The mum of deaf boy was "hurt" after noticing his hearing aids had been edited out of his school photos.
Whitney Rose said her three-year-old son's hearing aids appeared to have been "softened" in the final edit of the snap, but could be clearly seen in the family version of the picture.
Speaking to Fox News, she said: “When we got the pictures, I saw them and I was like, ‘OK, cute picture, but where’s his hearing aids'?”
Whitney, whose two kids and husband are deaf, uses TikTok and Instagram to advocate for the deaf community and educate people about hearing impairments.
So when she saw her son's school snap, she posted a video to highlight the differences in her son's real life appearance and his "retouched" self.
In a family photo, her son's hearing aids are clearly visible, but in the school photo, it's hard to see them.
The mum said she first thought the proof of the photo had been printed on cheap paper, or that there had been a lighting issue in the room where the photo was taken. But as she looked closer, she now believes the snap had been edited to remove the hearing aids.
“It almost looked like they had used a skin softening and a brightening tool or something,” Whitney said.
“And that because his hearing aids were an orange colour, that it erased them.”
Whitney, from from Utah in the US, wondered if she was overreacting at first, but she claims after speaking to her husband and her son's deaf mentor, they agreed the photo looked like it had been edited to lessen the hearing aids.
“He’s had hearing aids since he was two months old and we spend all day every day making sure that he feels proud of the hearing aids, that he knows that they’re not something to be ashamed of,” Whitney said.
“For somebody to take [them] away … it’s hurtful.”
She claims to have approached the photography company about the suspected edits, but they claimed they had not edited the photo.
They also offered to send her a digital proof of the school snap, which she says was a bit better.
“But it still seems like they’ve flushed them out,” Whitney added.
In the end, Whitney decided not to buy the photos, but she's concerned about the message they send to her young son.
“At some point … when he’s getting old enough to where asks me, ‘Why aren’t my hearing aids in that photo?’ What am I supposed to tell him?” she said.
“It’s just upsetting, hurtful.”
Other parents have complained about their kids' distinguishing features being erased from school snaps in the past, with some suggesting freckles and other skin features had been airbrushed out.
Some mums in the US have claimed their children's school photos came with several airbrushing options, from 'basic' to 'premium' packages that remove blemishes and scars.
