Teen blasts the endless chase for 'likes'
Social media has given 18-year-old Essena O'Neill a massive platform.
She amassed nearly 800,000 followers on Instagram and another 270,000 on
YouTube and even earned a modeling contract with one of the biggest agencies in Australia.
But now, she's leaving all that behind.
In a tearful video on her YouTube page, O'Neill renounced social media
and went on a tirade about how harmful the need for followers and likes
is to young people, especially women. "I let myself be defined by
numbers," she said. "You'd think getting 100,000 followers on Instagram
would be amazing. It was, for the day, but then you'd want 200,000."
Essena O'Neill denounces social media in viral YouTube video.
Social media has given 18-year-old Essena O'Neill a massive platform.
She amassed nearly 800,000 followers on Instagram and another 270,000 on
YouTube and even earned a modeling contract with one of the biggest agencies in Australia.
But now, she's leaving all that behind.
In a tearful video on her YouTube page, O'Neill renounced social media
and went on a tirade about how harmful the need for followers and likes
is to young people, especially women. "I let myself be defined by
numbers," she said. "You'd think getting 100,000 followers on Instagram
would be amazing. It was, for the day, but then you'd want 200,000."
In the video, which quickly went viral and has over 1.5 million views
since it was posted yesterday, O'Neill shut down her Snapchat and Tumblr
accounts. She said she will keep her YouTube and Instagram profiles but
won't post anything new.
O'Neill deleted more than 2,000 photos from her Instagram and edited the captions on remaining photos
to spread the truth about the images. One of the re-edited captions
explains how she was paid $400 to post a photo of her wearing a dress:
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