Because they don’t sell. Here’s where the business of beautifying gets even uglier. During Sarah’s time at Victoria’s Secret, “they tried different models and different body types all the time.” Consumers just didn’t respond.“One time, during a swim season, they had these two girls come in that had abs and thick thighs and busts. They were really toned and their skin was amazing. They were still obviously models. But they were a different look. But, they didn’t sell anything and so they stopped using those girls.”This is what Sarah means when she says “we’re choosing this” — if consumers responded positively with their dollars to less conventionally shaped models, brands would use them more in imagery.“The reason people retouch bodies is because they're just trying to sell you something,” says Sarah. Brands reflect the world as we’d like to see it, in order to sell magazines, beauty products, or in this case, swimsuits. That’s why retouching alters everything from waist size to body hair. Even though we know that everyone has pubic hair, “if someone saw a picture of stubbly pubes, they probably wouldn’t buy the thing. They'd be like, ‘This is like a really weird picture. Why would I buy this?’”We’re used to seeing very specific bodies made even more homogenous with digital fixing — and when we see something different, we notice. Most of the time, when it comes to purchasing habits, that’s a bad thing. Unless you’re completely immune to cultural standards of beauty (and if you are, call us), you’re going to be attracted to sameness and disconcerted by difference.Aerie is the brightest exception to this rule. In 2014, the company launched the Aerie Real campaign (“movement,” as the brand puts it), along with the announcement that it would use a broader range of model sizes going forward, and leave all their photos absolutely un-retouched. Aerie's had great success with this model, and therefore invested more and more into developing it. And while this is a success we can all celebrate, Sarah points out that it wasn’t done out of the kindness of their hearts.“They did it because they wanted to see if it would sell,” says Sarah. “They didn’t do it to make a statement. They didn’t do it to make people feel good. They wanted to do it to see if it would sell, and it did. So then they kept doing it.”Unlike Victoria’s Secret, quietly testing different body types, Aerie went big, making body positivity the very ethos of the brand. It was a risk, but it paid off. Now Aerie is the most visible leader in the anti-retouching movement. “No retouching is not just a campaign for us anymore,” says Jen Foyle, Aerie’s global brand president. “It’s become our mindset and the message behind all we do.”But, really, that success is ours — the consumers’ — as well. And it’s up to us to keep the momentum going: “When you see things like that pop up, you should vote your money towards it, because then they see it as a money-making thing and they’ll continue to do it,” says Sarah. “Then, hopefully, other companies will say, ‘Aerie is doing really well. Maybe we'll start doing that, too. Maybe people will want to buy more stuff from us.’”