'Plandids' are the Instagram trend of the moment and you've defo already posted one
You've been posting "plandids" for years and you didn't even know it.
Tipped to be the hottest Insta trend of the summer, this newly coined term actually describes a pretty well-established Instagram practice that many of us have been doing for yonks.
So, what exactly are plandids? The word is a portmanteau of "planned" and "candid," which kinda sounds like a contradiction in terms. The idea is to post "as if you didn't know the picture was being taken, but you're still posing," according to Instagrammer Maria Gillett.
"Kind of like you've been caught in the act of looking good in an 'off duty model' sort of way," Gillett adds.
Fashion and beauty Instagram blogger A La Mol says she'd been "accidentally" doing them long before she heard the term "plandid" online from another influencer. She describes the trend as an attempt to achieve "that infamous candid look Instagram models seem to always nail."
It's unclear precisely who coined the term but a quick Instagram search will show you more than 500 plandids of people trying to nail that nonchalant look. You'll see a stream of people looking oh-so-casually at the ground, or gazing into the horizon. Others will be mid-prance with a hand cocked to a jaunty angle. "Oh, I didn't even realise you were taking a photo," is the aesthetic.
So, why is this trend so popular? Gillett thinks people love taking plandids because "people don't like to look like they're making too much effort."
"Because it's meant to look like somebody else took the photo while you weren't looking, it kind of gives the person an excuse for putting up the photo, without looking really vain and contrived," says Gillett.
But, just how new is this purportedly new trend? Professional photographer Ronald Timehin says the word plandid is basically a "new term for an already existing concept." He says in his line of work he's often "directing people to move, stand or pose in a certain way" with the aim of making the final image look as "natural as possible."
"This is nothing new as photographers and models have been doing this for years, before social media was even a thing," says Timehin.
So, how do we take a good plandid? Timehin says the best way to take a good plandid is to make the person physically move. "Then shoot using burst mode, capturing all the little intricate details of the expression, rather than a static often forced pose," he says.
A La Mol says that she tends to look down for "that 'I didn't realise there was a camera' look."
"I then just take a million (not even exaggerating) photos while I'm moving to capture that specific 'casual' moment."
Don't even try to deny it: we have all taken and posted plandids on our Instagrams. And, why shouldn't we -- they look cute as hell. Perhaps, by adding the #plandid hashtag, you're actually being more real with your followers.
Topics Instagram
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.
