‘My Face Does Not Look Like This’

Karol G takes issue with GQ’s photoshopping, posting a selfie side-by-side with her magazine cover — “My face does not look like this.”

Colombian singer Karol G took to Instagram to shed some light on her image on the recent GQ magazine cover, explaining that the photo went through many retouches with which she disagreed. The singer posted a bare-faced selfie beside the edited cover photo.

“My face does not look like this, my body does not look like that, and I feel very happy and comfortable with how I look naturally,” Karol writes in the caption of her Instagram post. “Despite making my discontent clear with the number of editions they did with the photo, they didn’t do anything about it, as if to look good, I needed all those changes.”

The 32-year-old singer explained that she was happy and excited to learn she would be the magazine’s cover star, but the experience made her feel disrespected, and the result does not correctly represent her.

“I understand the repercussions this can have, but beyond feeling (like) it’s disrespectful to me, it’s disrespectful to women who wake up looking to feel comfortable with themselves despite society’s stereotypes.”

The singer has openly discussed the importance of reclaiming her space as a female reggaeton artist and representing the Latino community. She explains that as women (especially Latin women) continuously work to claim their space and respect in male-dominated fields, she’s proud to be part of that movement as one of the few Latin women in the male-centric reggaeton genre.

“As a Latina, I think all the Latinos, we just have something inside that makes us really hard workers. We look for opportunity in places (where) there’s no opportunity,” she said. “We are working for our spaces right now. But we are here. And we now have that respect. People know us, know our story. I’m super happy just to represent that part, to inspire people if I can. That’s the most important thing.”