I was a freshman in high school when I first discovered Instagram. Once I got into the habit of posting photo’s, I was hooked. My first uploads consisted mainly of pictures of my dogs, food, and iPhone 4 quality selfies. This went on for a while.
When I was a sophomore in high school I simultaneously discovered Essena O’Neill on Instagram and developed a love for nutrition and fitness. For those who have never heard of Essena, her Instagram post consisted of bikini photo shoots, inspirational quotes, beach-y yoga pictures, and more- everything I loved. I fell in love with Essena account as soon as I stumbled upon it on the popular page and never missed a post from that day forward. She became my Instagram "goals", and from that moment on I wanted my Instagram to look exactly like hers.
About halfway through my Junior year, Essena became a vegan. Animal cruelty has always been something I’ve been incredibly passionate about, as I’ve been a vegetarian (and 3 time almost vegan) for 8 years. Seeing someone so incredibly beautiful and healthy promoting the same values I held made me feel like I had a best friend on the other side of the world.
Little did I realize, the person whom I looked up to, or rather, obsessed over, so much, was fighting her own battle. One week ago Essena decided she could no longer promote her lifestyle as normality. 4 years and 612,000 followers on Instagram later, Essena has decided to leave the social media world for good.
What prompted such a change in a person who seemed to live to inspire people all over the world to live a healthier, more compassionate lifestyle?
612,000 followers following a life that wasn’t... isn’t... real or healthy. Her over 2,000 Instagram posts were marketing products without the money making intentions ever being revealed.
“Why would you tell your followers that you’re paid a lot to promote what you promote? Why would you tell your followers that you literally just do shoots every day to take pictures for Instagram?” She writes on one of her 96 photos she decided to leave up and re-caption on Instagram. Her recaptioned photos include pictures of her wearing nothing more than a sports bra and spandex, countless bikini photoshoots, as well as several photo’s from before she was a vegan.
Essena describes how she would force her sister to take over 100 photos of her every day just to get the “effortless” selfie look and appear perfect. Boobs out and thigh gap evident were obvious necessities in order to promote a product and get the appropriate amount of likes. In her very first posts, she was only 15. Despite being the exact same age as Essena I always saw her as an older, sexier version of who I aspired to be.
So where is Essena headed, now that her days of being consumed by the thoughts of having enough Instagram likes and finding the perfect filters are over?
She has been working on putting together a website where she can actually be the change she wishes to be in the world, rather than some teenagers “life and fitness goals” on a social media platform that only values likes and comments. One week ago, she made a video about her decision, letting her followers know that she wasn’t quite done with her mission yet. “I had everything I ever wanted. Now I'm here and I see how contrived, fake and forced consistently proving to the world 'how amazing my life/body/self is". I spent everyday looking at a screen, viewing and comparing myself to others.” she writes in the description. This video is incredibly powerful and human, I highly recommend taking 17 minutes out of your day to watch it.
In her new stage of her life, she intends to use the platform she has to make a difference, through a new website she has created. Her website is called letsbegamechangers.com, and its mission is “aimed to inspire constant questioning, where there are no likes, views, or followers... just my content as raw as I want”. In her first post on halloween she challenged her followers to live the next week without any social media.
In the website, veganism, creative imagery with purpose, poems, writing, and interviews with her inspirations with be covered. In addition to this, she is dedicated to introducing the public to the realities of what it means to be Instagram famous. Her youtube will continue to be used to post videos about vegan eating, but Vimeo will host all of the new content.
So to my first love on Instagram, the girl who inspired me to never give up on my vegetarian lifestyle, the girl who helped me see the positive in life when I was unhappy and everything seemed to be going wrong, and girl who encouraged me everyday to be my best self, I say this. I will miss your colorful meals and beautiful beach photoshoots. Your yoga practices fell so in line with my own, and your scenic posts made me fall in love with Australia, a country I have never been to but hope to study abroad in. My Instagram feed was blessed with your beautiful posts for the past three years of my life; you have always been there with just the right motivational photograph.
Despite all of this, and despite however much I may miss you, please know that you have inspired me more in this moment of raw honesty than I was ever inspired before in the past three years combined. Thank you for revealing the truth, because it would have been so much easier for you to continue to hide behind the camera and continue to profit from our naiveness. I know that if anyone will become the change this world needs to see, it will be you.
