It’s a picture any Instagram user will be all too familiar with.
A woman posing in front of the mirror, small bikini, tight abs, taut thighs, proudly flaunting her smooth, athletic body.
Well, a popular trainer (and prolific #gymselfie poster) has provided proof of just how problematic and misleading these images can be.
Anna Victoria, creator of The Fit Body Guides, has posted a side-by-side comparison of a carefully posed picture and another taken just moments later, in which she’s slumped on a sofa.
Or in her words: “Me 1% of the time vs. 99% of the time.”
In her caption, the 28-year-old writes that she loves neither photo more than the other, as “Good or bad angles don’t change your worth.”
“As I’m getting older, I have cellulite and stretch marks that aren’t going away, and I welcome them. They represent a life fully lived and a healthy life and body at that. How can I be mad at my body for perfectly normal ‘flaws’?” it reads.
“This body is strong, can run miles, can lift and squat and push and pull weight around, and it’s happy not just because of how it looks, but because of how it feels. So when you approach your journey, I want you to remember these things: I will not punish my body I will fuel it I will challenge it AND I will love it.”
The post has attracted more than 329,000 likes and more than 10,900 comments, most of which praise Victoria for shattering the illusion created by these carefully curated pictures.
"[Women] are always so hard on ourselves," wrote one. "This changed and made my day."
"I salute you," wrote another. "Instagram is a landfill of fake and phoney. I hope the young girls will learn something from this."
Another added, "The impact social media has on body confidence is terrifying, both for young girls and those of us old enough to know better but who still get sucked in to this ideal of 'perfection.' Thank you for being real."