What Happens When Universal Beauty Makes Us All Look the Same?

What Happens When Universal Beauty Makes Us All Look the Same?

We live in an era where beauty is no longer organic—it’s coded. With just a few taps, filters and editing tools can smooth, slim, and standardize our faces into a version of “perfect” that’s algorithm-approved. But my work, Facetune Portraits, asks: what happens when that same standard of beauty makes us all look the same?

Gretchen Andrew’s Facetune Portraits question what’s left when “universal” beauty erases individuality.

The rise of Facetune and AI-powered filters reflects our cultural hunger for flawlessness. Yet, beneath the gloss, something deeper is at risk—our uniqueness. If individuality is erased in pursuit of perfection, are we really becoming more beautiful, or are we just becoming identical?

Art has always been a mirror for society. With Facetune Portraits, I hold up that mirror to the digital age, exposing the unseen scars of homogenized beauty standards. Each portrait reveals the tension between how we present ourselves online and the messy, human truth behind the screen.

By questioning universal beauty, I want to spark conversation: How do we define ourselves in a world where sameness is celebrated? And what do we lose when we stop recognizing difference as a form of beauty?