A mother has been left ‘heartbroken’ after a baby company edited photographs of her eight-week-old daughter.
Lucy Kingston, 28, from Nottingham, had agreed to take pictures of her little girl Isabella for infant product firm Nuby to use in promotions, but was left horrified after realising the images had been altered.
Insisting the company – which offered free items in exchange for the photos – had ‘no right’ to edit them, Instagram influencer Lucy was shocked that the company decided to add a smile on to her daughter’s face.
The mother-of-two said: ‘I cannot even comprehend the actions taken by their editing team. What makes this okay to do it to a photo of an eight-week-old baby? Is my baby’s face not good enough?’
Following an email exchange, Lucy received an apology from the company and was told the decision was an ‘error of judgement’ and the person responsible had been given ‘a good dressing down’.
Lucy Kingston, 28, from Nottingham, had agreed to take pictures of her little girl Isabella for infant product firm Nuby to use in promotions, but was left horrified after realising the images (pictured left) had been altered (pictured right)
Insisting the company – which offered free items in exchange for the photos – had ‘no right’ to edit them, Instagram influencer Lucy (pictured with her children) said she was ‘heartbroken’ that the company decided to add a smile on to her daughter’s face
Lucy, who lives with her partner Laurence, their son, Oliver, three and Isabella, now seven-months-old, was given several free items from the firm – including a baby bouncer and a bedside crib in exchange for the publicity.
But she was horrified when she logged into Instagram and realised Nuby had added a smile onto her little girl’s face in a post about an upcoming giveaway.
She said: ‘I agreed to taking lifestyle shots, but I didn’t agree to any of them being taken and morphed into a completely different look.
‘Photoshopping an innocent eight-week-old’s face – how is this teaching the new generation to love themselves? I’m absolutely heartbroken and saddened that these sort of things are happening.’
Lucy’s daughter Isabella pictured in the altered images shared on the baby company’s social media account, above
In a furious email exchange the mother told Nuby she was unhappy with the edited snap and that she had not been consulted regarding the decision.
She was then offered a 30 per cent discount code by way of apology which incensed her more. As such, she shared the incident to her 12,000 followers on social media.
In further emails from the company, in which Lucy received an apology, the mother-of-two was told the decision was an ‘error of judgement’ and the person responsible had been given ‘a good dressing down’.
The mother-of-two (pictured, both her children) said: ‘I cannot even comprehend the actions taken by their editing team. What makes this okay to do it to a photo of an eight-week-old baby? Is my baby’s face not good enough?’
Following an email exchange, Lucy received an apology from the company and was told the decision was an ‘error of judgement’ and the person responsible had been given ‘a good dressing down’. Pictured, Lucy’s daughter
Lucy was infuriated by comments made by Nuby’s managing director Maria Burnell, who said she ‘honestly wouldn’t have noticed a difference because the two images are beautiful to me.’
The influencer said she has since cut off all contact with the brand and asked for her photos to be removed from their website and social media.
She added: ‘I definitely will not be working with them again. I have actually given away the products we were gifted and I have bought her a new bouncer and everything because I can’t use it knowing what they have done.’
Lucy said in the three years that she has worked as an influencer she has never had a company edit pictures of her children, or even ask if they can tweak the images.
Lucy was given several free items from the firm – including a baby bouncer and a bedside crib in exchange for the publicity. Pictured, baby Isabella
Lucy lives with her partner Laurence, their son, Oliver, three and Isabella, now seven-months-old (pictured as a newborn with her family)
She claimed she had received overwhelming support from fans and fellow mothers after sharing the incident.
Maria Burnell, managing director at Nuby, said: ‘We apologise unreservedly for an error of judgement we made when a photo of Lucy’s baby was altered. Every baby is beautiful and we completely understand why Lucy is so upset.
‘The families we work with mean the world to us and we have enjoyed a good relationship with Lucy as our brand ambassador for a number of years, so it saddens us to think that we have caused her undue distress.
‘We have been in touch with Lucy and will continue to take steps to do whatever we can to rectify this situation. This was a mistake that should not have happened and we are actively looking into our processes to make sure that we learn from it and ensure it never happens again.’