Demi Lovato calls out 'dangerous' photo filters for setting 'unrealistic beauty expectations'
Having just swapped her pink pixie for a black crop with baby bangs, Demi Lovato is all about changing her look these days. But the pop star draws a line when it comes to face-altering filters that don't jibe with reality.
In a video posted to Instagram on Sunday, the 28-year-old called out the "unrealistic beauty expectations" of using airbrushing filters that smooth the skin, add contours, slim noses and change the color and shape of the eyes.
Adding captions like "these aren't my real eyes" and "my skin is not this smooth," Lovato shared a video selfie documenting the changes filters made to her face. She also expressed regret at having experimented with filters in her own photos in the past. (One selfie posted for Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, for example, features a filtered effect.)
"Thank God I'm realizing this now and I'm sorry for using them [without] realizing how dangerous they were before," the star, who will premiere her YouTube documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, later this month.
The former Disney Channel star added, "Thank God these weren't around when I was 13 but also... how are teens supposed to learn to accept themselves [with] this s***."
Last fall, Lovato spoke out about the excessive use of Photoshopping in some fan art, saying, "Reinforcing impossible beauty standards onto your favorite actress/singer/model [is] not only rude, dumb [and] harmful to your own beauty standards and ideals.”
She has also been praised for posting unedited photos of her body.
"A huge thing for me has been body acceptance,” she shared in 2019. “I feel like something that is not really spoken about a lot is body acceptance. We hear the terms ‘body positivity’ all the time but to be honest, I don't always feel positive about my body. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I'm like, 'Oh I do not like what I see.' But in those moments, I don't sit there and dwell on it. I also don't lie to myself.
"I used to look in the mirror and I used to be like 'I love my body. You're beautifully and wonderfully made.' But the thing was, I didn't believe it so then I just would resent it. And every time I would say it, I would be like 'You're lying to yourself.'"
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