Media making medical marvels cover stories…

Has beauty been cast aside for reality? It would appear so based on the covers of two very popular magazines in Australia and the UK.

Turia Pitt is a 26-year-old ultra-marathon runner with beautiful shoulder length hair and a smile. She sounds like your average cover model but in truth, she isn’t. In 2011 she suffered burns to 65% of her body after being trapped in a bushfire during an event.

She spent 900 days in hospital and has had countless surgeries to repair her ravaged body. And last month she shone beautifully on the cover of the Australian Women’s weekly. Turia’s message was that she is lucky to be alive. But to so many women all over the world, the true message was that true beauty is being confident and proud of yourself no matter what you look like.

It’s a beautiful message that has touched so many hearts all over the nation and we admire Turia for her bravery, courage and her incredible sense of confidence in spite of all she has been through.

And Turia and the Australian Women’s Weekly aren’t the only ones proving that looks don’t define someone’s beauty.

Popular magazine GQ has a 39-year-old American man on the cover of GQ. He is tall with dark hair, but is the recipient of the most extensive facial transplant that has ever occurred.

15 years ago Richard Lee Norris suffered a gunshot to the face during a drunken accident. For the majority of that time he kept his face hidden from the public and endured substance abuse, depression and had suicidal thoughts. But, now after extensive surgery that has helped to transform his face, he is a symbol of courage as he is pictured on the cover of GQ.

Both of these people will never have a “normal” looking face again, sadly both of them will suffer from the disfiguration from their accidents for many years to come, but they both are symbols of strength, courage and that the media is changing.

For years our magazines have been covered by the illusive 1%. That is the 1% with minimal body fat, with minimal wrinkles and smile lines, with maximum help from trainers, manicurists and facialists, with maximum makeup, self-tanner and hair products. So this change into real people, that are true inspirations for the average person is something that will revolutionise the media model.

It suggests that for so long we have been fed false ideals of what we “should” look like and what we “should” aspire to be that we have finally seen through it all and have stopped subscribing to what the media have wanted us to.

As society, we’re ready to see real people, doing real things, living real lives with real stories, and that is so refreshing to know after so many years of a culture that values the things that truly don’t matter in life.

Would you prefer to see real people with amazing stories on the covers of our magazines and the focus of our media? Who would you love to see on a magazine cover? Share your thoughts in the comments below…