***Warning selfie rant and 30-day selfie challenge occur in this post! Proceed with caution due to the fact that I normally do not rant, but enough is enough!***
The other day I had lunch with a friend. I arrived a few minutes early, so I decided to post a picture on Instagram since I straightened my hair for the first time in months!
I took 11 pictures of myself before I was happy with one, but I was constantly criticizing myself with each one, even the picture I picked to post. Then I told myself I did not like my smile in this one; my eyes looked funny in that one, or just what was I thinking?!
As soon as I posted my photo, I felt a sense of guilt. Why did I talk to myself that way? As a minimalist and someone who is trying to remove self-doubt from my life, I had no right to do so.
Then it got me thinking. How many other people do the exact same thing every time they want to take a picture of themselves?
A little selfie information
According to the info graph provided by feelunique.com [shown below], women feel the need to take 7 selfies before finding the right one. I guess I was pretty hard on myself since this average is obviously a lot lower.
Regardless, should we not be able to aim the camera, shoot, and be satisfied?
Self-hate, self-criticizing, self-doubt, it all destroys the beauty each of us holds. For goodness sake, we are God’s creation and made perfect in His eyes, so why do we do this to ourselves??!
Some of these averages make me question society today. Do we really feel that we have to spend all this time taking pictures of ourselves to impress someone who would probably like us with a simple smile?
Is it necessary to criticize ourselves to the point of taking 11 pictures just to find one to post?
How many times have you seen someone taking several selfies [possibly duck face posing?] and thought they were full of themselves? [I am guilty of this.]
But in actuality, they are probably more self-conscious than egotistical. Society has created an instant judgment for everyone you see. This person is too fat, this person has huge eyes, that girl needs a sandwich, etc!
I say ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
Quit letting society dictate how many selfies you take to find the “right one”! The first one was the right one! You are beautiful just the way you are! Quit criticizing yourself over a picture!
I realize it is hard to accept. There are things I would like to change about myself, but the truth is, I am not going to change it! I have to accept that I am beautiful the way I am! I know I may not be what society wants me to be, and that is okay!
All I ask is for you to think and know the same thing!
Below are the 11 pictures I took of myself to be able to choose one worthy of posting. They are not edited in any way because I want to prove to myself that all of them are worthy of posting, not just one.
I also included the Instagram picture I did post, which is edited.
This is the one I posted on Instagram:
You see. It is so easy to feel insecure for any reason and decide that you need to take pictures for however long to find the right one. Instead of finding what is wrong with ourselves, we need to say what we do like about ourselves.
Take a quick selfie with me!
Before I get into the challenge details, take a quick selfie with me. Here are the steps:
- Take a selfie.
- Post that selfie. [No second tries!]
- In the caption, I want you to write the following: “I was challenged by @thetannehillhomestead to post the first selfie I took and share 3 things I like about it. 1. … 2. … 3. …”
- Use the hashtag: #iLoveMyFirstSelfie
- Tag me in the picture! @thetannehillhomestead [You may just get spotlighted if you do!]
Bonus: Search #iLoveMyFirstSelfie and tell anyone else participating what you like about their selfie! Let us encourage and build each other up because we all deserve to feel great about ourselves!
30-Day Selfie Challenge
Now that you’ve seen how easy it is to post your first selfie and say nice things about yourself let’s do a 30-Day Selfie Challenge together!
I’ve created a checklist just for you so you can take the challenge with me. Grab it by filling out the form.
Now onto the details of the challenge!
The rules are simple:
- Follow the prompt
- You only get one shot, so make it count!
- Use hashtag #iLoveMyFirstSelfie
Here are the daily selfie challenge prompts:
- Smiling
- With your favorite beverage
- Out in nature
- With a flower
- Duck face
- In your favorite spot
- In black and white [photo editing style, that is]
- Being goofy
- Wearing a face mask
- Toasting someone
- With a friend
- An advanced selfie
- With a furry friend [or fluffy]
- Doing your favorite thing in the day
- Model shot
- Doing something productive
- Yourself in a mirror
- While decluttering
- With a leaf
- Kissy face
- While relaxing
- Wearing blue
- Looking fierce
- Wearing sunglasses
- Rawr face
- Behind the scenes
- With food
- Wearing your favorite jewelry
- Trying too hard
- You won!
Sounds fun, doesn’t it?! Let us show society that we are not going to waste time trying to find the perfect selfie because every shot is worth posting!
Happy [First] Selfie Taking!
Also, be sure to check out my Mental Cleanse Challenge! There is a lot of self-care fun included that you’ll definitely want to try!
Enjoyed reading this 🙂 We are actually doing something similar to this at our girls night out this Friday. Challenging eachother not to judge ourselves nor others. Thank you for sharing!
I love that your friends are doing that, Whendi! It is so important to love yourself and not judge yourself. Everyone is absolutely perfect the way they are.
Love this! You look great in all your photos! We’re all just too hard on ourselves!
Thank you so much, Jackie! I agree, and that is why I created this challenge. We need to break this vicious cycle.
great tips! can’t wait to try these I’m horrible with selfies
Just remember, love your first selfie and do not waste time trying to get it “right”. You will get it the first time! 🙂
Selfies have always been out of my comfort zone and with having a beauty blog I’ve had to overcome that quite a few times. Thank you for sharing this it thank you for the reminder!
