10 Teens Get Real About Selfies
Selfies. You post them to Instagram, send them to your BFF, and take them in the dressing room to make sure your outfits are camera-ready. One minute you're scrolling through Instagram, and then the next you're looking at your reflection through a phone screen. Although they can be super empowering, there is no denying that they're changing the way we connect to ourselves and those around us. That's why I asked teens around the world to get real with me about how selfies are affecting their relationships with their bodies:
"Selfies are an art. They're a way to capture your essence as a person, and make something tangible our of your personality." - Andy, 16
"I love the way selfies capture who I am. It's such a talent - to be able to take a good quality selfie." - Rachel, 17
"The perfect selfie can make my day. It can make me feel valuable and wonderful and beautiful." - Ella, 13
"I am obsessed with celeb selfies. That's why I love Snapchat so much. I spend most of my time comparing my selfies to celeb selfies. It sounds silly, but celebs have taught me so much about how to capture my personhood." - Maddie, 13
"My parents are TOTALLY awful at selfies. It really annoys me. Selfies are super generational. I could write a dope research paper on selfies." - Charlotte, 13
"The ability to take a selfie comes from within. It's all about taste and aesthetics and sadly my parents have none of that." - Ella, 13
"I actually consider myself someone with pretty low self-esteem. However, with selfies I am able to regain some confidence and make myself look more beautiful than I actually am IRL." - Ali, 15
"Selfies were super hard for me to look at when I was struggling with an eating disorder. It was like a constant reminder that I had big cheeks, and tons of flaws that I wanted to fix ASAP. I wish someone would have asked me to reflect on my relationships with selfies, because there is definitely a connection between self-esteem and the way you perceive selfies, there just kinda isn't room to talk about it anywhere so most people don't think about the very obvious correlation. I definitely should have thought about this when I was spiraling into a dark vortex of body dysmorphia. This question is super important and I am so grateful you're asking teens to think about this." - Eli, 19
"I think selfies can get competitive at times. If you post too many selfies you're 'self-centered,' but if you don't post any people might not know what you look like and you're labeled as 'fake' on social media. Ugh. There are so many unspoken rules of social media, it's exhausting." - Eddie, 18
"It's weird to me that social media documents puberty in a way that my parents, or even my oldest sister didn't have to deal with. At my school it super common for people to look at social media and sort through the girls who look like they have gotten their periods and separate them from the girls who haven't . It's bazaar. But being able to post a selfie with a more mature look is super empowering for some girls I know. While for me, I haven't gotten my period yet, so my face looks younger and therefore my social media presence is still 'young.'" - Frances, 13
Willa Bennett is a Fellow at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Instagram.
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