TIPPING THE SCALE ON SOCIAL MEDIA — FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN YOUR ONLINE AND OFFLINE WORLDS4/29/2018 With notifications blowing up your phone with likes, followers, comments and retweets, text messages and email bings, it can be really hard to be present in the moment and not be consumed by the constant pull of the online world. According to Quartz, on average people spend more than 490 minutes of their day on some sort of media making peoples screen time two hours longer than their average night's sleep. Many people criticize this constant connection to the media, claiming life would be better if people removed social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat from their lives, however it isn’t that simple. Social media allows you to keep in touch with friends and family whom you may not see often, it propels businesses forward, introduces you to events, people, news and allows you to interact with new people from all over the world. Like everything, there is good and bad to social media, the tricky part is learning to balance the two. 1. BE PRESENT IN THE MOMENTWhile social media allows us to be constantly connected to people from all over the world, it sometimes makes us anti-social. Sherry Turkle, the author of Reclaiming Conversation, The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, highlights our antisocial behavior of being on our phones at our dining room tables, in our living rooms, in business meetings and while hanging out with our friends. While we “think” we are being social because we are “with” people, we are actually completely missing the moment and instead distracted by our Instagram feed, an email or a video of a cute baby animal. Nowadays, when people feel anxious in social settings and almost instinctively pull out our phone as if to say “please nobody talk to me”
While those Instagram posts and baby animals are entertaining and emails are sometimes necessary, make a note in your mind to put your phone down when you are with people and actually experience the moment. According to a research from the University of Chicago, people feel better when their relationships happen face-to-face or over the phone as opposed to just over social media. So next time you are with people you care about take photos only to capture the moment and post your photo later, turn off your notifications, and actually be present. You can always look at your phone and post your pictures when you get home! 2. STOP COMPARING YOUR ONLINE PERSONA Social Media adds FOMO (fear of missing out) into our lives where we constantly feel anxious about not being invited to the events we see on social media, compare our lives to the lives of others and find ourselves wondering why we aren’t cool enough to be invited, why we don’t look like this person or have as much fun as that person. According to Lipschultz, people are constantly tempted to present themselves, as they would LIKE to be not necessarily how their lives actually are. So when you see someone having a great time at a party, frolicking on a beach somewhere, or only posting photos where they look borderline perfection stop for a second and remind yourself that on social media people carefully curate their personas and you shouldn’t compare another person's edited snapshot of time to your whole life because most-likely they feel the same way about your posts 3. TURN OFF YOUR INSTA-DISTRACTIONSSometimes it is hard to stay focused when there are notifications blowing up your phone, with 101 things that are more fun and more entertaining than your to-do list. According to Sherry Turkle, we are so addicted to a constant feed of connection, information and entertainment that when we are bored we pull out our phones. On a long bus ride, procrastinating at work, waiting in line at a store, or seeking relief from our to-do list, we pull out our phones to scroll through Facebook and Instagram even if we have already seen everything on there. While entertaining yourself when you are bored is completely normal it becomes an issue when it starts affecting your ability to be productive. According to Behavioral Scientist, if you want to be more productive with more energy for your daily activities, you should limit social networking to designated times of the day instead of as a constant stream of interruptions. Forbes claims that it takes 15 minutes to get into a workflow and every time you are distracted it takes that much time to get back in the zone. So, when trying to get stuff done, consider turning your phone on do-not-disturb until you are finished. That way your task will take less time and you can check social media after. FINAL THOUGHTSIt is really easy to get consumed by the online world, making it hard to be present in the moment, not become distracted by the unlimited access to entertainment and not compare your life to the online lives of others. I very often find myself sitting at a coffee shop with my best friend while we both stare at our phones instead of talking to each other. Instead of doing homework I sometimes find myself two hours into the Instagram pages of cute cats (I love cats) and very often I compare my social life to the lives portrayed on social media. But while social media is a great tool for entertainment, news, information and connection, sometimes it's helpful to just turn it off for a little while and come back to it later.
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With over 400 million daily active users, Instagram has become one of the major social media networks brands are using to reach their audiences. The visual nature of Instagram allows for brands to highlight their identity through images and create a narrative that lets customers feel the personality of a brand just by looking at the profile. While Instagram is a great platform to draw in any audience and highlight your brands through creative imagery, you must reach the right audience with the right posts to actually be successful on the platform.
