A model uses her success to underscore some important points about image and privilege.
She exposes that there's a lot more that's fake besides the Photoshopping.
It'd be difficult to find a single one of us who hasn't been influenced by advertising and images.
It's so subtle that a lot of us could probably even tell ourselves we haven't been influenced because it's like the air we breathe — it's around us constantly and we don't even think about it that much.
Case in point — I bet you can finish this slogan without even Googling it: "Choosy moms choose ______." If you don't know the brand, I'd bet you're an outlier.
We're constantly absorbing data and impressions from imagery and ads whether we know it or not, and companies pay big money in the race to be the first to push their impressions into our faces. They certainly aren't paying that kind of cash for something if it isn't effective.
Let model Cameron Russell break it down because she nails it.
She's had success as a model for about a decade, and she took to the TED stage to share some unique insight from her journey.
Here are three great aha moments she brings to the audience.
1. Image can be a powerful influence over our perceptions, and some people are more able to wield it than others.
She came out looking like this, knowing it was going to give a certain first impression.
All images from TED/YouTube.
Then she did the first ever on-stage wardrobe change at a TED talk.
And then she explained why she'd do something so awkward:
"Image is powerful. But also, image is superficial. I just totally transformed what you thought of me in six seconds."
You'd never guess that she hadn't even had a boyfriend before this photo was snapped, right?
2. In response to girls asking whether they can be models, she explains that while there's nothing wrong with being a model, it's not a career path.
Cameron likens modeling to winning some kind of genetic and societal lottery. Her message to young people: Set your sights on something else.
"Be my boss. Because I'm not in charge of anything and you could be the editor-in-chief of American Vogue. … Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying you want to win the Powerball when you grow up. It's out of your control, and it's awesome, and it's not a career path."
She demonstrates what she's learned from 10 years of modeling: what direction to look, how to pose, and the art of looking back at imaginary friends for the camera 500 times.
3. What we see in magazines is a complete fabrication and a construction from something else entirely.
She wants people to realize just how fake what they're looking at in advertising really is. Cameron illustrates it with images of what she really was like during certain times of her life, in contrast with how magazine images portrayed her at the same times.
This side-by-side comparison is a magazine shoot and a family photo taken in close succession. A little different, right?
How much does it floor you that these photos were taken within a few months of each other?
Her entire talk is really fascinating and invites us to look at the advertising we see in a much more educated light.
Cameron makes some incredible points about how she's benefitted from a stacked deck in our society all because she won the genetic lottery, and she juxtaposes that against the different life experiences of others — all based on how society perceives their looks.
As one of my favorite bands says about media and advertising, "There is a war going on for your mind." If you're thinking critically about it, you're winning.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.