These brooches are the Instagram-friendly way to free your nipples
Nipples might not always be allowed on Instagram, but that hasn't halted attempts to make nipples this season's hottest accessory.
Pretty Ugly, a company based in Lithuania, has found a novel way to give two fingers to nipple censorship on social media, without breaking any rules: Free the Nipple brooches, made of felt.
Instagram's nudity guidelines have caused outrage over banned pictures and accounts, prompting activism across the social network and beyond. The platform's anti-nudity policy means that "some photos" of female nipples aren't allowed, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women "actively" breastfeeding are permitted.
The policing of Instagram's policy is left up to users to report, which has resulted in posts that aren't in breach of policy, being deleted by Instagram in error.
Some have found ways to free their nipples on Instagram, such as superimposing emoji or posting pictures of flowers over nipples.
Pretty Ugly has also adopted this approach, sewing two felt nipples onto the chest of a shirt to give it an anatomically correct look.
The nipple brooches are €15.00 ($15.95; £12.73) and the shirts are €40 ($42.55; £33.96).
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
