Luisa Zissman has admitted photoshopping her children’s pictures so they ‘look nice’.
The former Apprentice star said that although she has never touched up a school photo, she defended the idea of erasing non-permanent issues like ‘blotchy skin’ or a ‘bit of ketchup’.
The 32-year-old appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate whether it is right to airbrush children's school photos, along with Dawn O’Porter, who argued that bad snaps are a ‘rite of passage’.
Speaking to hosts Susanna Reid and Adil Ray, Luisa said: “I’ve never photoshopped a school photo but we’ve had family ones done and I’ve just smoothed their skin, or if there’s a bit of ketchup.”
Luisa, who has three girls - Dixie, nine, Indigo, three, and two-year-old Clementine - added she would draw the line at getting rid of freckles, scars or whitening teeth - or using Instagram filters.
She said: “They’re not so lovely when they’re covered in crumbs of food. Two of them are ginger, so they have that fair skin that gets all red and blotchy, and I think it’s nice to look a bit smoother and not look back and think, ‘oh, my poor face’.
“I would never Photoshop the freckles though.”
She continued: “I wouldn’t Photoshop out a scar, or something like that because I wouldn’t want them to be ashamed of anything like that, but for me, there’s a line.
“Anything that was permanent, I wouldn’t Photoshop. I wouldn’t make them thinner, I wouldn’t make their eyes bigger, I wouldn’t do anything like that… I don’t think I’d whiten their teeth.”
Defending herself, she said that she likes photos on her wall to 'look nice' - but admits her kids don't know that she alters them.
“When it’s on the wall I like it to look nice, I’ve got a very nice house. I want them to fit the brand of the house,” she laughed.
“They don’t know [that they are airbrushed. They just think they’re beautiful always, Photoshop or not.”
Dawn, who is mum to two boys, said changing a child’s appearance could ‘instil bad feeling’ long term.
She said: “Bad school photos are a rite of passage, I love laughing about mine. They’re so cheesy, they’re so blotchy, they’re so terrible.
“I would just be worried about that future conversation of, ‘didn’t you think I was good enough? I was a child and you didn’t think I was cute.’
“Let’s not instil that feeling.”
Elsewhere the presenters were asked to dig out their old school photos to be airbrushed - and viewers couldn’t believe it when they saw Susanna’s.
Richard Arnold compared her to American actress Andi MacDowell as Adil stuttered: "Wait, what, whoa. How old...? What. Is that you?"
Over on Twitter, one viewer said it “looks like a pic from during the war.”
Another agreed, saying: “Is Susanna’s picture from 1908?”
GMB airs weekdays from 6am.
