Demi Lovato Just Called Out Instagram Beauty Filters for Being Unrealistic

Demi Lovato is here to remind everyone that face-altering Instagram filters are unrealistic and possibly damaging. With many of us stuck at home for the past year, we’re seeing each other’s real faces less—and our friends through Instagram more. Which is why it’s so important to remember social media can often be fake. 

On March 1–the first day of International Women’s Month!–Lovato posted a Reel of herself to Instagram in which she’s using a filter to smooth out her features. On top of the quick video, she wrote all the ways the filter distorts her real face, from lightening and enlarging her eyes to airbrushing her skin and making her nose smaller. She also asked questions like, “Why do I need a smaller nose?” and, “Thank God these weren’t around when I was 13 but also…how are teens supposed to learn to accept themselves [with] this shit?”

Similar filters are available on TikTok and have been called out multiple times for perpetuating an unhealthy fixation on “perfect features” that often align with a Euro-centric beauty standard that borders on racism. 

Demi Lovato wrote in her video caption, “Open fully for a friendly reminder.” And we all could use one when it comes to this. Her message is clear: Don’t believe what you see online.

She posted a similar message in 2019 alongside an unedited photo of herself in a bathing suit. “This is my biggest fear. A photo of me in a bikini unedited,” she wrote. “And guess what, it’s CELLULIT!!!! [sic] I’m just literally sooooo tired of being ashamed of my body, editing it (yes the other bikini pics were edited – and I hate that I did that but it’s the truth) so that others think I’m THEIR idea of what beautiful is, but it’s just not me.”