SELF Magazine Admits Editing Kelly Clarkson Cover Photo

Kelly Clarkson’s SELF magazine cover was altered, the magazine’s editor Lucy Danziger, confirmed earlier this week.

“Yes. Of course we do retouching (though it’s technically not Photoshop, but that is semantics),” she said in an online blog post on Monday. “We correct color and other aspects of the digital pictures we take and then publish the best version we can.”

Danziger’s admission came after a seemingly artificially svelte portrait of the singer graced the cover. Ironically, the September issue had been billed the “Total Body Confidence” issue on the cover, and Kelly admitted in the mag that she is comfortable with her own figure.

“When people talk about my weight, I’m like, ‘You seem to have a problem with it; I don’t. I’m fine,’” Kelly said in her feature.

As for SELF, Danziger claims the photo was edited in the same way they do all of their cover shots.

“We mark up the photograph to correct any awkward wrinkles in the blouse, flyaway hair and other things that might detract from the beauty of the shot,” Danziger wrote. “This is art, creativity and collaboration. It’s not, as in a news photograph, journalism. It is, however, meant to inspire women to want to be their best. That is the point.”

Danziger noted, however, that there is an unedited, true-to-life photo of Kelly inside the feature – one taken by the star on her phone.

The cover, the editor said, is used primarily to shift copies of the issue.

“A cover’s job is to sell the magazine, ” she wrote.