The Dove Real Beauty campaign started all the way back in 2004 bringing to light that many companies Photoshop or retouch their models’ pictures. We have seen a recent trend of companies that have followed in Dove’s footsteps and are no longer retouching their models.

I believe this is a huge step in our society; for as long as I can remember, there was a certain societal standard for women and that included being the perfect woman, who was the perfect size with long blonde hair and blue eyes and she had perfectly straight, white teeth and she had to be at least 5-foot-5, because that is perfect. That idea has somehow infiltrated the minds of so many people and then they started to forget that not everyone is the same. For someone who has dark brown hair, hazel eyes and is barely 5-foot-2, these societal standards where never something I was going to be able to achieve. So now that these companies want to show how their models really look, it is slowly cutting that idea of "the perfect woman."

Some other companies who have picked up the idea of real beauty include American Eagle’s Aerie, Modcloth, Seventeen Magazine and Darling Magazine. As these companies take a stand to stop retouching their models, it will have a huge influence on a younger generation of girls. Young girls will no longer look at models on the covers of magazines and think that they need to look just like them. I know that with my own future daughter(s), I would never want them to think that they just aren’t good enough because they don’t look like someone on the cover of a magazine. Even when I think about my young niece, I don’t want her to think that she needs to change to fit any standard, she is a sassy, strong-willed little girl who has an incredibly bright future before her and does not need to fit in to a "societal norm."

It is natural for human beings to want to emulate others and when little girls see these immensely retouched women, they think they need to look like them. However, when these girls see untouched models, they are able to understand that they are beautiful the way they are and that they are worth something.

Many people, but specifically girls, struggle with self-esteem issues. It is extremely common even though many people act like they don’t have any issues, I know because I was and still sometimes am that girl. In 2008, Dove did some surveys to figure out how girls felt about themselves and for some reason, the findings do not seem surprising.

• 71 percent of girls with low self-esteem feel their appearances do not measure up, including not feeling pretty enough, thin enough or stylish or trendy enough (compared to 29 percent of girls with high self-esteem)
• 78 percent of girls with low self-esteem admit that it is hard to feel good in school when you do not feel good about how you look (compared to 54 percent of girls with high self-esteem)
• 61 percent of teen girls with low self-esteem admit to talking badly about themselves (Compared to 15 percent of girls with high self-esteem)

The idea of no longer retouching photos of models is incredible! The more companies that do this, the more likely it will be that our society no longer has this idea of the "perfect woman." Let’s move on and break this cycle of feeling the need to be perfect. As Audrey Hepburn once said, “The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.”