Lili Reinhart is not here for unrealistic beauty standards, thank you very much.
A longtime advocate of honesty and body positivity, she took to Instagram to take down a body-editing app. Go get ’em, queen.
Lili is the definition of a rising star.
She’s currently starring in the CW’s Riverdale as Betty Cooper, a go-getter journalist who is into solving murders, catching serial killers, and dating Jughead Jones (aka Cole Sprouse, her RL boyfriend).
Yeah, Riverdale is a wild ride.
She was also just in “Hustlers.”
Which you should go see ASAP. Like, if you haven’t, I’m gonna need you to finish this article, then go find the closest method you have to watch Hustlers and put it in your eyeballs immediately.
She’s a huge activist, too.
One of the causes closest to her heart is body positivity.
She made an amazing speech at Glamour ‘s 2018 Women of the Year summit, where she touched on how dangerous photo editing is.
The shame and need we feel to change our bodies is not genetic.
“We aren’t born with these insecurities. We are told to be insecure about certain things. We are conditioned to feel ashamed or embarrassed about certain parts of ourselves.”
She deliberately got rid of the kind of thing she accidentally came across in 2019.
“I started to purge myself of content that made me feel less beautiful on a daily basis. I unfollowed the accounts on Instagram that made me question the shape and curves of my own body.”
Seriously, she is very passionate about this topic.
She told Variety how much she despises the idea of a “perfect” body.
“You’re just being force-fed this image and being told that it’s beautiful and perfect and you believe it because that’s what you see.”
Fast forward to now.
Lili is happy, healthy, in a good relationship, and doing really well, overall.
But, like the rest of us, something came along that upset her. Thankfully, she now doesn’t feel ashamed when she sees body editing apps — she rightfully feels rage.
She took to Instagram to share a troubling discovery.
She started her multi-part story: “This morning I was looking for an app that would help me resize my photos to better fit Instagram…and then I came across this app.”
She found “BodyTune” in the app store.
The app promised to deliver perfect retouching with no photo editing skills required.
Get a load of this, though: Lili’s fans flooded the app with 1 star reviews, because they’re awesome.
I mean, is she wrong?
“This is not okay. This is why people develop eating disorders. This is why social media has become hazardous to our health. This is why people have unrealistic expectations of their bodies,” she wrote.
She does not like anyone who edits their bodies.
“I implore you: do not use these kinds of apps. If you photoshop your body, you are adding to this problem.”
Okay, small addendum: if you do photoshop your body, maybe disclose it? That would be a happy medium until we’re done with photoshopping bodies forever.
Literally nothing is real.
“This is how unrealistic standards of human bodies have been created — to the point where people alter their bodies surgically to achieve unattainable results.”
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She’s right and she should say it!
She said those apps have messed up so many people.
“We are better than this. Looking “skinnier” in a photo on Instagram is not worth the detrimental psychological effects that these photoshopping apps have given our generation.” She continued on.
You know what? Tea.
“Our bodies should not conform to “one size fits all.” If we applaud and praise the men and women who photoshop the shit out of themselves, it’s only encouraging them to continue, and to feel like the only way they will be accepted is if they keep altering themselves.”
She concluded:
“Once you alleviate yourself of the pressure to conform to FAKE/UNREAL standards…the world is a lot brighter. I promise you,” she finished.
All hail queen Lili, who is trying to speak a better reality into existence.
