How Social Media Is Allowing Stars to Take Back Their Narrative
Julianne Hough vacationing in Mexico with her sister, who’s having a little less fun (Photo: Instagram)
On Thursday morning, Julianne Hough, of Dancing With the Stars and Grease Live! fame, pulled kind of a baller move. You see, a photo agency had several photos of her on vacation with her family aboard a boat in Mexico, one of which shows her sister puking off the side. It’s a pretty hilarious moment, as you can see above.
The photo was published Wednesday by TMZ, who had exclusive rights to the picture. Then, before the embargo lifted, Hough posted the photo to her own Instagram, explaining that her family “all got sooooooooooooooooooooooooo sea sick!”
Rather than wait to buy the photo, every website used Hough’s Instagram, and with it, her explanation.
Hough isn’t the first celebrity to use social media to write her own story. Kim Kardashian uploads a steady stream of photos of her children North and Saint West to Instagram and Twitter. These images are free to use and, better yet for Kardashian, chosen specifically by her.
Kim Kardashian’s nude that launched a thousand ships (Photo: Instagram)
In fact, Kim Kardashian is perhaps the master of using social media to write her own story; one simple nude selfie turned into a days-long discussion of Kim’s place as a feminist icon.
Sometime in 2015, Anne Hathaway became pregnant. She spent the New Year, already showing, on the beach, where she was photographed. Having spent 15 years in the spotlight, Hathaway knew what came next. So instead of waiting for the paparazzi shots to go on sale and spread across the Internet like wildfire, she grabbed her phone.
Anne Hathaway, pregnant on the beach (Photo: Instagram)
In her caption for the photo, she was completely transparent about what was going on.
“So, posting a bikini pic is a little out of character for me, but just now while I was at the beach I noticed I was being photographed,” she wrote. “I figure if this kind of photo is going to be out in the world it should at least be an image that makes me happy (and be one that was taken with my consent. And with a filter.)”
In each of these instances, the star has completely cut down the paparazzi at the knees.
Since social media has really caught on, celebrities have become their own publishers. The leading experts in the field, the Kardashians, have taken it one step further, with their eponymous apps which offer, in addition to a photographic look into their own lives, personal essays, how-tos, and, literally, guides to eating candy.
There will always be stars who are reluctant to allow the public access to their personal lives. But as they gain control of the story that’s being told, we stand to know more than ever about the passions, the tribulations, and the everyday lives of the people who shape our culture.
