Even if you're not the type to carefully curate your Instagram grid, most of us still choose to post photos of ourselves where we're looking our absolute best (even if the same can't be said for the friend that's also in the photo — admit it). There's nothing wrong with choosing your most flattering angle, but we often seem to forget that other people are doing the exact same thing.
Fitness blogger Madalin Giorgetta took to Instagram last week to post side-by-side "transformation" photos of herself, one in which she is slouched with "bad posture" and another where she's "flexing."
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Giorgetta made the point that a flattering pose can make all the difference — and that we should keep this in mind when we start comparing our bodies to other people's.
"Ahh the difference a flattering pose can make," she wrote in her caption. "I love seeing these photos on my feed as it reminds me that we allll have our best angles that we choose to share. The girls you see on Instagram don't walk around with one leg bent and one hip popped and flexed abs the whole time!"
While Giorgetta still looks great in both her photos, her post is an important reminder that what you see on social media isn't always real, and it's pointless to compare yourself to others, no matter how tempting that may be.
"But there's also nothing wrong with posting your most flattering angle, it's only human," she clarifies. Still, she wanted her followers to get a reprieve from the constant barrage of "perfect" photos on their feeds.
"Constantly seeing the same carefully posed pic on my feed can get tiring, so it's always nice to see a crappy photo and think, 'ohh hey, she's a bit like me,'" she wrote.
After all, as great as social media is, it can also leave us prone to self-critique when we don't feel as perfect as our friends look. As Giorgetta reminds us, perfection is an illusion, and comparison is the thief of joy.