Singer and actress Zendaya has forced Los Angeles-based fashion magazine Modeliste to pull its November issue, after speaking out against the publication for manipulating images of her to make her legs and torso significantly slimmer.

After seeing an edited picture of herself posing in a cropped leather trench coat and black ʙικιɴι briefs, the 19-year-old actress, whose full name is Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, took to Instagram on Tuesday to post a side-by-side image of the retouched and unedited versions of the pH๏τo from the shoot to make a statement about the impossible beauty standards inflicted on women.

‘Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19 year old hips and torso quite manipulated,’ she wrote. ‘These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. 

Scroll down for video  

‘Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it.’

In the pH๏τograph, she is seen posing against the gorgeous backdrop of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, her long locks cascading over her shoulder while she wears nothing but a short leather jacket tied up at the waist.

With her hips and legs bare, it’s easy to see the contrast between the original image and the slimmed-down one. The saturation of the image also appears to have been changed in the edited version, making her skin look more tanned.

Following Zendaya’s very public upset at the resulting image, and the subsequent outcry from her fans, the editors of Modeliste, an independent print and digital fashion publication, ultimately chose to pull the images, and the magazine’s editor-in-chief Amy McCabe wrote a letter to the star thanking her for ‘raising a very important issue’, before announcing that she and her team are working to restore the images before the magazine’s release.

‘In light of our not-yet-released November issue, with Modeliste’s Cover Girl, Zendaya and the swirling controversy in regards to any retouched images, I am compelled to publicly address this situation which was brought to my attention yesterday, personally by Zendaya,’ she wrote. 

Amy continued: ‘Upon review of the final edited images which had been submitted to us by an independent editing company, together, as a collaboration between myself, Zendaya and her parents, we concluded that the images had been retouched to an extent that was not acceptable and not true to the values and ideals we represent and promote in our publication.

‘I, therefore, made the executive decision to immediately pull the issue in order to have this rectified and have the images restored to their original, natural state which will reflect the true beauty and radiance of Zendaya.

Amy went on to say that Modeliste ‘advocates positive body image, self love and the empowerment of women’ and recalled speaking with Zendaya on the phone about the retouching and learning that she also noticed that her fine baby hairs were PH๏τoshopped from her forehead.

‘As we had so many different hair styles throughout the shoot, this was something I hadn’t noticed; however, it was incredibly profound that this was something in particular in which she loves about herself, and what is a part of what makes her who she is,’ Amy explained. 

‘What one person may see as a “flaw” is someone else’s “fabulousness”, she added. ‘We are proud that Zendaya has taken this as an opportunity to address this situation, and create a very necessary honest and open dialogue.

‘It is that open dialogue with Zendaya and her family and representatives that we have decided to present to you the most beautiful and untouched pH๏τos of our Cover shoot that are a result of this wonderful collaboration. 

‘It is our hope that these images and the truthful portrayal of these unedited images brings attention and awareness to this issue. It’s important that we learn to be uplifting not only to one another, but to ourselves. That we learn to embrace our differences, our unique gifts and those aspects and qualities that make us real and who we are.’