What happens when people look at their edited photos on social media and then compare those images to how they look in real life? Researchers at the University of Missouri now call it “social self-comparison” — the process of comparing one’s own appearance to digitally altered selfies.

As a child of immigrant parents who didn’t speak English, Cecilia Canales(Link opens in new window), MD, often found herself interpreting for her family during medical appointments.

She recalls accompanying her mother to a gynecology appointment and stumbling over complex medical jargon, trying to translate terms she didn’t fully understand. “It was overwhelming,” Dr. Canales says. “I was just a kid, yet I was responsible for conveying critical health information.”