THEY look too picture-perfect with their big round eyes, sharp oval faces, pointed chins, sexy bodies and long slender legs. But they're not real.

And local blogger Stella Yeo is getting slammed by netizens for uploading heavily digitised photos of herself on her blog, which psychologists add can lead to harassment online, or which may lend to self-esteem issues.

It's the same criticism that was targeted at China blogger Wang Jiayun recently.

Born in Hong Kong but now living and studying in Shenzhen, China, the 17-year-old became one of the most searched women on Yahoo! Search Trends in Singapore since the beginning of this year.

Sharing the same limelight online as celebrities like Natalie Portman, Taylor Swift and Selina Jenfrom Taiwanese group S.H.E, Wang became an Internet sensation because of her porcelain doll-like features.

According to the searches on Yahoo! Search Trends, netizens are still speculating if she doctored the pictures or underwent cosmetic surgery.

Last month, when Singapore's citizen journalism website Stomp posted the before and after photos of Wang, the story generated over 85,000 views.

The online scrutiny prompted Wang to block her blog from public access and plead with netizens to stop circulating her photos.

Her last public post said: "If I have done anything wrong by posting those photos, I wouldn't do it again. I am really tired."

Attempts by The New Paper to contact Wang were unsuccessful.

Her website sparked off an international debate on whether she looks better in person or in those picture-perfect images she has posted on her blog.

Harsh comments

And this same debate is now brewing over Miss Yeo's blog.

Some were supportive of the 19-year-old's digitally enhanced pictures.

But others slammed her for looking nothing like herself.

Some of the negative comments from netizens include "You are so fake!" and "You look different in person".

The 19-year-old freelance model has been blogging actively since last year. But it was only last month she started receiving harsh comments on her photos.

In response to the netizens' criticism, Miss Yeo defended herself online by saying that her photos were not edited and that she has never undergone plastic surgery.

When contacted by The New Paper, she confessed that she did edit the photos, but insisted she has never gone under the knife.

Explaining why she digitised the pictures on her blog, she said: "Who doesn't want to look good? I think I don't look good in person, so I prefer to touch up my photos."

Miss Yeo was quick to add that not all her photos have been digitally enhanced and she merely edited the colours and added a soft-focus effect on them.

When we met her last Tuesday, she agreed to be photographed, but she later asked if we could let her edit the pictures before we publish them.

Sorry, we don't manipulate our news photos, this reporter told her.

She said: "I don't know who these people (who criticised her online) are as they did not put their real names to their comments. But I also know that I can't control what others think of me."

She doesn't see anything wrong with editing her photos to look perfect.

She said: "So many other bloggers are doing it. So why target me? It's a common thing to do. I really don't see it as a big deal."

The 1.71m-tall, 48kg describes herself as someone who lacks confidence and does not think that she is photogenic.

Her father is a chef and her mother a housewife. She has a brother, who is a year younger than she is.

Last year, Miss Yeo, who was pursuing the Higher Nitec course in wireless technology at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), dropped out after a year.

She then enrolled in a private diploma course in marketing and tourism, which will start next month.

She said it was during her ITE days that her blog was noticed by her schoolmates and at one time, she was getting close to 1,000 visits a day.

She even claimed to have caught two imposters who downloaded her photos from her blog and uploaded them to their own Facebook accounts.

Miss Yeo also claimed to have had people stalking her and sending flowers and chocolates to her home.

Asked if she would continue to edit her photos, she replied: "Yes. That is the way I want to look and it helps to boost my confidence."

Two psychologists The New Paper spoke to said bloggers who post doctored, picture-perfect photos of themselves do it because they want to seek attention, have low self-esteem or they live in a fantasy world.

Psychologist Daniel Koh of Insights Mind Centre explained: "Some people have low self-esteem and they need to depend on something to make people like them. If some comments are negative, they may put in more effort to make themselves look more perfect.

"As they get more obsessed in the activities, their boundaries between reality and fantasy become more blur."

Stalked, bullied

Psychologist Nicholas Gabriel Lim of Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association (CARE Singapore) said youths are at an age where self-image is important to them. "It's common for them to do all kinds of things to make themselves feel good. But there is the danger of them getting bullied in cyberspace by exposing themselves too much," he added.

"There will be both good and bad comments about these bloggers. Sometimes the negative comments can be detrimental to them.

"They could also be exposing themselves to cyber-stalking.

"They are then subjecting themselves to be preyed upon either in the virtual or the real world."

Mr Koh added: "By posting sexy images, some people may get the wrong impression that these bloggers are easy-going and may find ways to get close to them.

"These people could be living in their own fantasy world and they might even harm these bloggers if they are being rejected by them."

He warned the bloggers against being too caught up in their fantasy world as they might find it hard to get out later.

This article was first published in The New Paper.