Instagram Star Essena ONeill Outs Social Media
"I didn't live in the real world, I lived through screens. And I created a celebrity construct of myself, believing it would bring me happiness. That couldn't be further away from the truth."
These are the words of 18-year-old fitspo blogger, Essena O'Neill. The social media sensation had amassed over 600,000 Instagram followers and made over $1500 per post through brand promotion. (umm where do I sign up?) This was until October 27th when the Aussie blogger deleted over 2000 of her Instagram pics claiming they "served no real purpose". She also edited the captions of her other photos, revealing the truth and painstaking effort behind each of them. (Check out some of them below!)
"I've spent the majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status, and my physical appearance,said Essena."[Social media] is contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other. It's a system based on social approval, likes, validation, in views, success in followers. it's perfectly orchestrated self-absorbed judgement."
Essena sealed the deal, quitting all of her social media platforms (Instagram,YouTube and Snapchat). She instead has launched her own stream of videos on Vimeo because of its "positive and value based ranking, not likes or followers or BS ads."
"Was paid $400 to post a dress. That's when I had maybe 150k followers, with half a million followers, I know of many online brands (with big budgets) that pay up to $2000 per post. Nothing is wrong with accepting brand deals. I just think it should be known. This photo had no substance, it was not of ethical manufacturing (I was uneducated at the time). SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT REAL is my point. Be aware what people promote, ask yourself, what's their intention behind the photo?"
Moving Forward. Essena has also launched a new site - Let's Be Game Changers - where she plans to continue her journey of revealing all of the untruths that plague social media .She now plans to talk honestly about what it means to live an authentic, real life - far away from Instagram likes and Twitter retweets.
"NOT REAL LIFE - took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten that day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals"
On the site Essena says she plans to promote vegan-ism, environmental awareness, social issues, and conscious living. "I have a range of interviews, projects, and features I cannot wait to share," she writes. "I want to create a site with a community sense of collaboration and desire to help action change; this heavily involves individuals submitting their own game-changing work and ideas, for all of us to share and learn."
"The only thing that made me feel good that day was this photo. How deeply depressing. Having a toned body is not all we as human beings are capable of."
"We are stuck living in distractions,'"she says. 'A 2D world. An addiction to screen life. We believe and obsess over contrived ideas, images and personalities. We live in a celebrity obsessed culture. We walk out into a shopping mall, watch a movie, turn on the TV, search the most popular people on YouTube, and what do we see? We see luxurious living, genetically blessed people, we see new clothes, sexy workout wear, tight abs, toned thighs, perfectly styled hair, painted masks, spray painted bodies. We don't see real life. This celebrity culture based largely on aesthetics has taken over our own individual lives. We talk about these people like we know them, when in reality we know next to nothing about them, their fears, their dreams, their regrets. We put them on a pedestal and enjoy throwing rocks. We like watching them struggle, we mock them, humour ourselves... yet in the same breathe we complain about how we aren't up there with them."