--- description: ABC Family’s cult hit Pretty Little Liars attracts troves of viewers for plenty of reasons: an addictive, confusing and sometimes nonsensical plot, five pretty little... title: Pretty Little Liars Star Talks GQ Photoshop Controversy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte22feeae72ca3d54/6986907f13c79fabd519231e/0614-gq-mopl04-04.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Pretty Little Liars_ Star Talks GQ Photoshop Controversy by [ashley Ross](/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 22, 2014 3:11 PM CUT  ELLEN VON UNWERTH for GQ by [ashley Ross](/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 22, 2014 3:11 PM CUT ABC Family’s cult hit _Pretty Little Liars_ attracts troves of viewers for plenty of reasons: an addictive, confusing and sometimes nonsensical plot, five pretty little stars and a massive digital footprint that helps the show regularly trend on social media. And while the plot might be considered stupid by some, the 20-something actresses who star on the show are far from it. The show’s main cast — Ashley Benson, Troian Bellisario, Shay Mitchell and Lucy Hale — command millions of followers on Twitter and Instgram and often draw attention to various real-world issues, particularly body image. Recently, Bellisario, whose character on the show struggles with an addiction to performance-enhancing drugs, took to Instagram to get real about a recent [_GQ_ photo shoot](http://www.gq.com/women/celebrities/201406/the-women-of-pretty-little-liars#slide=1 "undefined") of the _Pretty Little Liars_ cast that blogs called out for being [overly touched up](http://www.thegloss.com/2014/05/20/beauty/pretty-little-liars-cast-gq-spread-photoshop/ "undefined"). “My hips and thighs are a part of me (even though they magically weren’t in some shots!” she wrote, posting untouched photos from the day of the shoot. Bellisario also made a point of acknowledging the necessity of Photoshop for glossy magazine photos, while still pointing out the double standard: “This industry seems to invest more in perfection than in flaw.” Bellisario and co-star Hale have both spoken about body image and eating disorder struggles while Benson, who’s also known for her racy role in _Spring Breakers,_ bashed an ABC Family poster for the show on her Instagram for being overly re-touched. “Way too much photoshop,” she wrote. “We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It’s not attractive.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/108874/pretty-little-liars-photoshop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/108874/pretty-little-liars-photoshop/"},"headline":"Pretty Little Liars Star Talks GQ Photoshop Controversy","datePublished":"2014-05-22T15:11:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:20.955Z","description":"ABC Family’s cult hit Pretty Little Liars attracts troves of viewers for plenty of reasons: an addictive, confusing and sometimes nonsensical plot, five pretty little...","url":"https://time.com/108874/pretty-little-liars-photoshop/","keywords":["Living","Body Image","Photoshop","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte22feeae72ca3d54/6986907f13c79fabd519231e/0614-gq-mopl04-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"ashley Ross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte22feeae72ca3d54/6986907f13c79fabd519231e/0614-gq-mopl04-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"0614-GQ-MOPL04.04","caption":"","creditText":"ELLEN VON UNWERTH for GQ","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/108874/pretty-little-liars-photoshop/","name":"Pretty Little Liars Star Talks GQ Photoshop Controversy"}}]}] ```