We love Zendaya and that she’s never afraid to speak out against the media’s unjust perceptions of what women should look like.
From quitting that exceedingly questionable Aaliyah biopic to her incredible response to Giuliana Rancic’s dreadlocks comment (and the Barbie doll complete with dreadlocks she recently launched!), she seems to have a very good head on her shoulders. At least, that’s what our grandmothers would say. But it’s true.
The 19-year-old actress continues to stand up for her beliefs and make good decisions (something always worthy of applauding, but perhaps even more so in the celeb-world), criticising Modeliste Magazine for editing pictures to make her appear thinner and promoting unrealistic standards of beauty.
‘Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19-year-old hips and torso quite manipulated. These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have,’ she wrote on Instagram, alongside the unretouched image.
‘Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it. Thank you @modelistemagazine for pulling down the images and fixing this retouch issue.’
Modeliste editor-in-chief Amy McCabe said the magazine had pulled the issue and was working to publish the unedited images, issuing a statement saying: ‘Upon review of the final edited images, which had been submitted to us by an independent editing company, together as a collaborative between myself, Zendaya and her parents, we concluded that the images had been retouched to an extent that was not acceptable and not true to the values and ideals we represent and promote in our publication...
‘I, therefore, made the executive decision to immediately pull the issue in order to have this rectified and have the images restored to their original, natural state which will reflect the true beauty and radiance of Zendaya. We look forward to sharing these shortly upon the issue’s re-release.’
Yes, Zendaya! More role models like this one, please.
Like this? You may be interested in:
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Follow Alya on Twitter @moorizZLA
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.