle, has launched an “Aerie Real" campaign, using photographs of models without any retouch. This campaign is empowering models and people everywhere by telling its audience that the way you really look is okay.

Social media use is at an all time high; billions of images are posted to social media each day. When we are given control of the media, we, too, are given control of how we portray ourselves. There are many applications on the market that make it easy to retouch pictures on our phones before posting it anywhere.

How much retouch is too much? This is the burning question I have for myself and for the public. There are times when I scroll through Instagram, see overly edited photos and cringe; I feel sad that people feel the need to change so much about themselves. However, it would be dishonest to say that I leave my images unedited; I edit almost every picture I post online. While I often limit my retouches to photo color and maybe some red eye correction and teeth whitening, I wonder if even that is too much altering.

Self-expression is important and no one can tell you what you can and can not post online, however a healthy self image is important in life. I do not believe we should be drastically changing the photographs we post because we, as human beings, are all different and all beautiful. Raven-Symone said it best when she said, “people come in all shapes and sizes, and they're all beautiful."

I encourage us to all appreciate ourselves in our real forms. You can use the hashtag #AerieReal to share your real photos with the world!