AN AWARD-WINNING entrepreneur has said women should not have to be “pretty to be taken seriously” after an image of her was Photoshopped by an online troll.

Lucy Hughes, who owns sustainability company MarinaTex, was shocked when a heavily edited image of her was shared on social media in an apparent effort to improve her appearance.

The altered image, which showed Lucy with a full face of make-up and lighter hair, had been shared by Twitter account Dreamzone Magazine in response to her tweet about International Women’s Day.

The Argus: Lucy took a screenshot of the now deleted tweets that said she looked "pretty and smart" in the edited imageLucy took a screenshot of the now deleted tweets that said she looked "pretty and smart" in the edited image

The 25-year-old University of Sussex graduate confronted the account over its decision to tweet the airbrushed image, and in a now deleted response, it said the new version made her look “smart and pretty.”

Lucy is now calling on women to network and support one another when confronted with what she has described as “creepy” and “shallow” behaviour.

She told The Argus: “It’s just so ironic that it was posted as a reply to a talk I did for International Women’s Day that was entitled ‘Trailblazing Women’.

The Argus: Lucy Hughes is the founder of MarinaTex. Photo by FAO/Riccardo De LucaLucy Hughes is the founder of MarinaTex. Photo by FAO/Riccardo De Luca

“It’s also quite telling that they said the photo made me ‘pretty and smart’, because it identified the extra standards women have to live up to.

“It’s not enough to just be smart, you have to be pretty and smart. It just made me feel like it’s not enough to be intelligent, and that you have to have this extra level to be palatable or even taken seriously.

“It’s just such a stark example of why we need to have visible examples of successful women because we are on a different journey.

“There is no way that would have happened to a man. Sometimes we feel like we should be equal, but the pressures that we have are completely different.”

The Dreamzone Magazine twitter account has also targeted other women working in technology by posting airbrushed photographs.

Margaret Siegien, President of American company iTrucker, had a photograph of her smile altered by the account, and an image of a woman tweeted by logistics firm Alteryx was also airbrushed to make her look like she was wearing heavy make-up.

The Argus approached the account for a comment, to which an individual, who wished to be known as Prince Bradley Collins, said they wanted to make the women look like the Greek goddess Athena.

They said: “Honouring their scientific achievement with a magazine cover of photo images to make their God like brilliance.

“Basically, I wanted them to look like Athena.”

But Lucy, who won the 2019 James Dyson Award for her work to combat single-use plastic, said she would prefer to be valued by her achievements, rather than her looks.

She said: “It’s like our society is like ‘oh we’ll let these women who look nice, they can succeed’.

“Not only is it an evasive thing that has happened to me, but someone has also taken the time to show exactly what is wrong with you in their eyes, without having met you or felt your energy.

“It’s just completely shallow”.

“It’s a huge hit to your self-esteem because you’re literally looking at a version of you that they think is better.”