LUISA Zissman has defended photoshopping her children’s photos in a debate about school portraits.
The Apprentice star appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate the news a school offered to airbursh student’s portraits.
Luisa is mum to daughters Dixie, nine, Indigo, three, and Clementine, two.
She told hosts Susanna Reid and Adil Ray: “I’ve never photoshopped a school photo but we’ve had family ones done and I’ve just smoothed their skin, or if there’s a bit of ketchup…”
The 32-year-old continued: “They’re not so lovely when they’re covered in crumbs of food.
“Two of them are ginger, so they have that fair skin that gets all red and blotchy, and I think it’s nice to look a bit smoother. And not look back and think, ‘Oh, my poor face!’
“I would never photoshop the freckles though.”
While defending her decision, she said her kids don’t know that she’s altering the photos – and she wants them to be as good as possible for her “nice house”.
She said: “When it’s on the wall I like it to look nice, I’ve got a very nice house. I want them to fit the brand of the house.
“They don’t know, they just think they’re beautiful always, photoshop or not.
“I wouldn’t photoshop out a scar, or something like that because I wouldn’t want them to be ashamed of anything like that, but for me, there’s a line.
“Anything that was permanent, I wouldn’t photoshop. I wouldn’t make them thinner, I wouldn’t make their eyes bigger, I wouldn’t do anything like that… I don’t think I’d whiten their teeth.”
Author Dawn O’Porter argued against her. She is mum to two boys with actor Chris O’Dowd.
She said: “Bad school photos are a rite of passage, I love laughing about mine. They’re so cheesy, they’re so blotchy, they’re so terrible.
“I would just be worried about that future conversation of, ‘didn’t you think I was good enough? I was a child and you didn’t think I was cute.’
“Let’s not instil that feeling.”
Viewers were divided by the option, with one person saying: “Photoshop children’s school photos?? What kind of msg is that giving children. This is a great way of lowering their self esteem. In today’s society with all the mental health issues especially in children I think this is the most ludicrous idea ever”.
However, another contested: “My 15 yo son refused to have his school photo taken because he had a few spots…he only agreed because the photographer said he would photoshop them out”.