Thank God for roommates who go to fashion school. Sometimes they give you a little self-esteem boost by telling you little secrets behind celebrities’ supposedly ‘hot bods.’ I always knew about celebrities getting air brushed in magazines, but I didn’t know that it would get as extreme as spray painted abs!

I was flipping through a Victoria’s Secret magazine and I pointed to Adriana Lima and said to my roommate, E, “My goal is to get her abs.” She turned to me and said, “They’re not real. They’re either air brushed or spray painted on.” My jaw dropped and I told her I didn’t believe her.

I’ve learned not to say this to a fashion student because she had taken courses at her old fashion school about air brushing and how a lot of models are skinny but their muscles aren’t as defined as the media makes it seem. She said she even used the software to airbrush herself and make herself look skinnier.

So I said to E, “Okay, I understand how it’s possible to airbrush models and celebrities in magazines. That’s easy… but there’s a live fashion show every year for Victoria Secret models to flaunt their bodies and miracle bras and such.” Again, she one upped me and said, “Yeah but most of the time, their abs are spray painted on.” (Cough cough: Britney Spears at the 2007 VMA’s). If you want, you can even get it done yourself.

My dreams were shattered. Okay… maybe not. Hearing this news made me sort of excited, but that’s more because no matter how much cardio or how many ab exercises I do, or even how healthy I eat, I still don’t have a six pack. I mean, don’t get me wrong. There are celebrities out there who actually do have real six packs and washboard abs, but knowing that a majority don’t, makes me feel a tad relieved (and a bit tricked, too).

There’s so much pressure to have a rock hard body these days and sadly, a lot of girls are giving into the media without knowing the facts. Even if the media says so, you don’t need to be perfect. I just thought that sharing this with all of you will give you another reason to believe that there’s no such thing as perfection, ans that you are beautiful the way you’re naturally built. After all, only a small percentage of women have that so-called “perfect body.” If you want to work for it, go ahead… there’s nothing wrong with that. But just know that you should never feel pressured to look like a Victoria’s Secret model. That’s just ridiculous.

How do you feel about the fact that celebrities don’t necessarily have the bodies we think they have? Would you ever get abs spray painted on?