Fashion

The Women's Mag You Should Be Reading

by Nathalie O'Neill

Women's magazines are notorious for using photoshop to slim waists, elongate limbs, and delete pores, and those flawless images do a number on our heads — are we supposed to look like that? Do any women actually look like that? But a new magazine called Verily doesn't want you to "look like an extra from 'The Sims'", Upworthy says. Instead, its pages are devoted to celebrating your real beautiful self. "Verily is a new kind of women’s magazine," their website explains, "one that celebrates the best of who you are."

Verily's content reflects their everywoman leaning. They've got beauty how to's and runway-to-real-way fashion spreads — which feature actual affordably priced goods. Their relationship section showcases cute "how we met" stories alongside pieces on frenemies. The magazine has also tackled issues like sexual violence in Egypt and Asian American women's relationship to cosmetic surgery.

Most refreshingly, Verily chooses models of different races, ethnicities, sizes, and ages. They even pick real women to showcase styles: their latest issue featured an advertising assistant, a writer, a publicist, and a sales associate. Verily also has a photoshop policy that would make Vogue shake in its boots:

Whereas other magazines photoshop to achieve the “ideal” body type or leave a maximum of three wrinkles, we never alter the body or face structure of our models with Photoshop. We firmly believe that the unique features of women — be it crows feet, freckles, or a less-than-rock-hard body — contribute to their beauty and therefore don’t need to be removed or changed.

If you still need proof of Verily's trailblazing way, just check out some of their recent body-diversity-celebatring content. We're sort of in love.