The beauty and fashion industries encourage consumers to buy into the ‘#beautymyth’. Unfortunately, many of individuals across all ages and genders are drawn in by the fear of appearing undesirable, sloppy or simply ‘past it’ if they don’t.

While technology has driven the ‘selfie’ phenomenon, and social media has driven unprecedented opportunities for editing images, we are no happier about our appearance. Rather the reverse is true. Evidence suggests that seeing ‘perfected’ images of others makes us feel dissatisfied about our own appearance. But have we started to take control?

The fashion, film and other media industries are starting to use models and actors whose physical appearance could be described as rather plain. This gives an impression of familiarity, someone we can relate and aspire to easily, rather than someone who is inaccessible and whose appearance is unattainable. In an article I was interviewed for, published in The Telegraph on 22nd October, 2017, I argue that this is a reflection of the demise of artificial look-alike beauty and the rise of ‘ordinary’ bloggers whose collective voice strong has influence and journalist @laurenlibbert, discusses how being average-looking has made her happier in life and love.  Read the article here.