According to Kaushik, contrary to what some may think, what matters on Instagram isn’t as simple as the number of followers, likes per post or your “followers to following ratio”. What is actually important is whether you grabbed your viewers attention, did people want to share your post, did they take action and click on your website or purchase a product? However, the simple numbers are what allow for these questions to be answered. THE QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY INSTAGRAM ANALYTICSAccording to Lipschultz, using metrics allows content creators to identify who their audience is and what types of posts, hashtags, keywords and captions generate the most views, likes, comments and clicks to purchase so that they are able create posts that best connect with their viewers.
According to Lipschultz, every follow, like, and comment comes with metadata attached to it including, location, date and time which can help you to understand your audience better. Knowing when your followers are active online (day and time) gives you insight on when is the best time to post to create the most impressions. What is Your Most Successful Content? -- According to Kaushik, measuring what types of content drive the most engagement through likes, comments, and saves, gives you insight on what to post again in the future. Instagram users ‘like over 4 billion posts everyday, making likes the easiest way for audience members to interact with your content on Instagram. Measuring your Applause Rate through “likes “ is a great way to start analyzing which posts are successful and which aren’t. Comments are another great way to measure your audience’s engagement. Your Conversation Rate, which is the number of audience comments or replies per post highlights now many people are actively trying to communicate with your brand. Comments are also a great way to spark conversations with your audience to build trust and loyalty between you and your followers. Even if your content doesn’t get liked or commented on just being seen by someone can spark interest in your brand. Your Impressions are the total number of times your content has seen weather it be by scrolling through their feed, viewing content on your profile, or viewing it through a direct message. Reach is similar in that it also shows the number of views your content has been seen by different accounts. If your impressions are higher than your reach it usually means that your audience is seeing your content multiple times. These metrics allow for content creators to see how many people are viewing the content in comparison to how many people are actually engaging with the content. NEW GOALS AND STRATEGIES BASED ON METRICSOnce you have recorded analytics over time and analyzed the content to find patterns in what works well and what doesn’t you can begin to move forward to create new goals or tweak your Instagram strategy based on the insights you have gained.
Keeping an eye on your metrics allows you to gain insight on how to grow your Instagram success in the future. Weather you are trying to grow your engagement, following, or drive to purchase, seeing what works and what doesn't with your current Instagram strategy will let you know what to keep on doing and what to potentially change. Knowing your metrics allows you to create obtainable goals that can be measured overtime and ultimately lead to success. Today Nike is the second most followed account on Instagram and the most followed apparel brand on the platform. With 76.9 million followers Nike has grown their Instagram following 134% in less than two years. Between their active lifestyle aesthetic, motivational slogan and their loyal community, Nike has been able to create a brilliant Instagram strategy that brought them all the way to the top. WHY USE INSTAGRAM?Nowadays, your Instagram page is just as important as your website’s landing page. Instagram is different than other social media platforms in that its visual nature allows for brands to highlight their identity through images and create a narrative that lets customers feel the personality of a brand just by looking at the profile. According to Forbes, 80% of the 700 million Instagram users choose to follow and connect with brands on Instagram, making their consumer to brand engagement 10x more than Facebook, 54x more than Pinterest, and 84x more than Twitter. This makes Instagram a fantastic platform to highlight your brand's story and connect with consumers. LEARN FROM NIKE’S IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZABLE BRAND IDENTITYIt’s a Lifestyle — Nike’s brand identity is so strong that you can pinpoint one of their products, advertisements, or posts simply by the presence of their swish or their slogan “Just Do It” and sometimes even without those at all. Nike’s motivational identity is at the heart of everything they do regardless of being online or offline. Nike uses Instagram to connect their brand to build