“She’s so skinny,” “Look at how perfect her skin is,” and “If I work out more, maybe I can look like that.”  These sayings are universal among teenagers as they witness artificial models plastered all over magazines, television, and social media.  Teens do not realize these figures are not life-like but rather the result of Photoshop, setting an unrealistic physical appearance males and females alike strive for.  With thirty million Americans suffering from some type of eating disorder and one in five minors living with a mental disorder, we have no time to spare.  Photoshop in the media needs to be eliminated because of the increase in false perception and mental disorders.
   

With the stereotypical, but impractical look of small stomachs, luscious lips, and smooth skin for girls and athletic bodies hard as rocks for boys, it is second nature to become upset that this look cannot be achieved, which is where a variety of mental disorders set in.  One of the most common between males and females are eating disorders.  The American Medical Association vilified the use of Photoshop, proclaiming its negative effects on your health.  “Such alterations can contribute to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image — especially among impressionable children and adolescents.”  It is not until twenty-five that the brain fully develops, leaving teens with the idea that they are not good enough.  Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents according to the Brigham Young University of Idaho.   Disgusting.  Twenty billion dollars are spent annually on beauty marketing in the United States; nevertheless, 80% of women feel worse about themselves after seeing these enhancement ads, all for the endorsement of a product.  The use of Photoshop on men is hushed, but still present.  3-12% of teen boys will use some type of anabolic steroids, which is not surprising seeing what the media is putting out for young children to be exposed to ("Protect Our Girls and Pass the Media and Public Health Act." Change. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.)  In stores, on billboards, ads, television, magazines - where does this end?  The spray painted bodies, models with little to no clothing on, unrealistic touch ups, caked on makeup- what are we teaching today’s youth?  Girl Scout Research Institute studies show that girls as young as eight are concerned with body image, depression, sex, and peer pressure, which are often associated with low self-esteem.  What would you think when a girl as young as eight went parading around with a face full of makeup?  Children think their faces are canvases.  Issues like this should not be concerning them.
   

In spite of these pessimistic notions, there are a handful of people who presume that Photoshop is not destructive, but rather convenient.  Editor-in-chief Noah Callahan-Bever at Complex Magazine explains, "I want to make sure that person is represented in a fair way,"  "If their flesh tone ends up looking flat and dead, and it doesn't look true to who they are."  No one wants a dreadful photograph of them to end up inside of a magazine, let alone on the cover.  Jeffrey Saks, the creative director for Ask Ladies’ Home Journal, firmly denies any harmful effects of retouching.  "We're not trying to make women feel bad," he says. "We're trying to show women looking like real people, and whatever cleaning up we do is basically about the quality of the photograph more than trying to do plastic surgery."  There are theories that point out that Photoshop is not used for harm, but for the advocation of merchandise.  With women and men concerned about how people perceive them and so many companies with promising campaigns, advertising companies must show how their lines of products are superior to the competition’s. 
   

With the omission of Photoshop, mental illnesses due to retouching will decrease, the age of body image concerns will subside, and minors will be able to feel content in their own skin.  We want children and teenagers to embrace who they are and feel confident, so spray-painted bodies and caked on makeup will be a concept of the past.  The world as we know it has the freedom to metamorphosize into a place of prosperity.