Former 'Teen Mom' Star Chelsea Houska Criticized Over Reported Photo Edits of Daughter Walker

Teen Mom 2 star Chelsea Houska might be done with the long-running MTV series, but that doesn't mean she no longer faces scrutiny from her social media followers. The 29-year-old Houska was criticized for editing a photo with her youngest daughter, 5-month-old Walker while showing off her Lightroom preset brand Belle & Rae Co. Houska left Teen Mom 2 earlier this year to focus on her business ventures and protect her family's privacy.

On Wednesday, Houska shared before-and-after photos on her Instagram Story. The "before" photo showed an unedited picture of herself with Walker, whose skin appeared red. In the "after" photo, Walker's skin looks much lighter, almost matching the beige one-piece suit she is wearing. Over on Reddit, Teen Mom fans debated the picture, published by InTouch Weekly, with one person claiming Houska will "regret having zero unfiltered photos when her kids are older."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chelsea DeBoer (@chelseahouska)

"Seems so unnecessary to edit the original," one person added. "Why did this need a filter?" another wondered. "I love when she posts the before and after filter [because] the filter always makes the picture worse," another wrote. "I like the before better as well. But it's an Instagram aesthetic. Brands actually look for stuff like this to be cohesive on influencer's pages. It's weird," another wrote. "Anywho, I'm sure she still has the originals."

Others thought the original criticism of the edit was overblown because Houska probably keeps the unedited photos. "I mean she could just be posting filtered photos and have an album with all unfiltered... Why are we assuming she doesn't keep them?" one person wrote. "I post filtered photos sometimes but I would keep originals printed or put away on [a] hard drive." Another noted, "It's not as if you lose the original photo when you apply the filter... she can keep both, ya know."

Belle & Rae Co. is one of the business projects Houska has been working on outside her MTV gig. She co-owns the brand, which creates "next level photos with our Lightroom presets," according to its website. The company sells packs of filters for between $8 and $36. Houska founded the brand in 2019 with Laurie Karlson and Calli Renstschler. Houska also co-founded Aubree Says and Down Home DeBoers.

In May, Houska said she decided to leave Teen Mom 2 because of a gut feeling that she no longer belonged there. She wanted to give her eldest daughter Aubree the opportunity to grow up without cameras. "When she was little, the stuff that was going on with her dad and stuff, it was from my point of view, and as she got older, it started coming from her point of view," she explained to E! News in May. "I think that deserves to be private for her. That was ultimately what kind of pushed me to decide to step away and leave that chapter of life." Houska and Cole DeBoer are parents to Layne, 2, Watson, 4, and Walker. Houska shares Aubree, 11, with ex-boyfriend Adam Lind.