Why my school could not face the celebrity life

"Oh my god, my hair looks awful!"
"Has anyone got a mirror, I need to check my make-up!"

These were only a few of the cries of the girls in my year on photo day.  For the boys, it was like any ordinary photo, but for the girls- the day of Satan.  It's not like these were normal photo's, that you could delete off your camera if you didn't them.  These photos would haunt us for the rest of our lives, following us around like an unwanted pet that you were unable to get rid of, until eventually they would rear their ugly head and everyone would see that it belongs to you.

As soon as I walked into my school, I was overwhelmed with the amount of mirrors and hair flicking that I could see.  I knew that I didn't look perfect, but I thought I looked at least ok when I left the house.  To my dismay, even the prettiest girls in my year were fretting about their make-up and generally panicking.  Surely if the prettiest girls were worrying about how they looked, then the average ones like me should be running for the hills?

Prior to the photo's, the whole of my form time was spent panicking about my ever so slightly gappy fringe and the microscopic spot on my face that make the photographer hate me and therefore ruin the picture.

Nevertheless, we all had our photo's taken and were all relieved when they were finished.  That is, when we thought we were finished.  After we had our photo taken, we then had to walk round to the back of the line.  Standing there as confused as a blind man at a map reading competition, I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  Suddenly, the relaxed look on my peers faces turned to horror as they realised what was going on.  My friend sensed my confusion, turned to me and said
"We're having a class photo."  Panic resumed and I had to go through the painful cycle all over again.

This ridiculous, unnecessary day has lead me to believe that my school could not face the celebrity life.  In the future when we are adults... possibly.  But now? No way.

Like it or not, celebrities go from day to day being photographed.  Be it at a red carpet film premiere, or getting some bread in Asda, there is no escaping the paparazzi.  In Year 11, we were given just under a months notice for three photographs, I even went to the hairdressers the night before the photo.  Celebrities can't do this though.  They can't stop a photographer getting a snap of them taking a walk, first thing in the morning with bed hair and no make-up on.  Just take a second to imagine this happening to me and my year group- we would go absolutely mad!

When we received our photographs in form time, we were disgusted to find out that we had been airbrushed.  A minute mole under my lip- airbrushed.  My blonde hair- airbrushed to make me look like some sort of barbie.  Everyone was outraged.  Despite our complaints on photo day of our spots and bad hair, we were insulted that the photo company had noted down all our imperfections and had changed every single last one so that we didn't look like ourselves.  Of course, celebrities always face this form of insult when they are on magazine covers- even Kate Middleton's waist was made smaller by a magazine after the Royal Wedding! If we can't cope with being airbrushed on a school photo, how would we cope finding ourselves on a magazine, airbrushed so that our figure has been made to look tiny? The answer is, we wouldn't.

I therefore believe that me and my year group aren't ready for the celebrity life just yet.  A few school photo's are traumatic alone, let alone having our faces on 100,000 magazine copies across the country! Celebrity life? I'll stick to being an awkward teenager for now, thanks.