Instagram models harm young girls’ self-esteem

If you scroll down your Instagram feed, what will you see? Besides maybe the few random cute puppy accounts that you follow, your feed will be littered with pictures of a group of girls with impeccable makeup, bright lighting and (if you look closely enough) most likely one foot propped higher than the other to make it look like there’s a space between their thighs. In other words, the classic look of the Instagram model, also known as the “baddie” makeup look.

These Instagram models, in addition to portraying a false sense of their life (seriously, you live your life constantly on the beach in a thong bikini sporting a pouty face?), have a severe negative impact on the minds of girls and self-identifying females.

First of all, there is a problem with the entire Instagram mentality. No one is happy all the time. No one is going to the beach every single day. And no one looks perfect all the time. Everything that we see on Instagram is a clear farce. But still, people who religiously look at pictures of Instagram models think that things like Teatox or waist trainers are going to solve all their problems in life.

I’ll give a personal example: It started for me, in my sophomore year of high school. I knew that using these products wasn’t going to make the stress in my life suddenly go away. Yet, like the naïve, wayward child I was, I begged my mother for money so I could spend sixty dollars on over-glorified tea. Two months later, I fell back into that trap when I ordered a waist trainer for around eighty dollars. A waist trainer. For a fifteen-year old girl.

What surprised me the most about this is that, if other people weren’t falling into the trap like me, they were secretly wishing for these lifestyles and the body types of these girls. How incredibly absurd. This is especially concerning when it comes to the idea that self-image issues can lead to much more serious problems like body dysmorphia or an eating disorder, a mental illness with physical effects on the body.

There’s another part of Instagram models, or self-termed “baddies,” that is important to consider: their makeup. It seems that there is this notion that once you figure out what Sephora is, then you’ll be an expert at everything makeup-related. So, for all the people who identify as girls, seeing these airbrush perfect pictures of these Instagram models has severe debilitating effects on their self-esteem. Make-up doesn’t define your life, either, no matter how good or bad at it you are.

Furthermore, Instagram models are a sham to real models. I mean, real, in the sense of going to fifteen casting calls a day, buying lessons on how to actually walk a runway show and attending test shots (all of which cost an enormous amount of money). So imagine the insolence when some girl who only knows how to post pictures when the sun is hitting at a specific angle and only shows one physical side of herself to the entire world is being praised for her hard work and effort.

The bottom line is that Instagram models are selling themselves, and every other person they pander to, short. They lower the self-esteem of young people, give unrealistic make-up expectations, and discredit an entire body of people who actually work for their accomplishments, rather than using a couple thousand handles, like xoxo_summer29, to validate their career.

PSA: To all the Instagram models, you are not a model by posting enhanced photos. It makes you an adult entertainer without a paycheck. If you want to be a traditional successful model like Kate Moss, Adriana Lima or Alek Wek then go out and work for it. Don’t put up a fake happy mask for the rest of the world. It’s transparent and, frankly, really sad. Start encouraging the idea that you know that your worth reaches more than likes on Instagram. Give the right message to yourself. Give the right message to fifteen year-old girls today.

PSA: To all the fashion designing houses today, please don’t disrespect the legacy of your house by casting models just with copious Internet followers to showcase your timeless pieces. The whole point of a model, anyway, is to be a blank slate for your clothes. Find your next Naomi Campbell, not Kendall Jenner.

Renee Robinson is a freshman International Studies and Political Science double major from West Palm Beach, Fla.