the “Just Do It” lifestyle rather than solely focusing on bombarding its followers with product shots and promotional material. According to Inc, they very successfully use Instagram to make customers feel as though they are not buying the products but instead buying the lifestyle that is associated with the products. They use motivational copy that connects with their followers gaining them up to 500,000 likes per post. Nike has been wildly successful when creating a community both online and offline that share the same lifestyle goals as the brand. Nike was able to do this, not only because of their cohesive brand lifestyle, voice and motivational mission, but because they actively reach out to their community. Nike encourages their followers to participate in the Nike community by asking them to share their #Nike lifestyle and then regularly giving customers a shout-out on their page. By allowing your customers to participate in content creating and interact with your brand it creates a narrative that is compelling and worth following. Yes, we want to hear other people's personal stories because it makes us feel like we can share our own and it only elevates the authenticity of the brand. Instagram is a great platform to showcase your brands personality. Before posting you have to consider who you are as a brand and who your audience is. Is your brand “Funny? Inspirational? Heartfelt? Sarcastic?”, figure out who you are and then stick to it. Create an Aesthetic — Although Nike sells work out clothing, sneakers and sports equipment, all things that wouldn’t stereotypically be considered stunning, they play to the nature of Instagrams platform and post images that are visually beautiful and hard not to like. According to Sprout, your Instagram posts should not only connect to the overall personality of the brand but they should also connect visually. Weather that be a cohesive color pallet or a type of camera angle, the composition of your Instagram should reflect your brands lifestyle mission but also your brands aesthetic. When working with Instagram you have to take into consideration the nature of the platform. Instagram is founded on visuals, so in order to be successful you have to post beautiful content that isn’t just a montage of branded images. Remember, on Instagram your posts are selling a lifestyle not just your products. People Like a Good Story — Many think that Instagram stops after taking the photo but captions are just as important when creating your brand's story. According to Forbes, a consistent voice will create authenticity and allow people to connect with your brand. By linking your comments and copy on Instagram to the same mission as your photos you create a brand that has personality and reliability. A brand that people want to follow because they are sincere and interesting on top of posting great content. A "Just Do It" COmmunityHashtags -- Using hashtags allows people to connect their personal pages and posts to your brand, which strengthens the community and allows for content to be shared within it. #Nike, has over 68 million posts on Instagram allowing people to interact with the brand and see how other people are interacting with them as well. Nike used the growth of #Nike as a way to celebrate their community. For 24 hours Nike shared 10 Instagram photos from their customers who had posted using their hashtag thanking them for inspiring the company and highlighting the story of the fan who posted the original photo. Doing this not only build brand loyalty and made customers feel appreciated and included but also gained them thousands of likes and comments, made headlines and created brand awareness. User Generated Content -- Like Nike, when your brand’s community grows large enough for members to start sharing photos that feature your brand, it allows you to repost their content and encourage others to post their experiences with your products. According to Sprout, UGC is extremely beneficial to creating brand loyalty and trust but when using UGC you still have to make sure it is in line with your brands image before posting it to your own page and to give the original poster credit. UGC allows for a “we’re all in this together” vibe that not only gives your brand new content to post but also creates greater brand loyalty. Final ThoughtsNike has done an incredible job of highlighting the personality of the their brand and creating a lifestyle that is associated with their products. But you don’t have to be a huge brand like Nike to follow their Instagram marketing strategy successfully. Once you have a mission statement about who you are as a brand and what you want to portray to the world you just have to stick to it no matter what. Weather it be your voice, your instagram photos, or the narrative you tell through all your content, being true to your brand will make you relatable and trustworthy. If you create your brand as a lifestyle people will want to live it.
