[notenoughhorses]

Before Instagram, we had magazines to help teens compare themselves to an unrealistic ideal. I had an English teacher in high school who had an entire wall plastered with problematic themes in magazine ads, so it would highlight the subtle messages we are receiving when we look at these ads. I used to love buying fashion magazines and looking at the ads before I took that woman’s class, and after that I totally stopped buying them.

Now, I do think Instagram is way more insidious because you’d now be thinking you are comparing to other normal teens rather than at least knowing these are special magazine people. But my point is that the teacher who explicitly taught us about these patterns and influences did so much more to “protect” us from these negative effects than trying to ban/blame the magazines would have done.