Teen Instagram Celeb Reveals How She Staged "The Perfect Life" Online by Skipping Meals and More
Nov 04, 2015 01:06
Essena O'Neil is an 18-year-old from the Sunshine Coast of Australia. She's also pretty famous. Over the past several years, she's built a media empire, and it all started when she was in high school. She started a blog, and then YouTube, and moved on to social media. Soon she was consumed by it.
“I spent everyday looking at a screen, viewing and comparing myself to others,” she wrote. “It’s easier to look at shiny and pretty things that appear happy than stopping and just getting real with yourself.”
“Without realizing, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance,” she wrote. “Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real.”
She became an online sensation, with more than half a millon followers on Instagram and 250,000 YouTube subscribers.
Soon sponsorship opportunities came and she was getting offers to model in LA. It looked like everything was perfect.
Except, she wasn't. She was unhappy.
Recently, O'Neil decided she had had enough. She stopped "actioning her values" and living a life that wasn't authentic.
She was addicted to what others thought of her, and correlated the likes and followers to that thought.
O'Neil announced to her followers last week that she is quitting social media and is editing the captions on her "perfect photos" to tell the truth behind the pictures. She deleted 2,000 photos from her Instagram she said served no real purpose other than self promotion.
O'Neil wrote that she was engaging in unhealthy habits just to get the perfect "hot body" shot. She would skip meals, and restrict caloric intake.
This particular bikini shot wasn't candid. It was staged. Her stomach was sucked in, she posed strategically, with pushed up boobs.
Some of her poses were done just for Instagram. She said she never wore this outfit out of the house.
She would spend hours trying to get the "perfect" selfie, and would edit them using several different apps. There would be makeup, hair would be done, a tight dress worn, lots of jewelry and over 50 shots just to get the perfect picture.
Her comments were the only thing that would make her happy.
She's also revealing how many of her posts were sponsored by brands, even though they were meant to look candid.
“I spent everyday looking at a screen, viewing and comparing myself to others,” she wrote. “It’s easier to look at shiny and pretty things that appear happy than stopping and just getting real with yourself.”
“Without realizing, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance,” she wrote. “Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real.”
