Nada Allam 
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I don’t know if you missed this piece of news, or came across it, but on September 6th 2019, Demi Lovato posted a picture on Instagram with quite a courageous caption regarding her body.
Thing is my reaction was not something I expected. I’m all for authenticity, and I know it took a tremendous amount of courage and confidence to post a natural picture embracing your flaws and your body. However, after reading the truth in her caption, I found myself questioning so much.
In this day and age our relationship with social media can be a tad unhealthy at times, personally my feelings towards social media is more of a ‘kinda like it at times, but most of the time truly hate it’ to the point where I follow more animals than people nowadays, because at least they’re honest.
Anyways, back to the post, you see, her admitting to editing her pictures led me to wonder even more than I usually would about what is real and what is fake. We’re bombarded with ads on social media, people recommending products based on a payment rather than for the sake of spreading knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, while quite impactful, especially as I understand a lot of people collaborate and work with brands they truly believe in. But, there is a percentage of people who do it for the publicity and the cash. So, there is already a 'wondering' if you would like to call it about what is true on social media.
It feels like I am getting off track but my point is coming, bare with me, as I needed to bring up these previous points beforehand. Anyway, back to the Demi story, I’ve watched this women grow up, from her Camp Rock days on Disney Channel to evolving into womanhood. And, somewhere in between she had embraced natural beauty and authenticity on a big scale. Back in 2015, she decided to do a spontaneous nude, makeup free photoshoot with Vanity Fair. She talked about how she wanted to do a totally raw shoot, embracing her true self and how she wants to show a side of her that was, “REAL.”
Image Credits: Patrick Ecclesine Via Vanity Fair
In 2018 Demi posted series of insta-stoies highlighting her cellulite, stretch marks and her thighs, while sending the message that she loves herself. What I’m trying to say is, I’ve watched her journey of self growth and love, and at a point in time she really did inspire me to embrace everything about my true self.
Image Credits: Glamour
Now in 2019, her admitting to retouching pictures has got me wondering, what else did she edit? Was the Vanity Fair photoshoot edited also?
I understand the amount of pressure, especially, celebrities are under when it comes to their image, but how I see it is, some celebs don’t post on Instagram, they don’t even have social media… So why post if you are not going to be honest? If your on the journey of embracing your own body, is posting on social media the way to go? Or is it a journey that needs to be done without the world view on you?
Personally I would go for the latter, it’s hard enough embracing your true self, building confidence with just the circle of people you are exposed to, let alone 74.5M followers. I understand the need to combat the ongoing conversation of body shaming that seems to only get louder rather than die down. We’re countlessly exposed to celebrities and influencers sharing pictures of their, ‘natural state’ showing their flaws, no makeup, cellulite, etc… I understand that their perspective to sharing sends out the message of embracing yourself as you are, and that their is no shame in not being picture perfect. However, I find myself questioning if this techniques they’re taking in this day and age are the right ones or not.
A part of me supports Demi’s move and thinks that posting that picture, that caption and admitting her truth is raw and empowering. But, I just can’t help but find myself pondering, what and who else is on the unauthentic train. Is it on me to be patient to wait for them to hop off that train, or is it on them to wait patiently to board the authentic train whenever they are ready?
Don't miss out on reading our last article from our #FustanyTalks series. Tomorrow is another interesting topic on stretch marks and the model that inspired our editor to embrace them!
