Photo retouching, once confined to fashion magazines, is becoming routine in a far less glamorous domain — the "wholesome" school portrait. Photography companies around the country offer the service to parents who want to erase scars, acne, and braces, or pop a missing tooth back into a first grader's mouth. Technology has made it easy and cheap to remove eyeglass glare ($6) and whiten teeth ($10 to $20), but some parents are going further and having their kids' hair digitally re-cut. Is electronically airbrushing classroom photos taking the quest for perfection a step too far?
This is scary, and unhealthy: Those little childhood imperfections, from missing teeth to stubborn cowlicks, are what make "those goofy class pictures" so "fresh, real, and adorable," says Ellen Schrier at Mamas on Call. Airbrushing them is part of a broader and "misguided" effort to make kids "perfect." So don't do it — it only sends "kids the message that they are not good enough."
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