by Alana Joy

I really love this video, and I am not being paid to say that I really love Dove for taking on this angle.

Both women and men are bombarded daily with misleading images that leave far too many feeling that they will never be able to measure up… and they’re right. No one looks the way these models do: not even the models.

Recently Ralph Lauren came under scrutiny for the obviously heavily photoshopped ads and storefront images depicting a perfectly beautiful and already slim woman as horrifyingly skinny.

This image was taken from Photoshop Disasters, an amusing website to browse through if you are looking for a chuckle. However images like this one aren’t as entertaining as the ones where they give a model an extra finger. My beautiful 17 year old sister flips through fashion magazines with her friends and can more readily list her flaws than her assets, which are obvious to anyone looking at her from the outside.

If more fashion and beauty brands spent their time and money making women feel good about who they are as they are, the way Dove has here, I have a feeling women would also be more likely to purchase whatever it is you are trying to sell them. Buying from you will make them feel good rather than inadequate. That’s what fashion is really about anyway, isn’t it?

Feeling beautiful.