
Instagram-Famous Teen Shows the Dark Backstory of Her Perfect Selfies - striking
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/essena-oneill-instagram-selfies-backstory
======
oldmanjay
She had to pose is what I'm getting from this. Granted, I'm not one of those
people who thinks modelling is simple, but I'm not following what is severely
dark about that.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
Apparently it took over her life, became an obsession. Social media made it
easy to collect acclaim and popularity on a massive scale. Massive compared to
what physical, real life offered.

~~~
oldmanjay
Right, so like modelling, which is not exactly an obscure occupation. That she
did it using instagram doesn't make much difference there.

I think it's important to point out that I am an old man, not a teenager, so
overdramatizing things doesn't boost my engagement.

~~~
kaitai
Modeling is not an obsession, it's a job. You do it when you're young, smoke a
lot of cigarettes etc, and then you move on. It's like grad school but with
even more skeezy old guys.

(Now, math modeling may become an obsession...)

edit: just to be clear, oldmanjay, I am not making any comments about old guys
in general! some of my best friends are old guys!

~~~
Animats
_" Modeling is not an obsession, it's a job."_

Becoming a model is an obsession for some young women. For models, it's a gig
job, and getting gigs is hard. Only the top 100 or so models worldwide make
real money. If you're in LA, you probably know some actress/model/waitress
types. I had a friend whose career peak, after years of work, was one
McDonalds' commercial that got nationwide distribution.

Below the top tier, the work is not that great. There's trade show work as a
booth babe. There's catalog modeling ("OK, the next one is the blue sweater,
#6522, and hurry it up, we have 20 more to do before lunch").

~~~
kaitai
Totally agreed. Hence the comparison with graduate school: you often have to
work other jobs to support the effort, you've got a dream you'll make it big,
you realize the toll it's taking on your life, and you probably stop doing it
eventually. Even if you "make it," you're probably not a top model (a prof at
Princeton) but instead a commercial model (prof at directional state U or
small Midwestern religious school). Below the top tier, the work is not what
you were sold on in grad school, but you do get to make money doing something
you kind of or really like. (Please quit if you don't like it at all.)

Even American literature has way better job security and pension prospects
than modeling, though.

------
kawera
She's trying to create a movement out of it:
[http://www.letsbegamechangers.com](http://www.letsbegamechangers.com). I'm
not sure how I feel about this, if it's sincere and genuine or just a
marketing ploy. Hopefully the former.

~~~
J_Darnley
Wow. Is she advocating for complete removal of social media from the web?
Good. It has done nothing good for anyone.

~~~
_neil
Not sure if this is sarcasm. Job opportunities, facilitating
protests/revolutions, artistic collaborations, ...

~~~
J_Darnley
Not at all. See my reply to your sibling comment. Add to your list massive
government and corporate spying.

~~~
_neil
That's fine and I agree to some extent. But you said 'nothing good for
anyone.' Some organizations abusing social media doesn't nullify the good
things that have happened because of it.

------
AlexEatsKittens
This article strikes me as a person who begged for attention via social media
changing their tactics and begging for attention by being anti-social media.
That is to say, this strikes me as quite vapid.

------
chris_wot
This is a total ploy. There is a link to "cool products".

This is the ULTIMATE in viral marketing. By removing herself from Instagram,
she has done a humble-brag to get attention. By highlighting the issues she
has with her quite attractive photos, she actually gets _more_ attention, and
can become a thought-leader and thus product pusher for marketing firms.

The difference is that the marketing firms will now be new-age companies. From
her info page [1]:

"I wish to create a platform that acts to spread new age messages of conscious
living, addition to technology, minimise the celebrity culture, promote
veganism, plant based nutrition, environmental awareness, social issues,
gender equality, controversial art etc."

Look, I'm probably just cynical, but this seems to be a self-promotion vehicle
by an attractive teenage girl.

1\.
[http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/info/](http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/info/)

------
ChuckMcM
I think perhaps the most relevant bit is that celebrity can feed a hunger you
didn't know existed, and drive you off balance unexpectedly. She isn't the
first, nor the last, young women to get sucked in. What is perhaps unique here
is that she didn't have a sleezy promoter or other manipulative type who
suckered her into the life, instead she did it to herself by putting herself
out there on Instagram. All the angst and none of the side benefits of being
this week's hot fashion model.

------
kawera
And now she is on The Guardian's front page:
[http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-
star-...](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-star-essena-
oneill-quits-2d-life-to-reveal-true-story-behind-images)

------
noviembre
Uh oh! Someone _lied_ on the internet, and then felt bad about it!

------
lambdapie
Some people are more attractive, cooler, more interesting, than others. It's
not some evil plot by the corporations to make us feel bad about ourselves.
These people are really out there. The left wing narrative that all bad things
that happen to us stem from some structural power imbalance in our society, is
blind to this fact of nature. So they need strange stories like this to
explain away the apparent differences in how popular and cool people are.

~~~
AlexEatsKittens
You'd don't think corporations use marketing to intentionally make people feel
bad about themselves?

~~~
lambdapie
Maybe some do, but there is a distinction between intentionally making people
feel bad about themselves, and advertisements that simply holding up some look
or personality as attractive/cool. Some people might _interpret_ the latter as
an attempt to make people feel bad about themselves, but I respectfully
disagree.

When it comes to intentionally making people feel bad about themselves, I
don't see much of this, since negative advertising is not very popular. Most
advertising I see is motivational/aspirational, i.e. showing people an image
that people believe they can attain.

------
jkot
What is dark about this?

------
n7c3c1
"BREAKING: Young woman called 'brave' for tearing down walls she alone put up"

