Teens Stage Airbrushing Protest Outside Teen Vogue Offices

by Jada Wong | 9:56 am, July 11th, 2012

Last Thursday, Seventeen announced its Body Treaty Plan after 14-year-old Julia Bluhm successfully protested against excessive air-brushing in the magazine. Now, teens are petitioning Teen Vogue to do the same, and are holding a protest in the form of a mock fashion shoot outside of the mag’s headquarters today.

Sixteen-year-old Carina Cruz and 17-year-old Emma Stydahar, along with Bluhm, are part of the girl-focused activist group called SPARK. Cruz and Stydahar were involved in Bluhm’s success with Seventeen, and were inspired to do the same at Teen Vogue. Per their petition on Change.org:

“We’re really excited, because Seventeen didn’t just promise one un-photoshopped spread a month, they went even further by promising not to change the faces or body size of their models, to listen to readers’ feedback and to celebrate beauty in all of its diverse shapes, sizes and colors. This is huge; the beginning of a revolution in the way girls see themselves across the girls’ magazine industry. That’s why we’re now asking Teen Vogue to do the same. This year, Vogue pledged to not work with underage models or models who appear to have eating disorders and to encourage their designers to provide more realistically sized samples for models’ outfits. This is a great first step, but now we’re asking Teen Vogue to take a bigger leap. Teen Vogue: Follow Seventeen’s example and pledge not to alter any model’s body or face and to celebrate beauty in all its forms.”

The two teens are directing their petition at Teen Vogue‘s editor in chief Amy Astley, senior public relations director Erin Kaplan, and publisher Jason Wagenheim.

Today, the teens will hand-deliver a box of signatures (27,772 and counting) and host a faux fashion shoot outside of Teen Vogue‘s offices in Times Square. The two also hope to talk to Astley to ”discuss if and when they’ll let their readers know that they’ll commit to not altering faces and body sizes and to including diversity in their pages.”

The mag hasn’t responded to the petition or protest, but Stydahar says in a release: