Earlier this week, the Instagram, Youtube andTumblr star Essena O’Neill blew up all over social media, and the repercussions have not been dissimilar to that of an actual volcano erupting on an island full of teenage girls and Instagram celebrities.
The Australian beauty had garnered thousands of followers on Snapchat, Youtube, and Instagram, so when she decided to delete 2,000 of her pictures and post a video renouncing her position as a social media star, the online population of tweeters and followers all ran around trying to make sense of the lava and fire.
In her video, O’Neill explained that “at [age] twelve, I loved writing, I loved art, I loved anything creative, I loved anything beautiful and real about the world. There are so many other things I could have done with my time, that I could’ve just enjoyed!” The makeup-less model burst out crying, concluding that she was “living in a screen, wishing that people would value me,” and wrapped it up by encouraging people to go explore coffee shops, beaches, and parks– something that she’d stopped enjoying because of her insane obsession with likes and followers.
Of course, not everyone was on board with some of O’Neill’s claims. Two friends she met through social media, Youtube stars Nina and Randa, posted a video tearing down everything O’Neill said, even refuting that the model was really “at the pinnacle of success.”
What’s even more controversial is that now Essena has posted a Vimeo asking for donations, since she will no longer be making profits from advertising clothing and herbal tea on her Instagram. I guess everyone needs to make a living, right?
As someone who’s not super into the whole adoration of teenage celebrities on social media, I find this whole eruption almost amusing. To be honest, it can be hard to take some of these people seriously when all I’m thinking about is where are their parents and their high school diplomas. O’Neill is nineteen years old. Nineteen. Is there really nothing else she can do with her life now that she’s renounced social media? This may be what she’s been doing since she was fifteen, but Essena is far from rock bottom.
Unfortunately, no matter how much the ex-celebrity can renounce social media, or advertise her new ‘Let’s Be Game Changers’ website, being famous on social media is a career. If Essena wasn’t up for it anymore because she let it consume every aspect of her life, then that’s sad and heartbreaking, but it doesn’t mean that every Instagram model is as volatile as she was. She made some good arguments when she pointed out that the perfect girls on Tumblr only post what they want you to see, and that “you don’t need to go on social media to connect.” Of course media is full of illusions and falsity, and your real life is the one that happens when you put your phone down and turn off your computer.
But people like pretty girls and perfect outfits, and that’s never going to change. We all have that one profile on Instagram or blog on Tumblr that we go to with drool dripping off our chins, wanting what these seemingly perfect people have. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything terribly wrong with that, as long as we acknowledge that these people aren’t idols, but experts at their job. They specialize in looking good so we buy the clothes, the gym outfits, the herbal teas. It’s just like the modeling we see in Vogue and Marie Claire, except more accessible and relevant to teenage girls. It’s just another job.
Essena’s volcanic eruption raises the question about whether or not it’s healthy to turn young girls into goddess-like symbols of beauty and perfection, both for the herds of followers that buy into it and for the teenage models now under tons of pressure. Maybe combining modeling and advertising with real life is too dangerous and confusing. In Essena’s case, she lost herself because she could no longer separate her true identity from her online profile, and that’s a very scary thing. Whether or not you side with her, she’s definitely being sincere about how empty and lonely she felt after years of being obsessed with how she looked to thousands of strangers, and now she’s asking those same strangers for financial help in order to make a living. If social media had this sort of destructive power over someone who seemed to have it all, what does it mean for the rest of us average civilians? How far does this lava reach?