Op-Ed: Doing It For The Gram

Op-Ed: Doing It For The Gram

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

Happy Wednesday lovelies! It’s been a minute (again) since I posted on here. But frankly, I didn’t have anything to say during that time. Also, the app I work for launched at the beginning of November and I’ve been working late nights and lots of weekends and holidays too. But that’s a startup for you. And now that things have settled down, there’s something that has been low key bothering me for some time now but really came to a head over the past week that I’d like to discuss: doing things for the gram to seem relevant.

I personally don’t do anything for Instagram that I wouldn’t normally do. I’d still read books, buy lots of shoes, dress the same, eat tasty food, and drink a soy cappuccino to go every morning even if I didn’t have Cocoa Butter Diaries. But in our quest to “stay relevant”, some bloggers get caught doing the most. For example, was there a public service announcement that went out that said, “attention bloggers, please all post pictures of you in the middle of Christmas tree farms with pom pom beanies at the beginning of December”? My feed has literally been flooded with those photos lately. And the algorithm is NOT helping either. It makes my eyes roll into the back of my head because I just want to see street style and what my actual friends are posting! I even saw one photo in which she literally wrote in the caption that she loved Christmas trees and the smell but would still get a fake one for her house. Okur. So then why are you there, girl?

I think some of y’all get so caught up in maintaining this image of shopping sprees, avocado toast, brunches, flatlays, latte art, and peonies that you start to forget what’s really the reality. It’s sad too. And I bet someone reading this is thinking, “she’s just salty because my life is awesome and hers isn’t.” Wrong. Because your Instagram is awesome, not your life. It’s perfectly curated to project an image when I’d rather see the real you. And then we wonder why no one takes bloggers seriously. Go figure.

But guess what? There’s still a way out! Be honest with your followers. If you wear yoga pants every day, that’s fine! If you eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast instead of avocado toast, that’s cool too. If you hate peonies (full disclosure: I despise them), that’s totally okay. The point is, just be you. And I bet I (along with your legion of loyal followers) will still like you anyways!

xoxo, CCB