Jennette McCurdy Takes a Stand Against Body Shaming

via CMT

Wow! Jennette McCurdy, star of Nickelodeon's hit comedy shows "iCarly" and "Sam and Cat," has bravely spoken out against the issue of negative body image. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Jennette talks about how we live in a world of impossibly high standards for beauty. Every day, we're surrounded by photoshopped pictures of celebrities with lots of makeup - totally impossible in the real world.

Jennette says that even she has felt ashamed about how she looks, especially when she sees pictures of herself post-photoshop and makeup:

"Last week, I was at the bookstore when I saw a magazine with a girl on the cover who looked a lot like me. The reason the girl looked a lot like me is because she was me… just with poutier lips, a smoother complexion, and a thinner face."

Does this cover look realistic?

via Monitoracao Nick

It's amazing for a famous celeb like Jennette to speak out against the impossibly high beauty standards women face everyday. Telling us that we always need to look like stars on the cover of Teen Vogue (who probably were photoshopped anyways) isn't fair or realistic.

Like Jennette points out, worrying too much about how we look takes up a lot of time and effort that could be used to do some really amazing things! Why spend an hour straightening your hair or touching up your makeup when you could be hanging out with friends, watching a Jennette's shows, learning to play guitar, planning a party, reading, playing sports, or anything!

If you don't think your photos of your favorite celebrities should be photoshopped, do something about it! Talk to your friends and your family to see what they think about the issue. You can even write to some of your favorite magazines and ask that they stop photoshopping pictures. Two years ago, a middle school student named Julia started a petition demanding that Seventeen stop overusing photoshop. Over 80,000 people signed the letter! Since then, Seventeen has promised not to photoshop photos of women to change their body sizes. (Read more about it here!).

Thanks to courageous gals like Jennette and Julia, we're starting to see progress on the issue of negative body image. What are you going to do to keep the movement going?