Go create an Instagram empire. Nike’s brand started from scratch just like yours did. “Just Do It”. Two years ago Nuseir Yassin, the now viral videographer known as Nas Daily, quit his job at Vimeo in New York to make Facebook Videos. While working a 9-5 job, Yassin realized that he was already 32% done with his live and didn’t want to waste any more time sitting in his office all day. The Harvard grad now travels wearing a t-shirt with a timeline of how far he is in life making Facebook videos everyday about people and places around the world. Why Nas chose Facebook over YoutubeFor starters, Facebook is the largest social network in the world with over 2 billion users and 183 million people that use the platform every single day. With that many people using Facebook it is no wonder that Yassin would choose to utilize this platform. But it isn’t just that. He originally created Nas Daily to share videos with his friends and his friends are on Facebook. People often ask him why he doesn’t use YouTube to share videos and he has two main reasons. His Community is on Facebook According to Yassin only 15% of his views on YouTube come from YouTube recommendations while the rest come from links on outside sources. On Facebook there's a greater ability to share. When your friend likes a video, you get the opportunity to see that video. Other social media platforms don't work the same way. Yassin uses Facebook to invite people from all over the world into his community through his videos but also though follows, likes and shares. Facebook is More Personal On social media Yassin goes by the name Nas which means people in Arabic. His whole platform is about meeting with people around the world and sharing their stories in one minute so naturally he wants to use a platform that reflects that. Yassin says that on YouTube you’re just a username and he doesn’t care about person “x9x9x9x9” but he does care about real people with real names. The Power of VideoPeople don’t like to read long posts and articles online which is why photos and videos are much more compelling. But if a picture is worth a thousand words than how much is a video worth? Facebook videos allow for content creators to gain immediate access to a massive amount of people. According to Hootsuite, people watch 100 million hours of video on Facebook every day. People like videos more than they like anything else because they are more interesting and thus more shareable, resulting in Facebook Video posts receiving 135% more organic reach than photo posts. People also remember videos more. According to Facebook Business, from the moment a a video was viewed, even if only for a second, there is a rise in ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase consideration. So even the people who never watched the video but did see the impression are impacted by it. 4 things to learn from Nas Daily about Facebook marketing1. Stay True To Your Mission Yassin created Nas Daily to make videos about things he cared about and share them with people around the world. He cares about people, small businesses and exploring amazing places around the globe. Nas Daily is successful because every day, with every video, he sticks to this mission. Everything you do on Facebook should reflect your brands mission statement so you stay true to who you are and the goals you want to reach. Every post, every comment every ad. 2. Know Your Audience Yassin chose to use Facebook because that is where his audience is. Once you figure out which platform your audience uses the most get familiar with demographics. According to Hootsuite, your first step should be defining your audience to figure out how old they are, where they live, how and when they use Facebook in order to create content that will resonate with them. Facebook Business highlights the importance of tailoring your story to your audience because people are more likely to pay attention to things that are relevant to their interests. 3. Have Personality & Create A Community Yassin Is passionate about people, traveling, sharing stories and informing people about cool things around the world. Every person he visits while filming as well as every person who watches his videos are invited to be a part of his community. Two thirds of your content should be either sharing ideas and stories or involve personal interactions with your followers because that is what keeps people engaged. According to Facebook Business, people follow companies that create a community for viewers to learn engage and share. If your posts lack personality people won’t share them. 4. Be Consistent Every single Nas Daily video has the exact same format. They all start with the same intro, he wears the same shirt, he tells you a compelling story, he always does it in one minute and he always ends it with "That's one minute, see you tomorrow!". Being consistent allows for people to recognize your content before they even click on it. According to Forbes 5-10 posts per week is ideal. Posting too little will make your audience loose interest and posting too much will only irritate them. Tips & Tricks on making Facebook videos1. Upload Your Videos Straight To Facebook. Only native upload videos have the auto play feature, which allows users to see your video without even pressing play. And it only takes one second of video to be impacted. 2. Your Thumbnail Is More Important Than You Think Your thumbnail is the first image they see when watching your video. It should be completely unique to your brand and recognizable. 3. Make Your Description A Cliffhanger. Every one of Nas Daily’s video descriptions leaves you with a question that makes you want to watch the video. For example, his video “What Harvard Doesn’t Teach” makes you want to click on the video and learn more. The more compelling your title the more compelling it is to watch. 4. Be Concise If you can tell the story well in one minute then don’t make it longer or shorter. According to Facebook Business it is important that you bring your story to life quickly in order to spark interest. Keep things short and sweet so that people are interested from the first frame to the last. Final ThoughtsOverall your Facebook page will only be as powerful as what you put into it. If you are goal oriented, stay true to your mission and create interesting and relatable content people will want to follow you. No one wants to follow someone who only bombards them with ads they want to follow people with personality.
