Melissa Joan Hart has spent most of her life being photographed.<\/p>\n
A former child star, she knows something about how much a single snapshot can shape the way we see someone: A camera can make a moment look polished, awkward, glamorous or unflattering, sometimes within the span of a few seconds.<\/p>\n
Recently, Hart offered a particularly good example.<\/p>\n
She shared on Instagram two photographs of herself from the 2013 premiere of \u201cFrozen.\u201d In one, she is standing on the red carpet in a fitted blue dress, smiling while facing the camera with her arm on her hip. In the other, she is caught from the side, apparently unaware she is being photographed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference a little lighting, camera angle, and facial expression can make,\u201d Hart wrote in the caption, adding the hashtags #smokeandmirrors and #professionalphotographer vs. #reallife.<\/p>\n
The post struck a chord, and many of the comments zeroed in on something bigger than a celebrity looking different from one photograph to the next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish we could post this everywhere. This is what we need to normalize. Especially for women and girls. Thank you,\u201d one commenter wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelissa this is so important for women to see, thank you! You are so beautiful,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
Hart, who grew up on television, first as the star of \u201cClarissa Explains It All\u201d and later \u201cSabrina the Teenage Witch,\u201d has been candid about the pressure that can come with that scrutiny, particularly as women get older. Now 50 and a mother to three sons , Mason, 20, Braydon, 18, and Tucker, 13, she has spent much of her adult life navigating that scrutiny in the public eye.<\/p>\n