One quick perusal of Instagram can certainly cause one's confidence to drop. It usually feels like every photo on our Instagram feed is more beautiful or interesting or glamorous than what we're experiencing in our own life.
Hair colorist Ursula Goff recently posted two selfies on her Instagram account to refute this idea. One photo showed Ursula without makeup, and without her hair done, the other showed her with done-up hair and full makeup.
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"So I didn't edit either one of these photos, but they were taken just a few days apart," she wrote. "I think it's important to note that lighting, angles, facial expression, and make-up make a huge difference in photography and presentation (especially in my case!). Social media can make it easy to feel like everyone else is awesome and perfect all the time, but that's really never true."
A photo posted by Ursula Goff (@uggoff) on Dec 8, 2015 at 4:52pm PST
Goff said she wanted others to see the truth about photos on social media.
"I think of all the young people out there, especially girls, who are influenced by media in this way, and I think about how badly I know I'd feel if I were a teen today, trying to cope with ever more perfect females all over the place ... Part of the solution, I think, is more people opting to take a moment here and there to be real and show what's behind the smoke and mirrors, because it's relevant for y'all to know that this isn't reality."
Ursula says that it's more important to focus on what's in your own life than what you're seeing online.