Tell your story well and people will listen. Social media has completely changed the way in which we interact with our friends, family and acquaintances but it has also drastically changed the way in which we interact with brands as well. Social media has allowed for brands to be seen as people too, allowing businesses to connect with their customers as if they too where your bestie. Ten years ago Time Magazine named “you” the person of the year to highlight how everybody can become somebody on social media and since then businesses have taken social media by storm creating brands with personality. Glossier, an online skincare and make up brand, founded by Emily Weiss has completely mastered creating a brand that you want to be friends with. Inspired by her blog Into The Gloss where she interviewed women in the beauty, fashion and modeling industries and discussed their beauty routines and favorite products, Emily noticed that there was a gap in the beauty industry where women didn’t really have a voice or an ability to say what they wanted and needed from products and there sparked her idea for a digitally native beauty brand inspired by real life. WHY BE SOCIAL?The Pool highlights that 52% of millennials are likely to make beauty purchases on social media. The blog talks about how nowadays the best way to drive beauty purchases is to have tutorials with a “click to buy” link. People want to be informed rather than bombarded with advertising messages that don’t offer any insight. Instead we are looking for a brand that offers transparency, reliability and personality. According to Lipschultz, social media allows for these informal conversations where customers can be a part of the dialogue and creates an environment where consumers can interact with the brand, ask questions, post reviews, gather information, become part of a community and share control. STYLE GOES A LONG WAYBeing a part of the makeup, fashion and modeling industry, Jess Weiss understood how important the “look” and “voice” is when it comes to creating a successful brand. With pastel color blocking on pristine white packaging and bolded black text, Glossier's image is the perfect combination between simple and eye catching resembling an artists dream of Pantone's color chips and paint tubes. Hootsuite highlights the importance of linking your brands voice and tone with the brands style, which is exactly what Glossier does. The brand strives to create products that are beautiful, simple to use and reliable and their packaging’s simplicity and class translates that seamlessly. According to Lipschultz, brands need to look relevant, engaged and authentic because if their content is unimaginative then it makes them look completely uninteresting. In an interview with Forbes, Emily said that because of this need to stand out, she spent an enormous amount of time with an illustrator creating the packaging, stickers and illustrations so that when people got their products they were so excited about it they wanted to take a picture of it and share it. the glossier strategy. Test, evaluate, adjust.According to Hootsuite, it is really important to test, evaluate and adjust your social media marketing plan in order to know what will and won’t be successful when trying to connect with your customers. Social Listening allows companies to understand what is trending, what is important to the customers and how their brand is relevant. Glossier is founded on the idea of “test, evaluate and adjust”. The brand itself was born from the conversations that women have when choosing the products that they use everyday. Through research, re-choosing, reviewing and recommending products to people they know as well as people on the internet, women create a dialogue about what types of products they do and don’t like.
Test — What Works? What Doesn't? Founder Emily Weiss wanted Glossier to become a brand that women wanted to be friends with, connect with, be inspired by and trust. Tech Crunch claims that in order to do so she needed to create a direct-to-consumer strategy that allowed her customers to engage with the brand, writing reviews, explaining what they needed and getting tips and tricks from the brand so that she would be able to create products that filled the needs of her customers. According to Entrepreneur.com, Emily, understanding the power of social media being part of the world of blogging spent all $8.4 million she received in funding on investing in technology, data analytics and studies of Instagram and other social media platforms. She wanted to understand how well certain Glossier posts performed in comparison to others, whether or not people liked her products and how people where engaging with her posts. Evaluate & Adjust — What Do People Want? Let's Make It Happen. Brands are normally in control of the messages that surround them as well and the messages that they give their consumers. However, Lipschultz claims that reviews allow for customers to become influencers through their comments because future customers read reviews to determine the value of a product or the sincerity of a brand. Social media and reviews allow brands to create extremely valuable customer service based on how they respond to reviews and remain transparent online. Positive customer service leads to the sharing of positive experiences and the growth of brand loyalty. Glossier took full advantage of reviews as a way to create products truly inspired by the customers, which built trust and loyalty for the brand. According to Entrepreneur.com, Glossier posted on Instagram asking followers what they wanted in a moisturizer and after 1,000 people responded asking for a priming lotion that hydrates the skin while still allowing a matte makeup finish to be applied on top, the company took their insights into consideration and released the Priming Moisturizer Rich. Glossier’s marketing, editorial and customer service teams are all responsible for responding to all comments both publicly and through direct message so that all their customers feel heard. Glossier takes pride in their open communication channel with their customers and even recruited representatives or “Glossier Girls” to receive new products early in return for feedback sessions so that they could create the best possible products inspired by what their customers wanted. At Glossier, the influencers are regular people who engage with the brand online, which makes them accessible, and trustworthy.
