All over the internet, people post perfectly curated representations of what they want people to think their life is like.
I know I’m not the only person who’s noticed it.
It’s increasing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), bringing down self-esteem, and just being all-around shitty.
Well I’m here to propose something.
What if, rather than always posting perfect pictures of ourselves, our pets, our food, we show real life?
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
I’ll start.
Let’s look at an example from 2012.
As I’ve posted about before, Randi, Amber, and I got to travel to the Netherlands for spring break in 2012.
One of the things we did was visit Anne Frank’s house.
Let’s look at this photo we took in front of the bookshelf that hid the Frank’s apartment:
This photo is awkward for multiple reasons.
- We don’t know if we should smile because we are having our photo taken or look sad because we’re in Anne Frank’s house.
We were rushed because there was a security camera pointed right at us, and photography isn’t allowed in Anne Frank’s house.
My arm is resting on top of my camera, which you can’t see because it blends in with my sweatshirt / scarf.
So, yeah. All shades of awkward.
Once the magnitude of my awkward arm was highlighted in this picture, we started looking around and noticed that it’s actually happened quite a few times. Here are some examples:
In a helicopter in Ghana, 2011
Next to a tree in Ghana, 2011
At a leadership conference in Los Angeles, 2013
Shoot, it has even morphed into Awkward Leg Syndrome.
Why am I sharing this?
Because I want you to understand that it’s perfectly okay to have awkward, embarrassing, and unflattering photos of yourself.
You don’t have to untag them. You don’t have to delete them.
It’s good to laugh at them. To laugh at yourself.
No one is perfect. So why try to create a perfect image of yourself on social media?
Even Beyonce isn’t perfect. Remember when her publicist tried to get unflattering photos of her off of the internet?
Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.
So laugh at yourself. It’s a great feeling.
Are you comfortable with unflattering photos of yourself? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments! Happy Feminist Friday!
Good call. Looking awkward is what I specialize at and I will never have a “perfectly curated” life. Well said.
xo,
Randi
http://www.randiwithani.com
hahaha! I get that too, never know what to do with them!
Haha that first picture is too funny. I’m pretty sure that awkward arm position is something that I always do, it just seems to be really comfortable (even if there’s no camera to rest on). These photos are more fun anyways!
christycee.blogspot.ca
I usually laugh way too hard at unflattering photos of myself. And I’m often the one who wrecks photos by being a moron haha! I try not to untag myself for the simple reason that you’ve said, it’s not realistic to always look perfect. But if you look through photos from high school… there are definitely some that I kind of wish I just deleted!
Yesss same! Some of the ones from high school I untag more for my personality than my looks haha!