Social Media Influencers and Celebrities Use Photoshop to Hide Their Flaws on Social Media Platforms: Crazy Catfish Story

Have you ever had an instance where you find someone attractive on a dating app, only to meet them in real life and realize their pictures are so heavily edited that they look nothing like their pictures? Facebook user, Ex.Treme, exposed photos of Chinese social media influencer, Coeyyy, and discovered that she looked nothing like her pictures on Chinese social networking site Xiaohongshu, showing that she used Photoshop to edit her pictures. Along with Coeyyy, many celebrities have photoshopped their pictures too in order to comply with society’s unrealistic standards of beauty. But why is it that our standard of beauty seems to be achievable only behind a computer screen?

How Are Coeyyy’s True Pictures Different From Her Social Media Pictures?

The leaked photos of Coeyyy show that she is a bit heavier and less doe-eyed than she wants her followers to believe. There were some signs in her edited photos, including larger shadows that didn’t make sense in the pictures and some Photoshop errors that someone with experience in Photoshop could pick up.

97445809_3254560074555580_2313884476481994752_o — Facebook User Ex.Treme

As you can see from this picture, Coeyyy’s edited picture barely matches the true photo of herself.

Why Do Celebrities and Social Media Influencers Photoshop Their Images?

Even though she was kittenfishing her followers, which is when you Photoshop your photos to hide your flaws and make yourself seem more appealing, celebrities are known to do this with their pictures all the time. In fact, this is the most we’ve ever seen celebrities edit their photos since social media platforms are expanding and becoming more popular.

A possible reason as to why celebrities and social media influencers heavily edit their photos is because there is a stigma that most people who follow social media influencers tend to go toward those perfect pictures with ultra-thin models with barely any flaws. These famous people think that they have to show off the “best versions” of themselves to prevent their audience from judging their flaws and commenting rude things on their social media profiles. They think they have a standard to live up to and if they aren’t as perfect as the other people on social media that they won’t be as liked. They want to escape their everyday lives and have a place where they look like a supermodel.

However, influencers and celebrities need to realize that while there are people that go for flawless influencers and judge those that are flawed, most people actually want to follow those who are genuine and not afraid to be themselves, even if there are some flawed pictures. In the case of the photos released, it is obvious that Coeyyy was not at all genuine and tricked her followers into thinking she was a flawless influencer when she wasn’t. There are also celebrities that trick their followers into thinking that they have a flawless body and face on a daily basis when this also isn’t the case.

There Have Been Celebrities That Have Had Their Pictures and Video Edited Using Photoshop Without Their Consent

Whether it be in music videos, photoshoots with magazines, or a paparazzi photo opportunity, there have been many times a celebrity’s photo was edited without their consent. These industries usually edit pictures to comply with society’s unrealistic beauty standards that you need to be perfect to have your picture featured in anything. However, these celebrities are not having it and want their fans to know that they are a flawed human being just like everyone else.

Meghan Trainor: She was excited to finally release her music video for her song “Me Too.” However, after her music video got released on YouTube, fans started noticing that her waist in the video was heavily edited. Trainor was so upset that the video editors edited her image without her permission, that she screamed and cried in her hotel room. She immediately texted them this, “I never asked you to touch my waist. I want my waist back.” She showed her fans what the original video footage looked like on her Instagram compared to the edited version, and took down the music video. She then reposted the video the next day with the original footage.

Nicki Minaj: When Minaj was featured on ESPN’s February 2014 cover, she noticed that her forehead grew in length. She posted the cover on her Instagram with the caption “When retouching goes wrong.” She also compared it to the original images from the photoshoot.

Priyanka Chopra: Chopra was featured on Maxim’s cover where fans pointed out that her armpit faded from existence. She later made a joke about it on Twitter, where she posted a photo with both of her arms raised with the caption “Here’s another ‘pit-stopping’ picture to add to the debate. #WillTheRealArmpitPleaseStandUp #nofilter #armpitdiaries.”

Zendaya: She was featured on Modeliste’s magazine cover and noticed that her hips and torso were manipulated to make her look skinnier. She asked Modeliste to take the edited photo down, which they did, and she praised them for doing so on her Instagram. In a part of the caption, she wrote, “These are the things that make women self-conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have.”

Why it’s Important to Be Genuine During Photo Shoots and Social Media Posts

When a fan looks at a photo of their favorite celebrity or social media influencer, they compare themselves to the star and tend to notice more flaws about themselves. Maybe they think they aren’t skinny enough, or their face could be clearer, or their hair could be less messy. However, in reality, the picture that they are looking at is heavily edited and chances are their favorite influencer or celebrity doesn’t look like that at all.

Even a celebrity or social media influencer can tend to feel bad about themselves when they suddenly see an edited picture of themselves on the Internet, magazine cover, or video without their consent. Their thought process can go from feeling confident in themselves to feeling awful about themselves when they see little things about themselves edited for the audience’s pleasure. They can think to themselves “What was wrong with my legs? Why did they Photoshop this photo?” or “Am I not skinny enough? Why are my curves edited out in the picture?”

In reality, we are all taught to follow impossible beauty standards that can lead to eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. When we can’t look like the computer edited photo and we all wonder why when the truth is it’s impossible to look like a digitally-altered photo. This is why the new beauty standard should be posting true photos of ourselves that show what true beauty looks like, flaws and all, to show that every human being is made differently and has flaws that make them unique and beautiful.

If you’re on social media and notice that someone you are trying to date might have heavily edited photos from Photoshop that might not be theirs, Social Catfish is here to help you. We can reverse search any name, email address, social media username, phone number, or image to see who it really is you are talking to.