Let’s Be Game Changers

So, a lot of you have probably heard of this phrase. Or maybe heard the name Essena O’Neill? You know, this girl:

Essena has realised the fakeness of social media. She’s reinventing all her accounts, and instead of posting beautiful Instagram photos, she’s exposing the ugly truth behind her life. Yes, deleting thousands of followers to get the word out on what social media really does to us.

And honestly, I hadn’t realised the truth of what she was saying until I read those new captions. I go through the Snapchat stories and Facebook pages of people I hate, so I can see all the fun things they’re doing and hate them even more. I try to go outside just to take cool photos, because there’s nothing fun about watching tv. Online, I’m not me.

I know what you’re thinking – we know, Victoria. That’s the whole point of social media! Why would you want to post things that aren’t interesting, or photos that are unflattering? Anyway, Victoria, we’re book bloggers. We know all there is to know about not fitting society’s perfect standards.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but even us high and mighty nerds are doing this. Right here, on our very own blogs. Just ask Ava, who did an inspiring post on the shallowness of book blogging. We want to be super readers, with the most books, the best looking bookshelves, the coolest book swag. We want to be besties with all the authors, have publishers BEGGING for us to review their ARCs. And when we don’t have all those things, we mope over the blogs of the people who do. Or at least, the blogs who pretend they do.

So what’s the point of this post? Well, just what Essena said – to be game changers. To do what makes you happy, no matter what that might be. To take photos of things that inspire you, not spend hours trying to get your hair look just right for a photo. To write all over your books, fold over the corners, stack them in a massive pile on your floor. To talk to a blogger because YOU WANT TO, not because you think it’ll increase the traffic on your blog. In the words of the wonderful Tyler Oakley, you do you, whatever that may be. And do it for YOU, not for the approval of a society who, in the end, don’t matter one bit