Magazines in this day and age are particularly disheartening to females. These days, not only do we have to compare ourselves to the women who surround us in everyday life, but we must compete with the idea of women we see on the magazine racks — the latter being much more difficult to achieve.

I happened to pick up a copy of the new FHM earlier this week. The cover girl for this month is an aspiring singer, already known to the world for her father’s well-established wrestling career: Brooke Hogan, daughter of Hulk Hogan.

However, I can honestly say that I give her credit for pursuing her dreams and making them come true thus far. “Hogan Knows Best” is a hit reality show. Therefore, it is safe to say many people have seen it. We all are aware that Brooke Hogan works out constantly. She is always hounded by her father to eat properly, and to get her body in the best shape it can be in. What else can we expect from a 53-year-old man that looks as muscular as Hulk Hogan? But Brooke does not have a small frame. No matter how much you work out or how little you eat, you cannot change your bone structure.

The spread FHM turned out for Brooke is absolutely ridiculous. They airbrushed her pictures so much that she looks to be a mere shadow of her former self. There are currently blogs on the Internet dedicated to talking about how fake her pictures look. One person mentioned that Brooke’s pictures look like they just pasted her head onto a runway model’s body. Sadly, this is not an exaggeration. They even vertically stretched her face to make it look less full. The Brooke Hogan we are all used to seeing is definitely not visible in these pictures — she is simply computer-edited to perfection.

So what does this do to the rest of us who are not born with a 23-inch waist? We are made to feel as though we are not pretty enough. We are made to feel like we are simply less attractive than someone who is that thin. It is reinforced in our minds that our “average-sized” bodies are less desirable because we are not perfectly petite.

Women are made to feel like they have to keep improving themselves to reach this unattainable body we see time and time again on all the covers of our favorite magazines. Some women will go to the gym five or six times a week, hoping to have Heidi Klum’s body by the end of the year. As an avid exerciser, I can vouch for the fact that most of us will fail in this attempt. Women were not meant to have a single body type. We should be proud of our differences instead of hiding behind computer software to cover them up.

If magazines printed pictures of women that were not so extremely touched up, we would have less to be self-conscious about. We would not have as many reasons to feel so unattractive. We would feel normal.

Brooke Hogan should go back to FHM and redo her photo shoot. She should be proud of her size and shape. Not every woman needs to be a twig to be attractive. That is a stereotype we need to knock out of our heads, ladies.

Amber Siwicki is an opinion columnist for the Northern Star.