The Letter

I decided to show my letter visually, written in lipstick on a mirror in a girls bathroom. The use of the lipstick on the mirror relates to Maybelline, as the body image issue usually revolves around mirrors and what women see and criticize when they look at their reflection. The effect of this composition resulted in a sterile feeling, which relates to the depression and other emotional disorders relating to negative body image.

Here is a typed transcript of my letter:

Dear Maybelline,

Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. But probably it's photoshop. 

Body. Image. Two words that I am sick to death of. 

It is due to companies like you, that those two words have become an overwhelming issue for young females like me. The amount of advertisements that your company produces that are exceedingly photoshopped and airbrushed to beyond belief, is atrocious. Even at the local chemist, your stall is plastered with images of models with invisible pores, meter long eyelashes and not a spot or freckle in sight. And what do I see when I look in the mirror? Something completely different. 

I understand that in today's world, photoshopping advertisements is common amongst cosmetic organizations such as yourself, but the image you are portraying to young women is harmful. Unrealistic images are abusing females minds into thinking that they should look a certain way, and need cosmetics to make them beautiful. Alarming numbers of young women have developed emotional disorders such as depression, anxiety, not too mention eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia from their own negative body image.

You are a company that is relying on consumer's insecurities to sell your products and I have had enough. The pressure in today’s society for females to look a certain way is overwheliming. Every women should be able to look in the mirror and see beauty, not criticism.

Maybelline, you need to adjust your advertisement campaigns in order help diminish this concerning body image issue. You must show images of women with real beauty, the way they really look. You need to celebrate flaws and realise that noone is perfect. This is the only solution into changing the unrealistic image that so many women are comparing themselves too. You can lift the morals of women all over the world through change. Be a leader in the cosmetic industry and start this change.

Holly Chapman