Seeing all those amazing photos of perfect lives and perfect bodies on Instagram can make us feel jealous. We know that they’re posed and even fake, yet they can still make us feel that we’re not good enough. Because of this, Instagrammer Sara Puhto has built her Instagram account around body positivity and much-needed reality check. She shares side-by-side photos of herself that show just how big the difference is between real life and posing for social media photos.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7GmfJ7gJ7k/
Speaking with Insider, Sara says that she originally posted her workout progress to Instagram. She would always pose and flex in them, taking photos from the best angles. However, she would feel insecure about her own body when she compared herself to those of fitness influencers. This is when she realized that her photos could make others feel bad about themselves, too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6VXU9ngGQq/
“I noticed that my body didn’t look like this 24/7,” Sara tells Insider. So, she decided to switch focus and share what she “really looked like most of the time.” In October 2016, Sara started posting side-by-side photos showing her body in all of its stages. “When you suck in your tummy, flex, stand up straight, and pop out your booty, you look different in photos,” she says. But she adds that it’s not “an accurate representation of how someone looks.” I mean, could you imagine anyone standing like that in real life, all the time?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuBpkH6A4CD/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs5cptsggkx/
On Sara’s Instagram, you’ll see many photos showing “Instagram vs. Reality”, similar to Chessie King for example. However, there are also many photos which point out that your body is just fine no matter its shape. Other than exposing all those “perfect” shots on social media, she also shares a body positivity message, and that’s what I particularly like. Here are a few more of Sara’s photos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbDqnjlS8B/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsnLUUxg1yx/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrnKUTyg5xg/
instagram.com/p/BoWfBZPgkLF/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnjLsaxFkV9/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlqFoRlFrHD/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl8EzzlF46N/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlYC87GlhcG/
All those “perfect” bodies, travels, jobs and relationships on social media can have a great effect on mental health. While teenagers are the most vulnerable group, it can hit adults, too. And I’m saying this from my own experience.
No matter how aware I am of Instagram’s fakeness, I still fall into the trap of thinking that other people are “living their best lives.” It seems like they have time for everything, like they’re never annoyed by their loved ones, their family or their jobs, it looks like they’re always on the road… And it sometimes makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. I need to give myself a reality check from time to time because all these “perfect lives” are thrown at me every time I open Instagram.
This is why I like Sara’s idea and I think we need accounts like this. There are so many faked or posed photos out there, and Sara and people with a similar idea remind us that no one is perfect, no matter how they represent themselves.
[via Insider]
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