F I L T E R S

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     A young girl in today’s world, maybe 12 to 13 years old, usually starts to use social media on a daily basis. Thousands and millions of pictures, videos, and more display women whose faces look quite similar to each other. Checking the comments, she finds that it's filled with people validating the way the woman in the picture looks. Other pictures on the app show the same response.

     But this girl doesn’t look like the girls in the pictures. Her nose is too big. She has darker skin. Her face looks funny. She’s never noticed it before, but now it is all she can think about. Finally, this young girl selects one of the most popular filters on the app and holds the camera up to her face. Immediately, she can see the changes the filter made to her face. Her skin looks smoother now and her nose looks “normal.” From then on, she can’t help but look at herself with the filter, wondering why she doesn’t look like that and wishing her face could be the exact replica.

     The web continues to have its way of encouraging, or a proper term would be manipulating, women of all ages into changing their body image. Whether it’s Instagram, Snapchat, or Tiktok, filters are everywhere and they could do more harm than good. While some are more on the fun side, many filters aim to highlight Eurocentric features, such as a smaller nose, lighter skin, flushed cheeks, etc. Others are more focused on smoother skin, different eye shapes, and bigger lips. 

     Beauty filters all over the internet lead to the distortion of body image in girls. Many have facial features the internet does not appreciate, so seeing European features get constantly praised destroys one's self-esteem. Because of this, women feel the need to change the way they look or even hide it using a filter to avoid hate and other harmful comments. Both young girls and women have shared on the internet that they feel ashamed when posting pictures of themselves without a filter. Along with this, higher cases of body dysmorphia, lower self-confidence, and lower self-esteem all have a direct link to social media filters. 

      As filters are dominating the internet, people begin to increase their expectations of the way a woman should look. Meanwhile, women become obsessed with achieving the “perfect look” that filters have shown them.