SNAP! FLASH! SELFIE!

This has got to be the hundredth selfie you've taken IN THE SAME SPOT! Twirling around like a globe, desperately trying to position yourself around the sun for that perfect spring lighting. You could be a mask generator with all the different facial expressions you've made. Then you get it, the light - perfect, the expression - fire, the eyebrows - the random bystander...wait...random bystander??

"What?!", you think to yourself as this person is clearly judging you. The smirk or scowl slowly sinks in along with your phone which slowly drops back into your pocket.

What's with all this? Why should I be looked at weirdly for taking a selfie (we all know it's not just one but who's counting anyway)? What's selfish about my selfie?

We sometimes find ourselves asking this whenever we get "the look" from our silent "social" judges, but fear not, fellow selfie-loving millennials! Our selfies will not be silenced. There is nothing wrong with the selfie. In fact it's great to take. It's our generation's "it thing," it's our pop culture (we don't judge the '70s for electric sliding to the Nae Nae). Plus there's nothing selfish about it - especially when it's going to be shared with either our one special friend, our Instagram fans, Facebook friends, the list goes on and on. We are living in a time of ecstasy! Fashion trends, technological development, music culture, popular culture, art, it's all constantly changing so rapidly that you can barely keep up. So, why not capture each and every electric moment and share them with those around you? A culture characterized by cameras isn't so bad--we're just making moments for memories. So, don't be shy! Dare to be you, dare to be different, don't just make it a picture - make it an art!

"Black Bear Picnic", an Instagram post by @Nana_K.in, gains inspiration from the nursery rhyme "Teddy Bear Picnic". He alters the title to create a racial reference to the song, relating it to times where free black slaves would come out and enjoy the times with each other, singing, dancing, playing, etc. His title, surroundings and facial expression (contemplative, slightly sorrowful look into the distance as though caught in memory) is a way for him to express himself and his thoughts all in one single selfie. Yes, this is a selfie.

So, don't let "the look" leave you low. Pick up your phone, lift it high in the sky as your own little protest to the "haters", give it that killer smile, let them teeth "shine bright like a diamond" (please)....

"SELFIIEE!"