Rachael Leigh Cook

Actress Rachael Leigh Cook is rallying against the perfect portrayal of female stars in the media - insisting she is outraged over the "manipulated images" of celebrities which are fed to vulnerable young girls.

The She's All That star has joined forces with Oscar-winner Geena Davis, the Girl Scouts of the USA and The Creative Coalition to attend a summit in Washington, D.C addressing body image issues for youngsters.

Cook admits she's "up in arms" about the relentless stream of airbrushed images of famous women plastered over the pages of magazines, and she's urging young girls not to measure themselves against the impossibly high standards of celebrities.

She tells Fox News, "I did not grow up getting told about how manipulated the images we see of women and girls out there are, and I think it's an absolute travesty that young women are seeing what the media is feeding them. It breaks my heart to be part of an industry and part of a machine that really pushes out these images and propagates these really terrible standards that are false.


"Nothing that you see is real, even if you look at what looks like a candid photo of someone, anything can be done. It is false advertising and false advertising is a crime so why isn't this a crime? I'm just up in arms about it."

And Cook insists the movie industry should be more honest about the images which are presented to the public.

She adds, "People need to know that there are actual lenses that are put on cameras that make people stretched out. If you saw these actors in person, you wouldn't even recognize them as the people you see on TV. It's just all a complete illusion and maybe it should be viewed as art, the way that art isn't real. The way that a picture of a rose can be beautiful, but it's not a real rose."