We all know this girl! If not precisely Essena O’Neill (an Australian teenager with over 500K followers on Instagram, who recently deleted her account and started a brand new one giving the truth behind the pictures), then a myriad of similar Instagirls whose pictures don’t tell the full story.
Essena just had a lightbulb moment. She blew the whistle on those carefully curated, multi-filtered pictures of herself that made ‘real’ girls weep with envy for such a body. She revealed how many shots it takes and how many filter apps are needed to make her seem complexion-perfect with intense eye colour and naturally groomed, shiny hair. She reveals how much she was paid for shots, whether products featured were free and how she felt at the time of shooting. Essena creates an emotional picture of being panicked into perfection that all of us can relate to.
There is an addictive pleasure to filtering Instagram pictures of yourself (as someone who posts virtually no selfies, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a practice from time to time!). I can be 20 years younger with the help of one app, gloriously blurred and glowy with another, and give myself chiselled cheekbones with another. I can obliterate my dark circles (comments on those on YT range from, “she looks so tired” to “omg, have you seen those dark circles, they’re awful”), I can smooth out any skin creases (“she’s so sour and old looking”) or I can miraculously add the extra 2 inches to my legs that I’ve wanted all my life. None of this changes the other side of the lense. It is what it is! One of the most curious things about social media is how people are unable to filter themselves when it comes to personal remarks.
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The problem with Instagram life is that no matter how perfect you make yourself, there is still real life to deal with. When it comes to bloggers and vloggers, beauty brands will always choose the perfected version of influencers they work with, which only exacerbates the desire of anyone on social media to give an unrealistic version of themselves. I’ve noticed that self-tan brands are the biggest offenders in beauty world at promoting and encouraging unrealistic body image pictures. There is one brand that is banned forever from my site for an Instagram account that borders on ‘thinspiration’.
Essena’s new account is called InstagramIsNotRealLife (@essenaoneill) where she tells the truth behind the pictures on her old account, and her new site is called Let’s Be Game Changers. Oh, and her YouTube about how money is made on social media is an eye opening watch. It’s long, but worth making a coffee and settling down for. Essena’s move is important. She’s one of the first teen influencers to be pushing for change and encouraging independent thought rather than following the flock. Whether others follow is anyone’s guess but we’re looking at existing and forthcoming generations whose entire self-worth is built on the validation of an app. Disruptors of similar generations are few and far between which is why Essena’s words are so crucial right now.
She was that girl; now she’s her own girl.
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20 comments
Good on her! I think social media is an amazing thing we have but also causes a lot of people upset and anxiety for no reason. I myself get sucked into an Instagram hole from time to time looking at perfectly toned bodies and feeling a bit crap about myself. It’s so important to remind ourselves that what we are allowed to see isn’t the full picture. I’m a firm believer in not airing your dirty laundry in public but Instagram is like the polar opposite of that, it’s airing your best agent provocateur undies for all the world to see and lust over!
I love her!It’s so refreshing to know that there are still teenagers like her left in the world!
Really quite amazing.
Actually, I have more thoughts about this. I like her message, but I’m now feeling a bit cynical…explaining why would be an essay I fear!
Whilst I admire this young lady, I really do, I do also have to question the gullibility of her followers. Most of them will be following beauty Instagrammers and You Tubers galore. Are they really that naive to think it’s all natural? Watch any tutorial by any You Tuber. Bare-faced, you wouldn’t give any one of them a second glance if you passed them in the street. But by the end of the video, they are stunning. The power of make-up…which is why we love it…and for some of the wealthier ones, the power of expensive lighting. This isn’t a criticism…I love learning from these transformations…just a statement of fact.
I don’t really use Instagram or similar, but I guess i’m gullible. Even though I am aware that advertisers use photoshop, unless they’re missing a leg like those horrible photoshop fails, I believe what I see. Furthermore, I am not tech savvy enough to know what filters and other tools are available on an iPhone for example, so I’d really believe that. I’m very grateful I’m not a teen trying to navigate reality in a digital world.
