18-Year-Old Model Edits Her Instagram Posts To Reveal The Truth Behind The Photos
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18-year-old Social media influencer Essena O’Neill has been making thousands of dollars modeling on Instagram and sharing her pictures with almost 580,000 followers, but all that has changed. The Australian deleted 2,000 photos from her account and changed the name to “Social media Is Not Real Life.” She has since re-captioned many of the remaining photos to reveal the “truth” behind them, and launched a new website, “Let’s Be Game Changers.”
“Without realizing, I’ve spent the majority of my teenage life succumbing to social media addiction, social approval, social status, and my physical appearance,” O’Neill wrote in an October 27th Instagram post. “Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated self-absorbed judgment.”
Essena bluntly talks about the negative effects of social media, encouraging young girls to view the pictures posted on Instagram as not real and staged. Her goal is to prove to people that life isn’t as portrayed on social media today but rather more straightforward and not so unrealistically glamorous.
More info: Instagram (h/t: elitedaily)
She broke down and re-captioned her Instagram photos to reveal the truth behind her photos
She was spending 50+ hours per week curating her social media persona – “I was miserable. Stuck. Uninspired. Angry”
“I didn’t enjoy the act of creating art, writing or any forms of self expression like I once did as a child”
Last Tuesday, O’Neill deleted 2000 photos and changed her Instagram title to “Social Media Is Not Real Life,” encouraging others to unplug too
Watch Essena explain the idea behind the changes:
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An intelligent young woman with the audacity to go against society's mainstream. She's beautiful and fierce.
Nah she's pretty dense if she was originally buying into seeking out other people's approval.
I watched her video in which (near the end) she is begging for money to support her because she now has no income because she has stopped modelling. Well what did you expect? If you want to be able to pay your rent, here's an idea - GET A JOB like everyone else has to do if they want to get through life.
I think a large fear that she had was that she had spent so much of her life focused on making money through social media that she can't exist without it. She needs to start over and find a career, and get a job, but she has nowhere to start. I don't like the idea of asking the internet for money either, but I'm not going to condemn her for needing a little help to get started on a career path that won't make her miserable.
@Rebecca: She made lots of money off her photos during the last years. Shouldn't that be enough to get her career started? She's young, pretty and healthy which are good conditions to find something. If she needs help, then her parents should take care of that. From the pictures she and her family don't seem to be poor. Look at that house, furniture, etc. Looks like upper class to me. It's a shame people donate money to her. Donations should go to people who really need them to survive and not to those who aren't poor anyway.
Get a line of credit or a bank loan, or sleep on friend's couch or get a roommate in a crappy apartment, or move back in with her folks. Like everyone else.
oH please, go to community college and work in a forever 21 till you figure it out. So ridiculous.
Well I'm afraid it already paid off for her. Her story's all over the internet. I'm sure she'll get a couple thousand $$s of donations. It's a shame that people donate money to a young, healthy and pretty woman who could easily get a job and doesn't look poor anyways, while there are people on earth living in desperate poverty who would deserve those donations much more.
I have a feeling others made similar comments on her video. It now says she deleted her YouTube account.
I'm glad to see she deleted it.
Right on!
I agree...and why stop modeling? Take for what it is.....a job....that can put you through college.....Body image is an issue for models, but there's help out there too....Remember, it's just a job.....
She had a job, it just wasn't an enjoyable one! She probably has difficultly getting a job due to her age and that she stood up to the mainstream. The government doesn't want people that don't follow others, they just leave them to do what they are doing so long as it doesn't disturb them
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Your reaction is uncompassionate.
really hope it isn't but it smells like a publicity stunt to me.. internet made me lose faith in even the faintest hope of anything being real.
I get you, it certainly feels so unreal most of the time. But maybe we should give this kind of acts a chance of being true. I see it as a girl who opened her eyes and in her unhappiness tried to change something, and tried to show people what she is trying so hard to change. Of course she probably hopes to get publicity, but this time in a good and changing way. From what she says, I feel like she already had that other kind of publicity at first, and really didn't enjoy it. Own opinion tho, I totally respect yours too ^ :)
I don't think it's a stunt. She just seems very out of touch with the real world.
best comment so far. thank you
An intelligent young woman with the audacity to go against society's mainstream. She's beautiful and fierce.
Nah she's pretty dense if she was originally buying into seeking out other people's approval.
I watched her video in which (near the end) she is begging for money to support her because she now has no income because she has stopped modelling. Well what did you expect? If you want to be able to pay your rent, here's an idea - GET A JOB like everyone else has to do if they want to get through life.
I think a large fear that she had was that she had spent so much of her life focused on making money through social media that she can't exist without it. She needs to start over and find a career, and get a job, but she has nowhere to start. I don't like the idea of asking the internet for money either, but I'm not going to condemn her for needing a little help to get started on a career path that won't make her miserable.
@Rebecca: She made lots of money off her photos during the last years. Shouldn't that be enough to get her career started? She's young, pretty and healthy which are good conditions to find something. If she needs help, then her parents should take care of that. From the pictures she and her family don't seem to be poor. Look at that house, furniture, etc. Looks like upper class to me. It's a shame people donate money to her. Donations should go to people who really need them to survive and not to those who aren't poor anyway.
Get a line of credit or a bank loan, or sleep on friend's couch or get a roommate in a crappy apartment, or move back in with her folks. Like everyone else.
oH please, go to community college and work in a forever 21 till you figure it out. So ridiculous.
Well I'm afraid it already paid off for her. Her story's all over the internet. I'm sure she'll get a couple thousand $$s of donations. It's a shame that people donate money to a young, healthy and pretty woman who could easily get a job and doesn't look poor anyways, while there are people on earth living in desperate poverty who would deserve those donations much more.
I have a feeling others made similar comments on her video. It now says she deleted her YouTube account.
I'm glad to see she deleted it.
Right on!
I agree...and why stop modeling? Take for what it is.....a job....that can put you through college.....Body image is an issue for models, but there's help out there too....Remember, it's just a job.....
She had a job, it just wasn't an enjoyable one! She probably has difficultly getting a job due to her age and that she stood up to the mainstream. The government doesn't want people that don't follow others, they just leave them to do what they are doing so long as it doesn't disturb them
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Your reaction is uncompassionate.
really hope it isn't but it smells like a publicity stunt to me.. internet made me lose faith in even the faintest hope of anything being real.
I get you, it certainly feels so unreal most of the time. But maybe we should give this kind of acts a chance of being true. I see it as a girl who opened her eyes and in her unhappiness tried to change something, and tried to show people what she is trying so hard to change. Of course she probably hopes to get publicity, but this time in a good and changing way. From what she says, I feel like she already had that other kind of publicity at first, and really didn't enjoy it. Own opinion tho, I totally respect yours too ^ :)
I don't think it's a stunt. She just seems very out of touch with the real world.
best comment so far. thank you