At one point in your life, you’ve probably stalked girls that are Instagram-famous and thought, “Wow, they must have made it. They must be happy.” Well, that may not be the case after all.
Essena O’Neill, an 18-year-old social media superstar from Australia, seemed like she’s living the dream through the screen, but she’s came out to tell everyone what it’s truly like for someone like her. After sharing this message, she quit everything – Tumblr and Snapchat – where she had hundreds of thousands of followers, and deactivated her YouTube and Instagram accounts, where she’s shared her life over three years.
“People speak about me differently because I have this following,” she said in a video on her new Vimeo channel, “as if it makes me different to you. It doesn’t! If anything, it makes me incredibly more insecure about other people’s opinions about myself. I want you to know that I used to be obsessed with being ‘followed’ or being liked. I was obsessed with people liking me. Nothing’s wrong with that. That’s beautiful. Everyone wants to feel valued and loved. But on social media [as] it currently stands, a number will never give you that feeling.”
In her video, she continues to explain how she let herself be defined by numbers, likes and followers. In her most recent Instagram post, she also said Instagram “served no real purpose other than self-promotion.”
What she’s doing is really sending out an important message, especially to millennials out there, that social media isn’t real life and it will never be. Social approval is not everything.
Check out Essena’s Instagram page as she reveals the truth behind her gorgeous photos. Watch her inspiring video below and learn to unplug if you can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyI2Sugw6Yc