Excellent! I will be forwarding this story to my stepdaughter who, I’m sad to say, has fallen down the rabbit hole of social media’s unrealistic beauty standards. And this even though I am a professional photographer who has told her about filters and retouching for years. She knows those images aren’t “real.” And yet…
Instagram now faces a bit of a problem as she probably won’t be the last to divulge this information. We all know that posts on social media need to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially as we all know that the posts we put up aren’t actually the truth. They’re a little glimpse of that spectacular moment your hair/outfit/room/makeup looked perfect just before it all got messed up to the way it looks in real life! I don’t agree with these “perfect” lives being seen as “goals” for individuals, but sometimes Instagram is nothing more than visuals, and in all honesty I’d take a picture of a pretty girl on a beautiful beach as opposed to one of me in PJ’s with pineapple hair shoving pizza down my throat! I think that with more education online and in schools about body image and the reality of online individuals we can teach young impressionable children that these images are little more than just pixels on a screen, and not a how-to on how the real world works. Thanks for this post Jane, it’s so refreshing to see a blogger commenting on topics that aren’t necessarily part of the beauty industry but do relate so heavily to the cultural perception of “beauty”
I don’t see much difference between the the airbrushed and photoshopped images in ads in magazines and Instagram pictures. I really don’t pay attention to social media because I know it isn’t real and are made to promote or sell something. I never read comments anywhere because of the negativity, ignorance, and hate people write (present company excluded). Jane, don’t let people’s nasty comments get you down or make you feel self conscious about anything about yourself. I don’t know what motivates people to enjoy being rude and mean. Giving them names like ‘trolls’or ‘haters’ gives them titles they perversely enjoy and they aren’t even worth that. We shouldn’t even talk about them or react because that is what they feed upon. But, I felt I wanted to tell you that, because you don’t deserve those ignorant comments.
You’re really kind.. thank you.
I have seen this one coming for such a long time, it was just who was going to crack. Sounds bad but I never believed it all, I feel so bad for anyone who didn’t see this, who cant see the instagram accounts who so clearly are being paid to post things, I feel awful for the teenagers of today… this has been happening since advertising began, ever wonder why Bond has all Sony products? why celebrities are given really expensive clothing to wear once? Instagram is just another way of this. the problem I see is people getting so wrapped up in instagram “themes” Dont get me wrong I love taking a picture and making it look right for IG, but if you want to post a dark picture post it! dont worry over people not liking your all white instagram, dont worry what people might think, its YOURS you can do what you want with it 🙂 its become so mad. But as long as you take it with a pince of salt, and realise it isn’t real, you begin to enjoy its fakeness, seeing it for what it really is and appreciate peoples editting lol But im older now, and maybe I am alone in my opinion.
http://www.makeerinover.co.uk
I absolutely love her for what she’s doing right now. She’s shining light on a topic that most people are too afraid to discuss.
One person I really appreciate in all of this is Lisa Eldridge. She routinely shows herself bare-faced and points out spots here, redness there, without ever saying anything bad about herself. Then she goes on to show you how, if you’re interested, you can use makeup to cover these things. Like you, Jane, Lisa has my undying respect. I appreciate the straightforward approach.
Lisa is amazing.. and such a lovely person. She is as genuine as she seems in her videos. All respect x
I actually like it when I see skin on people and not makeup. I am quite shocked at the amount of diffusion (photoshopping) is done and easily on Instagram and others. I won’t say I am perfect because I do Photoshop my volunteers on my ITP blog but then I don’t photoshop Olivia Sr. (my mum) when she volunteers!
Look, no amount of makeup is going to cover the anything when people see you in real life and bad lighting, either you suck it up or stay in the virtual bubble with praises of beauty for the lovely photoshop look and not the real beautiful person everyone has deep inside.
I think it is great what Essena has done, yet I find it funny because in my youth being like Essena was the norm; walking around in our own real skin!
Brilliant post – I’ve been reading into this and I’m yet to make my mind up. Your take on it has certainly helped me (as a social media manager) to view my work from a different angle. Great blog x
This is amazing. I am going to find her account now! Loving her idea
Lauren x | http://www.laurenapowers.blogspot.com
Its a great movement and I totally agree that more transparency is needed in the social media world. I think it should go the way youtube is with the #ad (in more than just the UK) and that women should stop giving the rest of the world an unrealistic view of how peoples lives are. Give girls something to aspire to, not something achieved from a few apps. Kim K screwed up yesterday and accidently uploaded an edited pic to insta and twitter but the unedited one to FB. The editing was minimal – she still looked beautiful yet she had to edit out a few flyaways and she had to make her neck thinner for what? all it is doing is telling young girls that your best is not good enough ‘A beautiful worldwide celeb has to edit her pics so what hope is there for me’. Only thing I didn’t agree with the whole movement is she is now making videos begging for money – it defeats the entire purpose. Be a real person, go get a job. If I felt like a sell out in my job id change it not beg people for money.
Definitely didn’t see the begging for money bit.. that changes things somewhat.
I have a feeling that this girl has started the “instagram life” too early but with very little familial/environmental support. I mean, eventually you are selling a product, an image, a look. I don’t honestly find anything wrong with it. But i do understand that being so young and so popular at the same time with little moral support from family can get you into a bad place mentally. She has blown the whole social media is fake out of proportion in my opinion, with so many other people are doing the same thing and they seem to be doing just fine. I’m not buying a bit that they’re all super perfect just by nature but rather this is a show and i watch it for the aesthetics. I am still sad for her that she’s so upset, but I don’t see her argument shocking, nor too interesting. I hope she does well in the future.