Glossier's Cult like followingGlossier grew an impressively large community with extreme brand loyalty. Since their launch in 2014, Glossier has grown to have 1 million followers on Instagram, 150 thousand #Glossier tagged posts of people using and endorsing their products and brand loyalty so strong it has been described as a “cult following”. According to Refinery, this Glossier fan base is so devoted that its products regularly rack waiting lists with tens of thousands of people. Weiss claims that Glossier owns 90% of its success to their fans because the four-year growth of the brand has not been through paid advertising and marketing but mostly word of mouth. By creating a Social Business, Glossier was able to use social media as platform for word of mouth advertising where customers feel like they are having a conversation with the brand, learning from the brand or even seeing the brand as a "friend". This connection, or Friend-of-Mine Awareness, is created by making customers consider your brand as a friend in order to gain attention and loyalty. In an interview, Emily Weiss claimed that whenever they talk to a customer through captions, email, on the website, or directly, they write their copy the same way they would write a message to a friend. This voice of “friend” has created a loyalty and trust within the Glossier community that other companies could only dream of. Final ThoughtsI first became aware of the Glossier brand on Instagram when I saw a video tutorial of their Cloud Paint crème blush and immediately was intrigued by how easy it looked to apply, and their beautiful packaging. The caption had a quirky line about how Glossier was for the girls who didn’t know how to use a makeup brush and in one post I had already decided I liked the brand. Once my friends started raving about it I couldn’t hold out anymore and I bought some of their products.
The brands we choose and use are a reflection of who we are and when a brand comes along that is so transparent, reliable, efficient AND makes you feel a part of a community it makes you want to collect all of their products. I have friends who seem to be on a mission to have every single Glossier product as if they were collectables because not only do their product work but it is refreshing to have a brand be truly inspired by the needs of the people purchasing the products and so focused on communicating with the customers. When I was little I would beg my mom to let me get a Barbie and her answer was always no. She believed the unattainable dimensions of the doll would have a negative effect on my body image and even though I have never played with one and had a mom who tried to shelter me, Barbie’s ridiculously thin waist and curvy structure have found a new way of influencing how I see myself by taking over my Instagram feed. And if Cameron Diaz can't compete with Barbie then no one can. Instagram & Body ImageA window into my experience -- When I first started using Instagram it was just a way for me to share photos with my friends and see what everyone was up to. My fifteen-year-old-self didn’t follow celebrities, or Instagram models or Fitspo accounts. Now, five years later I don’ t find myself spending most of my time on Instagram looking at people I know, but instead obsessively scrolling though Fitspos like Kayla Itsines and looking at Instagram models like Alexis Ren. Some Intsta Stats -- There is no denying that social media has a negative effect on the way us girls view ourselves. A Common Sense survey found that 35 percent of girls are worried about being tagged in an unattractive post on social media because being “attractive” is so deeply ingrained in our standards of what is expected of girls. With #thinspiration, #thinspo and #ana (hashtags promoting eating disorders in order to obtain an extreme thinness) creeping into the Instagram feeds of young girls it's no wonder that 20 million women suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their life. In an interview with PBS an 18-year-old from Philadelphia explained that “on social media, you have to look like this, your body has to be shaped with way, you have to have this skin color, you have to have this smile to be acceptable to society”. This constant comparison and notion that you must fit into a very specific box of standardized beauty make scrolling through Instagram affect our perceptions of ourselves negatively. Insider found a study that looked at a group of 276 women and determined that scrolling through Instagram for as little as 30 minutes makes us objectify ourselves and UK’s Royal Society for Public Health found that Instagram was the most damaging social network for mental health, affecting anxiety levels and body satisfaction. "too fat" — An obsession with thinnessOn Instagram we have a tendency to glorify “thin” girls who are ridiculously attractive — Just take a look at this list of the top 10 most followed Instagram models. What do they all have in common? A tiny waist and a stunning face. These girls have become the glorified answer to the question “what is beautiful” and who we find ourselves stalking on Instagram at 3 am feeling bad about ourselves after binge eating the whole Dominos Pizza. According to an article on the impact of social media on body image and distorted eating, the ‘ideal’ body shape that has taken over the TV shows we watch, the magazines we read and the accounts that we follow promote an unattainable beauty standard of often photo-shopped women who are young, tall, big-breasted and extremely thin. These “models” of what women should look like don’t represent the average size 14 women and neither do the size 8 so-called “plus sized” models who are still substantially smaller than the average American girl. The fact that we call women who are SIX sizes smaller than the average dress size “plus size” proves that our society is majorly obsessed with thinness and completely delusional to what is actually “normal”. |
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