Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson is on the cover of Self magazine this month, and it’s caused quite the stir. Kelly appears to be significantly slimmer on the cover than she is in real life, which has prompted a war of words between the magazine editors and the public.

As soon as the cover was revealed, critics blasted Self for their overusage of the airbrush pen. Editor-in-chief Lucy Danziger then fired back, saying, "Yes, of course we do postproduction corrections on our images...Kelly Clarkson exudes confidence and is a great role model for women of all sizes and stages of their life."

She later continued via her blog, "Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best...But in the sense that Kelly is the picture of confidence, and she truly is, then I think this photo is the truest we have ever put out there on the newsstand."

But the question is, did Kelly want to be photoshopped that much? Based on her personal statements in the magazine interview, we’d have to go with no. She says, "When people talk about my weight, I'm like, 'You seem to have a problem with it; I don't. I'm fine!' I've never felt uncomfortable on the red carpet or anything."

Kelly then wrote on her personal blog, "We decided on the cover of the album and just in case you haven't seen it I'll post it! It's very colorful and they have definitely Photoshopped the crap out of me - but I don't care, haha! Whoever she is, she looks great, ha! I've had so much fun with this album; I really hope y'all dig it woohooooooooooo!!!!"

Finally, Self entertainment assistant Ashley Mateo wrote on the magazine’s blog, “We all know celebrities are human (at least, we all should know), so why do we get bent out of shape when a magazine alters an image to portray a celebrity in their best light? No one wants to see a giant picture of some star's cellulite on the cover of a monthly mag--that's what we have tabloids for!”

“The bottom line is that Kelly Clarkson seems to be 100% happy with herself and how she looks...just read her story in SELF's September issue, on stands August 25th! PhotoShop or not, she's happy, healthy and totally confident about herself and her body. Now that's something worth focusing on.”

What do you think?? Did Self take the airbrushing a little too far this time? Or would you rather see the Photoshopped version of Kelly Clarkson than the real version?