Before and after pictures usually convey people who have undergone a major transformation. Most likely a before and after photograph will consist of an altering cosmetic procedure or a dramatic change in weight (majority of which will have young adults/adults as the main subject). About thirty minutes ago I typed in negative body image on Google and one of the result images that came up was a before and after photograph of a female child. The visual of the image was a young girl (between the age of nine to eleven) and it displayed the child before and after she “glamorized” herself. Now if the subject of the image were to have been the before and after of a child with an improvement on a medical condition I am not sure if I would have been as confounded as I am now. This image really caught my eye because it demonstrates how early on young girls are pushed into the world of beauty.
I for one really enjoy make up and fashion. I however was not allowed to wear make up until my freshman year in high school. This made me question, is there an appropriate age for “glam?” Does the age in when one starts wearing make up change your self beauty image? Is there any correlation between negative body/beauty image and make up. Time is forever changing and in present day I have noticed younger girls with full faces of make up on. Every time I see a child wearing make up I am unsure as to how I should feel. Am I suppose to freak out because a nine year old child now looks eighteen! Or should I see it as normal because they are only applying make up on a child for the purpose of a beauty competition (are they really though). Does the young girl in the before and after photograph really feel as pretty without all of the make up on? Does she still feel beautiful when her hair isn’t as big and full of hair spray? How does this image convey the meaning of beauty to other young girls?
If I were to ask a young girl or boy which image is the girl most pretty I would expect for their answer to be, “the girl looks most pretty in the before picture.” However I’m not to sure that this would be the answer in today’s youth. The more I look at this picture the more I feel like make up does not belong on children. I think that images like this one distort the perception of beauty and the representation of it amongst children.