Love your selfie By Krystal DeWolfe
I
take selfies. One of the first selfies I took was about 18 months ago. I had just given birth to my third child and was going to lose the baby weight. I started an account on Instagram to look to for inspiration from others. I noticed right away that almost everyone selfied. I decided I should take a “before” photo to track my progress as I went. It was a mirror selfie. A mirror selfie involves snappping a photo of your reflection in a full length or bathroom mirror. It was awful. I felt awful. I thought to myself, “There is no way I’m ever showing anyone this photo, let alone post it on the Internet.” A few weeks had passed, and I took another ‘accountability photo’ of myself. I compared the two and was pleasantly surprised by the difference. Besides the fact that I had accomplished something, I didn’t mind the new selfie. Not gonna lie – I threw a filter on it to hide a little cellulite, sucked up my courage and posted the side-by -side on my Instagram account to show the world. Ack! What had I done? “Delete! Delete! Delete!” my head screamed. But just then, the photo got a ‘like’...then another. Comments of encouragement poured in from friends and even strangers. I actually felt good about myself. I’ve lost over 80 pounds, and taken hundreds of selfies. I enjoy having the creative
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outlet and continue to use social media to express myself. I comment on other users’ selfies sometimes, and it’s nice to know you are making someone think twice about hating on themselves. I draw inspiration and see selfies as a way for others to inspire themselves, and that is probably the best feeling I’ve had. Someone having faith in herself is a beautiful thing. Not just for our appearance, but for our souls to shine from the inside out.
The “selfie:” as old as art
Whether we like it or not, the ‘selfie’ is here to stay. There is a selfie song (#Selfie, released January 2014, by the DJ duo The Chainsmokers). There are famous selfies, such as the 1966 space selfie by Buzz Aldren. At the recent Commonwealth games, two Austrailian hockey players had their selfie photobombed by the Queen of England herself. Kim Kardashian recently released a book full of her own ‘selfies’. As much as we’d like to cast blame on
ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN: one giant leap for selfies. Buzz Aldren, trendsetter.