Before you start reading this, just think about your own Instagram feed. How many of us actually do share any ‘real’ pictures? Heck, even the #IWokeUpLikeThis is selected out of some 50 odd pictures, decorated with the best filter and then posted online. Keeping ‘real’ away from social media is a lesson we all excel in.
Unfortunately, model Stina Sanders had to learn it the hard way!
Her Instagram feed is quite a regular one; filled with foodfies, gym selfies and ‘night out with friends’ crazy pictures. However, the model decided to go a little off track and start posting very real pictures of herself.
From putting up a picture of her with double chin to her hair removal routine, she uploaded it all. She decided to post filter-free and often unflattering pictures of herself online for a week. “I wanted to see what would actually happen if I stopped posting glamorous photos, and shared stuff that you wouldn’t normally even share with your friends, stuff that is taboo, stuff that was quite crude,” she said in an interview with People Magazine.
The 24-year-old model expected people to not like those images but she hardly expected her followers to go down. In the week, she has lost over 3000 followers, a fact that shocks her. “The hair-defuzzing and colonic irrigation is something that I knew would be deemed as really cringeworthy, but it’s not exactly something people can deny that they don’t do. We all poo and have unwanted body hair. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t!” she told The Tab.
“I honestly thought that my followers would remain the same but my likes would reduce, but the complete opposite happened. Girls started commenting more on my images because they could relate, but men barely commented at all.”
Stina has previously used Instagram to speak about her 18-month struggle to escape domestic violence. “So many people suffer – celebrities and just every day people – it’s silly that only recently, as a society, we’ve only just recognised the importance of understanding mental illness and the issues that it brings.”
She shared details of her abuse to help people relate to it and stay strong themselves. “I can still feel the sharp pain of each strand of hair being stretched. He then pressed himself against me and began to strangle me. After what felt like hours I managed to kick him off me and ran to the bathroom, locked the door and hid. After an hour Adam had fallen asleep. I quietly escaped, spent the night in a hotel and told myself I had to leave him.”
She might have lost a few followers because of her pictures, but there are a whole lot of people who appreciate the body positive track that she is taking. Today her followers list stands at 27 thousand followers, and still growing.
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