As of right now, a search for #selflove on Instagram brings up 5.5 million results. While this tag has been perpetuating for years, it recently took a detour from its original route.
If you scale back a year or two, most posts with a #selflove were selfies, full body mirror shots or pictures at the gym. These shots were meant to encourage people to look at themselves, or a picture of themselves, and think “wow, I’m amazing.” Not many saw an issue, as people were beginning to love themselves.
As we flash forward to this year: Yes, selfies. Full body mirror shots and pictures at the gym are still being posted under this tag, but they aren't posed or prepared in any way. “Body goals” instagrammers have started to post their relaxed forms beside photos of them flexing to show that perfection doesn't exist.
Other's have chosen to ditch the posed photos all together as a form of eating disorder recovery and progress:
"So when people ask me why I choose to continue talking about all of the struggles I have faced, I can easily say that it is because I wished that when I began recovery I had someone to tell me that even though everyday won't be sunshine and rainbows, if you keep pushing on you will one day see all of the gold in the world again.#rollsarentjustforcinnamon" -@fallingintoselflove on Instagram
In simplicity, people are ditching their online identities. The pictures people were posting were ideal versions of themselves, and while they loved this version, self-love is about loving every version of yourself. The developed #selflove we see now is owning that idea, and I love it to pieces.
