Australian teenager Essena O’Neill had over half a million followers on Instagram when she was 18. Her pictures showed her fabulous life, perfect body and amazing wardrobe, until one day she realised that her pics were contributing to the pressure teens feel to have the perfect, but unrealistic life.

 

Essena went back and re-captioned all her pictures to show the work that goes into each picture in order to make it look natural, and how much money she was paid for each one.

“I’ve spent the majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status, and my physical appearance, ” O’Neill writes in her last Instagram post on October 27, “[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.”

Jeez, we all wish we could wake up looking like Essena, but the reality is, even she doesn’t!

Check out her Vimeo post below, when she explained why she did what she did….

[vimeo 144201237 w=500 h=281]