Stop comparing yourself to people you see on instagram

I’ve been spending a bit more time on my explore page than usual and I came across some profiles of girls that I don’t know or follow. I clicked on some of their profiles and was disappointed in the excessive use of Photoshop, Facetune, Lightroom or other apps for photo manipulation. Okay, I must admit, I use Photoshop and Lightroom too to achieve the best results in photo editing and I do use manipulation from time to time to make me look just a bit taller when the photographer didn’t quite get the angle right, but the things I’ve seen on some of these profiles are just so…excessive and badly done. How has no one called them out yet? I know I have an eye for this thing, being a graphic design student and all but come on…it’s so obvious! 

If you photoshop yourself to the point that your legs look like they’re 4 meters long, your butt looks like the Kim K’s and you waist is smaller than Barbie’s, do you not ask yourself oh what if someone meets me in real life and I look completely different than on social media? Will they even recognise me?

Upon my further investigation (aka “stalking” their insta - don’t judge we all do it sometimes) I came across some tagged photos that they did for a brand, but didn’t edit themselves and they looked like a different human being. Normal legs, butt, waist everything. Why would you photoshop yourself to the point that no one can recognise you? And when you get brand deals are you not embarrassed when the photos on their instagram look so different then the ones on your profile? Do people have no shame these days? 

It makes me sick remembering my days in school when I was comparing myself to some girls from my class and I never felt like I could be as good looking as them or as popular and communicative. Thank god we didn’t have instagram back then. I can’t even imagine what these girls growing up in this “instagram culture” must feel like, seeing so many photoshopped photos on their feed and not feeling pretty enough or skinny enough. 

And everybody wants to be a blogger or a youtuber or an influencer these days. We are so lucky to be born so privileged to have access to education and have so many resources to learn new things and all we aim to become is “somebody” online with so much influence and followers that brands will send us free stuff and pay us for taking a photo? It’s a dream job of so many people, but a lot of them don’t realise the hard work you have to put in to become that somebody and to stay that somebody. 

I still do it as a hobby, I don’t live off this, I still work different jobs as a student. And I enjoy making content for brands. I love taking photos and everything that comes with it - the organising, styling, editing etc. I do it for fun! I don’t ever want to become one of those money hungry bloggers and youtubers that only do it for the money and the fame. I put so much of my energy into every project I do and I would never be able to do all this if I wouldn’t like what I’m doing. I go all in or not at all. 

I unfollowed everyone that I felt like wasn’t putting their soul into their work, you can tell when someone is doing it just for the money. And I’m sick of seeing so many people trying to fit in this instagram culture of photoshopping and face tuning their selfies and bikini shots when in reality all they want to achieve from posting their photos is brands reaching out to them and paying them to take photos. 

I’m not saying everyone’s like that, I follow so many incredible bloggers and youtubers that inspire me with the content they put out and with all the hard work they do to reach their goals. It’s incredible seeing how Chiara Ferragni turned her blog into a brand (or an empire, so to speak). And seeing Aggie (aka travelinhershoes) come so far and still donate so much of her money to charity. 

There are so many other influencers that I love and support for the way they do things and inspire me to do better so I don’t normally bother myself with the “fake” ones that irritate me, I just simply unfollow them and never think of them again. 

I don’t really like spreading negativity online, that was never the intention of my post, I just needed to get some stuff of my chest and let my younger followers know that not everything you see on instagram is the reality. 

Please let me know your thoughts or if you have something to add in the comments! 

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoy my rants because I have another one that I want to write! x