I am glad you found it useful, Gina! It is not easy getting outside of your comfort zone, but it can definitely be helpful at times!
i don’t take selfies too often, but i do make my poor husband take my photo quite a bit! haha
If he is willing, why not?!
This is so great!
Thank you, Kristle!
5 hours a week taking selfies seem impossible to me! Oh my gosh, so sad. And I don’t mean sad like pathetic, I mean sad like it’s too bad that we do this to ourselves! I love your challenge and just shared it across all my social media.
I agree, Justine! Thank you so much!!
I absolutely LOVE THIS!
Thank you, Kelly!
You look gorgeous in all of these Erin, but I definitely can see the point you made here and it’s completely true. We all obsess a little too much over how we look and how others will perceive us, but we need to be confident and own our uniqueness and beauty that we each have! Great challenge! 🙂
Thank you, Cara! 🙂 I definitely agree, our uniqueness and beauty is what sets us apart from being like everyone else. If we were all the same, life would not be as near as exciting! I hope you will participate in the challenge!
I honestly stopped taking selfies because it became such a project, but I love this idea! The original point of a selfie (and Instagram really) was to capture yourself in the moment, and that’s not happening with all that posing! I will definitely be checking out the hashtag!
Falon, I agree! I hope you decide to participate in the challenge!
I completely agree with you, we need to be less critical of ourselves. I also am bothered when people think selfie taking is vein, if we look good we should be able to take a picture of ourselves.
And, Tara, I agree with you! I love seeing friends feeling good about themselves and sharing it through social media! To think spreading happiness is vein is simply wrong!
What a great challenge ! I think I may take up on it that ! The infographic is very eye opening as well.
You definitely should, Heydy!
Such an awesome challenge. I will admit that I have retaken selfies because I found some part of myself that I didn’t like. I definitely don’t want to waste so much time doing this. That graphic is really eye-opening!
Shann, that is why I have all of these pictures, too! However, my challenge picture was great on the first take! I knew I had to get it right on the first try, so I took a few seconds longer. It turned out better than I thought it could have! I was half-way through my rant when I came across this graphic. I was floored with some of the stats! I could not help but include it in the post.
WOW! I can’t believe the stats – so crazy! love this post!
I know right, Lindsey! I could not believe them either!
I don’t think I could love this any more!!! You are so beautiful in every single photo. But I am guilty of doing the same thing, unless I’m taking a post workout picture, then I don’t care. LOL. I’ll take your challenge, girlie.
You are far too kind, Terryn! I agree with the post workout selfie! If I worked out, I would not care as much either! I cannot wait to see your selfie! 🙂
Such a great post! Adorable selfies!
Thank you so much, Jenna!
I enjoy seeing other peoples selfies, but when it comes to my own, not so much! I’ve never been good at taking selfies but I have been working on my technique though.
I have definitely been there, Valerie. It is definitely something you need to overcome at your own speed, and I commend you for working on it! I believe everyone needs to be comfortable with taking a picture of themselves, but not to the point that it takes up lots of precious time.
ooooooh, this is good!
Honestly, I think I am one of the women who brings the average way down, because I probably take one seflie a week and I don’t spend any time editing it. Butttt then again I’m not known for my beauty, fashion or anything of the like haha!
Can’t wait to search the hashtag!
Suzanne, I do not post a lot of selfies compared to some, but I do like a few every now and then. I believe you should stick within your comfort zone of selfies to a certain extent. Pushing out of bounds every now and then may bring new inspiration and/or show you that you are more fabulous than you previously thought.
I love this! I might have the worst selfie attitude of all. I don’t even bother taking selfies because I feel like they won’t look good. We’re always so much more critical of ourselves than anyone else is. I think every one of your pics look great!
Christine, there is no way you would ever look bad in a selfie! You are gorgeous! You definitely need to take my challenge! I guarantee you that your picture will be great, plus you can always include Mozzie! Also, thank you for your kind words! 🙂
I love this idea! Everyone needs to stop being so hard on themselves and treat and speak to themselves as they would their best friend. You look fantastic in every photo <3
I agree and thank you, Jannine! I love the idea of thinking of ourselves as our best friends. That is a great way to look at building self-confidence, because you would not tear your best friend down as you would yourself.
I love this, cause lets be honest we all take like 15 before we are happy!! Great reminder, thank you 🙂
You look gorgeous!
Thank you so much, Fatima! I am glad I could help! We all are beautiful, and do not need to doubt it by taking so many pictures. Our time is too precious.
I LOVE this idea Erin and I adore this post! It’s true, we’re our own worst enemy’s and in a society where instagram is filled with amazing photos of people living in and looking like luxury it’s hard not to want to keep up with all the hype. I think you look fantastic in ALL 11 photos … what a wonderful challenge. Just love this! XO -Kim
Thank you so much, Kim! It is hard to not want to keep up, but even with less selfies, we all are beautiful enough to post the first one. It is just something we have to keep proving to ourselves until we believe it. [Talking to myself]
I definitely love what you had to say here and couldn’t agree more! I actually stopped taking lots of selfies in general because I would just get sucked into them, and unless I’m trying to capture a certain makeup look, I only take one or two! Way to encourage others to just love themselves and to not worry about the perfect selfie!
If you are only taking one or two, I commend you for it, Chelsie! As you can see, it has been a struggle for me. I can understand taking several for certain makeup looks, because you have to make sure to capture the essence of what you are doing.
EVERY ONE of yours looks great!
Thank you, Heather! It is amazing how critical we can be about ourselves.