Kelly Clarkson and Self Magazine

It’s bad enough that already super skinny cover models and celebrities appearing in magazines are photoshopped to death to eliminate traces of any blemish or imperfection that might make them look, well, real.

But the September cover of SELF Magazine, whose tagline is “You at your best,” is stirring up a ton of controversy, specifically regarding the extent to which featured celeb Kelly Clarkson has been digitally “enhanced.” And rightly so.

What exactly is the message SELF magazine is sending to women when headlines on the cover say things like “Slim Down Your Way” and “Total Body Confidence,” yet Kelly Clarkson herself has been digitally altered to make her look much thinner? Watch the video from the actual photo shoot and you’ll see just how far away the cover is from reality.

SELF Editor-in-chief Lucy Danzinger has vigorously defended the way they altered Kelly’s image for the cover, saying:

This is art, creativity and collaboration. It’s not, as in a news photograph, journalism. It is, however, meant to inspire women to want to be their best. That is the point.

Kelly has this amazing spirit, the kind of joie de vivre that certain people possess that makes you want to stand closer to them, hoping that you can learn what they know. In this case, you get the feeling Kelly has not let fame spoil her, but also that she was just born confident, with a generosity of spirit that is all about others and rarely about herself. She is, like her music, giving and strong and confident and full of gusto. Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best.

But in the sense that Kelly is the picture of confidence, and she truly is, then I think this photo is the truest we have ever put out there on the newsstand.

Kelly says she doesn’t care what people think of her weight. So we say: That is the role model for the rest of us.

Hmmm. How thoughtful of SELF to make Kelly, who is the first to say she doesn’t have a problem with her weight, look her “personal best” on the cover. I mean, could a magazine which is supposed to be all about being your best possibly be more hypocritical?

Look, I have no problem with covering up a pimple or something in a photograph, but to change the bone structure and clothing size of real people to make them be their “personal best” and call it “inspirational” is just not okay. All it does is perpetuate the messages that girls and woman are bombarded with every day that they’re not good enough the way they are.

Do you want to tell SELF magazine how you feel about the unhealthy messages they’re sending to girls and women everywhere with their cover? Email Lucy Danzinger here.