What happened when my Instagram was posted on Lad Bible
I’m basically Kim Kardashian now
The day I became famous was the weirdest day of my life.
After writing an article — ironically — about Instagram and how fake social media can be, I shot from 600 Instagram followers to more than 8000. My inbox was rammed with messages, more than 300, both supporting and slating me, calling me brave and making awful comments about my physical appearance.
The article was rewritten by LadBible and Daily Mail, and was shared over 6,000 times. Thousands of people commented, most of them objectifying me, calling me fake, shallow, and saying my boobs were fake. It was surreal and overwhelming.
The now infamous article was only written to support and be part of the #SocialMediaIsNotRealLife movement started by Instagram star Essena O’Neill. If I’m honest, all it was was a bit of a social experiment, to see how people would react to the facts of what it really took everyone — not just Instagram stars — to get the “perfect” selfie.
I had no idea it was going to blow up the way it did.
After I was branded a “social media ADDICT” by the Daily Mail, the story started to go viral and spiral out of control. Eventually it ended up on LadBible, where the comments got even worse, and an army of men started to contact me.
The followers and messages started pouring in, and my story and intentions were twisted beyond recognition. Instead of a Tab journalist trying something out for fun in an article, I was suddenly an “Instagram model” who’s “addiction” to social media had led to a life of “lies and deceit”.
As things got wilder my friends started to find it hilarious. I was advised by everyone not to check the comments section. I mean I doubt Kim K is there crying over the internet trolls who call her hideously anti-feminist names – but come on, if it was you that everyone was talking about? You would totally look.
I have to admit, there were an overwhelming number of people sticking up for me and supporting me, saying I had inspired them to look at social media differently, and for those people I am eternally grateful and would like to say a huge thank you. However, the positive comments were far outweighed by the negative ones.
Some people had strong opinions on the authenticity of my boobs:
Some people decided to take on the role of life coach. I have friends, I can drive, and I’m pretty sure I have a life seeing as I’m, you know, alive. I haven’t got a job though so I guess I really am a sad idiot.
Some people were just straight up mean.
Others managed to get all the way from me to the pay gap in three short sentences:
And many, many people were deeply concerned for my apparent lack of intelligence:
I can’t say I’m surprised, it’s well known just how harsh internet trolls can be, but it’s a little surreal waking up to thousands and thousands of comments calling you every name under the sun.
I guess people don’t imagine that the person they’re talking about will actually see what they’ve written, and how it could affect them. It’s a little unfair for people to pass judgement without having read my original article, not having heard the whole story.
I’ve definitely learnt some interesting things over the last few days, it will certainly be a story to tell my kids one day – “Hey, did I ever tell you about that time I was momentarily famous worldwide for my selfies?”, and hey, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?