hellllllllloooooooo my friends. 
it's been a minute since i've posted anything "controversial" on my blog so, here we go. 

i'm in a weird situation. i'm not an "instagram influencer" (by brand standards) but i live the life of an influencer & see the insider perspective on a daily basis because i work with a lot of bloggers & influencers. (someone's gotta take their pictures!!) i feel like i have a unique perspective on their lives. so today i'm gonna share a little bit of that with you.

for those who aren't aware of the situation, there is an influencer out there who is tearing down bloggers & instagrammers for their "fake lives" for making others feel like they are less than & basically promoting an "i'm better than you" mentality. this influencer shares statistics, other peoples' personal experiences of negativity with social media & influencers, and their own personal opinion of other influencers. (note: his opinion isn't very kind)

okay. now that we've got that out of the way, i'm going to share with you my personal experience with bloggers & influencers. 

there are a lot of really good people out there. i work with some of the best people in the world who are just trying to share their story & their journey through life to help other people make it through. do they make mistakes? absolutely. are they real people? of course! do they stage photos? sure thing. 

is there anything wrong with those things? absolutely not. 

this influencer is claiming that bloggers MAKE other people feel less than. that they MAKE people feel terrible about themselves or that in order to be cool or beautiful, women HAVE to do everything just like them. 

here are my two cents on that:

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN FEELINGS, EMOTIONS & ACTIONS. ABSOLUTELY NOBODY CAN MAKE YOU FEEL LESS THAN-- UNLESS YOU LET THEM. 

i am a firm believer in standing up for suicide prevention. i totally believe in preventing bullying. i am completely aware of the affects of depression & anxiety. 

name calling & shaming is not the way to handle the tough stuff. i completely agree that if someone's life makes you feel like you don't have enough or that you aren't good enough-- unfollow them. there's no need to bully those people or tell them everything they've ever done wrong in their life. there's no need to tell them that they are fake or being unrealistic. you don't know their reality. you don't know everything that is going on behind the scenes & guess what-- you don't need to. you aren't entitled to know their entire story-- no matter how many followers they have. if a girl got a bag from coach or prada & is stoked to share that with her friends/followers, power to her. if someone just bought a new house & wants to tell the whole world-- awesome! congratulations!! tell the whole world! 

if you're feeling bad about yourself because you don't have the things that someone else has, i'm sorry. that's a cruddy place to be in. but it's not the other person's fault. they have zero control over your life. 

tbh, this whole influencer market isn't going anywhere. so we've got to figure out a way to live our lives & stay in our own lanes. because trying to keep up with the joneses is exhausting. so if you don't want to buy the prada bag or you don't have enough money for it, cool. me either. feel free to hang out with the rest of us. but if you DO want the prada bag & you've got the dollars for it-- i hope that you don't live in the fear of what others may think of you for buying it. & i hope you'll sit with us & tell us your journey to getting to where you are. 

instead of pushing others away, i hope we can stand together. i hope we can cheer one another on instead of putting people down. i hope that if you feel less than or not good enough that you'll seek out things that DO make you feel like enough. if you're dealing with serious depression/anxiety/suicidal thoughts seek professional help. let me say that one again, IF YOU'RE DEALING WITH SERIOUS DEPRESSION/ANXIETY/SUICIDAL THOUGHTS SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP. 

follow people who you look up to on social media. follow people who inspire you. follow people who are kind. follow people who YOU like to follow. nobody is forcing you to follow people who make you feel bad about yourself. nobody is forcing you to follow people who are rich or famous. nobody is forcing you to follow ANYONE. you have the power to make social media a positive thing for your life.