Upon reading Charissa Coulthard’s article on ‘selfies’ (), an idea that has lingered in the back of my mind for a while returned to me. Many people are shamed or criticised for posting too many ‘selfies’ on social media networks such as Instagram, being called “vain” or “attention-seeking”, but I think there should be a new mindset; a new hashtag: #BanTheSelfieHate.

I am not saying I dislike these photos or in any way saying that they are not considered a form of art, because personally, ninety-percent of the accounts in which I follow on Instagram are of people taking photos of landscapes, buildings, architecture, towns (in amazing Amsterdam and London) and cities (New York my inevitable future). But with these photos, anybody can take them. Anybody can travel to that part of the world and see it for themselves. One thing that not everybody has access to, is how a certain person looks at that certain moment in time.

People underestimate the ‘selfie’.

Nobody can take a photo of you, by you, but you!
Has anybody ever thought that that certain ‘selfie’ somebody has taken, is literally a one in seven billion?

So don’t be one of those people who selfie-shame. Selfie-celebrate!

Because nobody has your face, in that lighting, with that angle and that smoulder.