At 19, Essena O'Neill had 500,000 followers on Instagram and 250,000 YouTube subscribers as well as a modeling contract with a top modeling agency. To many, it appeared she had "the dream life."
On October 4th, Essena posted a YouTube video declaring war on social media, deleting all of her social media accounts. A few days later, she had a website up and running called letsbegamechangers.com. On this blog, she posts videos and poems about her journey out in the real world without social media. She also posts TED talks, articles and documentaries about her thoughts on veganism, the modelling industry, sexism and social media's disguised advertisements.
Since Essena had so many followers on social media, she had many businesses paying her to post their products on social media. Some of these products she didn't like or agree with. In a blog post, Essena wrote that "placing value on your external appearance and social status will never make you happy. If anything I’d argue it makes you extremely lonely, shallow, lost and anxious… because both those things are determined by others… how you look and appear to others."
Essena was idolized by many young girls, and seemed to have had it made, going to exotic places and having extravagant things, but her life was way too materialistic and she claims she was living in a "2D world." In another post, Essena wrote, "The culture of Instagram fame, sexism in media, the sexual objectification of women, the deception in paid posts, the idea that skinny starving girls get ahead, that if you’re born into the body I have – you get a career out of it, you get an invite into all the parties, everyone wants to take you to lunch, everyone says they love you… I lived that life and felt so alone, shallow and lost…"
Essena is writing her first book, so her blog has been put on hold, but she has left one last quote on her page:
"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are" (Anne Lamott).
Essena believes that social media is not real life. This is an important message for young teenage girls who are so easily impressionable. How many followers or likes someone gets should not be a factor in a person's value. Essena has been in a world that many people strive toward and she has decided to stop living in the photoshopped world. With this, Essena O'Neill has started a movement that has touched thousands of girls. In this day and age where social media is everything, Essena has changed the game, and has taken a step in the right direction for girls.
