Bluhm's petition, which was posted to Change.org on April 19, asked Seventeen to commit to print one unaltered photo spread per month.
"For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up. I know how hurtful these photoshopped images can be," Bluhm wrote, citing the overly weight-conscious girls in her ballet class.
The petition amassed nearly 85,000 signatures in just four days. Seventeen Editor-in-Chief Ann Shoket quickly invited Bluhm and her mother into her offices. Following their conversation, Seventeen's staff signed an eight-point "Body Peace Treaty" which pledged to "never change girls' body or face shapes" and to be "totally up-front about what goes into our photo shoots."
The Treaty appears in Seventeen's August issue beneath a note from Shoket. She carefully refrains from making any definite commitment to change the way Seventeen presents its images, insisting instead that the magazine has never altered the way girls on its pages look. She says Photoshop is only ever used to remove stray hairs and wrinkles in fabric, as well as "a few zits" and "random bra straps," pointing to a right-hand image as evidence. She does acknowledge that Seventeen needs to be more transparent about its retouching process however, inviting readers to go behind-the-scenes of photo shoots on its Tumblr blog.
Bluhm, not one to rest on her laurels, is now hoping to exact the same pledge from Teen Vogue. Her new petition, posted Tuesday, has received more than 1,800 signatures as of writing.
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