The trend of selfies has become popular over the past couple of years, most common among the millennials. While pictures have been around for decades, the trend of opening up your phone, turning on the front facing camera, and snapping a picture of yourself has been the go-to way of keeping memories.
With most trends come criticism and selfies have become the spotlight for hate and judgement. While some people call selfie-takers conceited, I prefer to use the word confident.
As a girl who grew up not loving herself as much as I should, I spent the majority of my childhood comparing myself to everyone around me, wanting to find ways in which we were alike so I didn’t feel so alone.
Along with me, many other people out there don’t have the confidence and self esteem to love themselves when they see those who are around them. We are constantly surrounded by pictures in magazines, and posters that show what is expected to be beautiful in today’s society when the pictures themselves aren’t real at all.
Selfies bring a whole new perspective to how you see yourself, and you can control the lens and everything that goes into taking a picture of yourself.
You can take it in your bathroom or outside in the natural light, you can add edits and filters to your pictures, or go unedited. You can wear a full face of makeup, or you can go all natural. The meaning behind the selfie is to create something that is custom to you, and what makes you feel most comfortable and confident.
For someone to take a selfie of themselves doesn’t mean they are vain and full of themselves, but rather self loving and accepting.
Today someone can love the way their smiles brighten the room, or another can love the hair they were blessed with. There are people in this world who can now change their flaws into something they love about themselves and want to keep that memory forever.
The trend of selfies have brought movements that add on to the self love that everyone should have. Demi Lovato started the trend “#NoMakeupMonday” on Instagram after posting a selfie with no makeup to encourage people all around the world to post selfies of themselves without makeup to bring more awareness to the fact that anyone can look beautiful by themselves.
While another trend, “BlackOut” started on social media in order to show the beauty and worth of black people to who are just as important and special as white people, in a society that tells them that they’re not. This trend includes the thousands of selfies posted of those who feel confident in themselves and want to share that self love with the world.
To me, it takes a lot for someone to want to take a picture of themselves, and when they do it’s a beautiful thing. It means that they love who they are in a place where they were trapped in a box of expectations, and I believe this is the trend to change it all.
