Hello everyone,

Today my blog post is going to be short and sweet as there wasn't supposed to be one until next Tuesday when there will be one on going to see the fault in our stars and one on about my D of E walk. I really cannot wait to share that with you! So onto the topics of all topics. The legendary selfie. the selfie has been a craze which recently became a official word in the Oxford English dictionary. Even a song has been written about it.

But what is a selfie I may ask?

A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr.

That's all well and good taking a picture of yourself maybe say to update your profile picture as you haven't done so in a month or two or taking a picture of yourself with a friend so you can remember when you spent time together however taking photos of yourself constantly and uploading them most days with maybe a line of a song attached annoys me a little or a comment about how they hate an aspect of their face. (The irony that I actually do this once in a while but i'm talking obsessively here) To be honest I don't really care. Yes you may look absolutely gorgeous in every single photo but you don't need Facebook likes or comments to confirm to yourself. If you want complements wait until people give them to you in public as that is way more satisfying than an Facebook, Instagram comment. You don't need to be reassured about how you look by people online. people are mean and may post nasty things about you which can damage your confidence. You shouldn't listen to them but if you are posting a lot of selfies you may want to rethink how others may view you as they may think you are looking for attention. This is one thing that I have witnessed myself over Facebook as most people know of someone who uploads a lot of selfies of themselves.

Just to clarify here I am not saying that i hate the use of people uploading photos in general it is just when someone constantly does it with statuses saying things such as 'ugh I hate my hair' or 'I hate my ears'. If you feel self conscious about an aspect of yourself why would you upload a photo and then put a negative comment about yourself? Embrace your negative features. Instead of putting a negative comment, put something about your day or what you are up to. People would rather read that than read about someone moaning.

In general, Selfies should be taken in moderation. Taking a selfie is an absolutely harmless thing to do and is okay to do as I enjoy one every now and then in order to update my profile picture but it is when you start taking them all the time that it then becomes a problem as this is a very unhealthy thing to do. when you take a picture of yourself you are constantly criticizing how you look as you are unhappy about how the photo turned out and you think to yourself 'why can't I smile properly?' or 'my spots look really noticeable in this photo'. You shouldn't think like this but unfortunately we only see the negatives most of the times which is a shame. Taking selfies becomes an obsession to the point of it sometimes completely ruining your confidence and self esteem so much that you start to constantly criticize yourself. I have even read in the news that many young teenage girls have been so unhappy they have done the unthinkable and decided to end there life with some succeeding. Is this something to be proud of? As i'm not.

The more I took pictures of myself the more I would feel upset and unhappy by the way I looked. It annoyed me that I looked so goofy and horrible in photos. Selfies just made me more aware of my negative flaws. Now if I take a selfie i try to look as natural as possible. Pouting is one of my no no's (unless you are going to take a silly photo) as I find that it makes me look really weird as if i'm trying to hard.

We shouldn't care how we look. if you care too much you get wrapped up in trying to change yourself and end up missing out on the joy of life. you should see me most of the time, eating god knows what and looking like a right state. I only really bother if i'm going out. If i'm not its normally hello pj's and messy hair which hasn't been touched since I woke up!! The main thing is right now i'm happy with life (kinda...). as long as you have a can do attitude you will be mainly invincible! There will be many bumps and hurdles that I will have to face in the future along with many other people. We all have life events which scar us for the good or the bad and shape who we are however no one has the right to be horrible about your appearance or body. you must embrace the positivity about yourself and be the better person and not let mean comments get to you.

Goodnight my friends x

~ Katy Summers (TeenageBlogger)