Obviously celebrity selfies are intended to make us feel awful

You’re never going to measure up to their pics


Celebrity selfies are damaging to our ideals of sex and beauty, according to new research . The majority of the viewers of these stars’ sexed-up selfies are young girls, during the period in their life where their identification and learning of important social standards are made.

Psychologist Tanya Byron says that the “sometimes edited” pictures that celebrities post on their social media sites give the impression that what are actually doctored pictures with little thought behind them are how celebrities live their rose-tinted lives. Byron added: “Many fans do not realise the pictures aren’t real, and are sent into a spiral of depression and even eating disorders by their inability to replicate such polished beauty. It is no accident that we are seeing a massive increase in eating disorders and self-harming in young people with the increase of social media use.”

Obviously it’s true, celebrity selfies make us feel shitty about ourselves. There is no way they woke up with a full face of perfectly done makeup and coifed curls. There’s no way for any of us to look like celebrities, with their makeup and hair team. Kim Kardashian doesn’t even take her own selfies. She has people do that for her.

The reality is we are shown an extremely unattainable level of beauty through celebrity selfies. And although deep down we know it’s unattainable, through overexposure we begin to kid ourselves that surely there’s a way to replicate them – to make ourselves look better, more fun, happier, prettier. But with the money and support teams (photographers, stylists, make-up artists) that celebrities have, it’s virtually impossible. It’s draining, it’s not worth it.

I’d love to say I don’t understand is why celebrities feel the need to edit their pictures and social media to appear flawless, – but I do. A single photo on Kylie Jenner’s, Rita Ora’s, Beyonce’s Instagram is worth stories, publicity, website hits. Sure, some celebrities post pics for their fans, but, cynical though it is, it’s obvious a lot of what they share on social media is to appeal to the media.

Unfortunately for us, it means looking at constant celeb selfies, trying desperately to recreate them, and feeling bad when we constantly miss the mark.