Five Ways to Look Like a Beauty Ad

Step 4: Move from hair and makeup to the styling room where a team of fashion folks will stuff you (in case you're not skinny enough) into fabulously expensive designer clothes. As one experienced fashion stylist describes, your stylist will walk onto the set “every 30 seconds pulling, pushing, draping, de-fuzzing, and re-clamping, all so the reader can throw the [magazine] into the recycling bin 10 seconds after she's flipped the last page." (Often in disgust/mild panic, because those pants don't look like that on her...little does she know how much work went into the photo of those pants...)

MORE: Rebecca Taylor's Tips for Dressing Your Body

This same stylist who has worked on countless national magazine spreads and ad campaigns tells us: “I’ve always wanted to do a shoot from the back, so people could see the inordinate amount of pins, clamps, fake hair, wind machines, duct tape, and boxes of 'chicken filet' boob enhancers that are used.”

QUIZ: Do You Fat Talk ? Find Out for a Better Body Image.

Step 5: Though you’ve been dubbed flawless by various experts throughout the day, you will need to be made even more so by a genius with a computer who will retouch away any sign that you have aged past 20 with the magic flick of a wand on a computer. Things that will also disappear: Any and all ripples of “extra weight” on various parts of your body and god forbid a piece of frizz missed by the hairstylist who was paid thousands of dollars to look out for this very thing. Miniscule mascara clump? Yep, that’s erased too.

Perfection: It’s just that simple!

COLUMN: Every Woman Can Be Beautiful