Was Gabourey Sidibe’s Skin Lightened in Elle Magazine?

Let’s see what The Telegraph has to say:

The 27-year-old is one of four celebrities to appear on four separate covers for its 25th anniversary issue. In the image Sidibe’s skin appears to be several shades lighter than her normal colour.

The magazine said the four celebrities – Sidibé, actresses Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, and Lauren Conrad, the reality star – were chosen as examples of young women who were “changing the world”.

ELLE has also been criticised because each of the other three cover girls are shown in full length photographs while Sidibe’s image is cropped at chest level. In a statement the magazine said that “nothing out of the ordinary” had been done to the photograph.

“We have four separate covers this month and Gabby’s cover was not retouched any more or less than the others” it read. “We had 25 cover-worthy subjects in our portfolio and we chose Gabby because of who she is. We shot this as a story of exuberant young women changing the world. If you take a look at the portfolio, each of the women were shot in different ways and for different reasons.”

What do you guys think? Is it just the exposure of the picture or did they purposely lighten Gabourey’s skin? Elle Magazine surely is the champion of Photoshop!