Hot Topic: The Perfect Instagram Life

Image Source: Tara Milk Tea

Here's to all the girls who scroll down their Instagram feed and double tap beautiful blondes in skimpy white dresses. To the girls who swim in the images of oceans on social media. To the girls who wish they had the wherewithal to travel as often as all the gorgeous 20-somethings on Instagram. Here's to you, because you have it all wrong.

Let's get to it:

There's this obsession with Instagram celebs. The women with 24-inch waists and carefully curated feeds are the ones who now wield the most power. Famous actors and musicians are envied to the same degree, but their lives are based on their careers. Instagram celebrities however, can work 9-5 behind an office desk or behind a Starbucks counter and still reach the same level of admiration all around the world. This is because their lives are much more achievable. They are everyday Joes and Janes who have somehow broken the limits put in place for them. And if young Essena O'Neill from the Sunshine Coast can shoot into stardom, so can all of us. 

Let's take Alexis Ren, a 19 year-old Los Angeleno who's renowned for her travel videos with boyfriend Jay Alvarrez. She is a small-time model who made it big due to her ostentatious partner and fit body. She hasn't done anything worth acclaim, and yet here she is, with 3.5 million followers solely because she won the genetic lottery. I'm sure she's a sweet girl, but does she know the power she holds? The influence she has towards young girls who aspire to be just like her with a waistline just like her and a boyfriend just like her? These Instagram celebrities extend beyond being role models, because they aspire people to be carbon copies of them. 

We see the beauty of Instagram models as something attainable. I, too, can slim down to that size because she doesn't have expensive personal trainers to help her do it. I, too, can dye my hair that shade of honey blonde because she did hers at home with a bottle of L'Oreal. I, too, can wear that Coulbourne bikini because it's in my price range. Whilst Hollywood stars don Valentino gowns and and Lanvin purses, Instagram models wear what we can afford, which makes it easier to imitate their style. After awhile, we get too caught up in changing ourselves to mimic a complete stranger that we lose sight of living life for our own self. 

Travelers are even a bigger deal. They meticulously edit their photographs and only show the beauty of their adventures. People look at their nomadic lifestyle and think that that's sustainable; that they should always aspire to travel as often as possible. Traveling is great, and as someone whose been to more countries than I can count with my fingers and toes, it does enrich your life. But I know the reason why I've had the opportunity to travel so often and to such great places is because my parents are fortunate enough to afford the trips. The reason people like 19 year-old Jay Alvarrez and 22 year-old Leah Naomi are both able to journey around the world so frequently is precisely because of that. They were given the funds by their parents and they used it to travel, but we often forget this. Their lives are fairytales made of money, and even though I would love to be able to travel to Croatia on a whim and spend my weekend in a yacht, I have work obligations to do and money to save up for my survival. The grass is much greener on their bed of land but remember that they have gardeners to water the soil while you have to wait for the rain. And waiting isn't anything to be ashamed of. 

I have saved up for over a year for a one-week trip to Japan. I have worked odd jobs cleaning cars, writing strange articles for obscure websites, and plenty more errands that have given me the few thousands of dollars I have sitting in my bank account. My sister worked hard to backpack solo around Europe, and by the time she got back to reality, she had nothing left in her wallet but all the memories needed for a lifetime. There are simply other ways to enjoy traveling, and we shouldn't be too caught up in how the rich globetrots. Sure, they might have the dream life, but we can always create our own in the confines set for us. We shouldn't live vicariously through these people, but live as much as we can with what we have. So what if we end up slumming it in a dirty hostel and skimping out on expensive skydiving excursions? Traveling isn't a competition, it's a self-fulfilling act that should be based on our own capabilities and happiness. 

These Instagram celebrities can be inspiring and wildly intelligent. They can be great role models for many, but just know that what they post isn't what's always what's real. My selfies on Instagram took dozens of tries, a layer of makeup, and a blow-dried hair that required an hour to perfect. Or that my scenic photograph of palm trees and paddy fields was actually ruined by the smell of rotting trash. Life is beautiful and I have seen how incredible it can be, but it can also be quite average. And it's that mediocrity that we always seem to forget. In between the crafted pictures of someone's Instagram profile is them struggling, crying, and sleeping. These images are the highlight reel of someone's life, and no matter how beautiful they are and how amazing their life might seem, they are not exempt from the sorrows of any other human being. 

We need to stop glorifying these average Janes on Instagram and see them for the artists they are. They paint pretty pictures of what they want others to perceive their life as, and even if they lead an incredibly thrilling life full of incomparable adventures, these are only slices of their lives that they have crafted to put on social media. There is no need to chase after someone's lifestyle because then you'll forget to create your own. Scroll down their pictures with awe, not envy. There is no guilt in taking your life one step at a time and achieving your bucket list at your own pace.