Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I've seen people do the thing where they put an emoji over the child's face, too.
I will say though - one person I follow just recently had a baby and is not showing the face. The comments she is receiving (she screenshotted some) are HORRIBLE. People saying "other moms are proud to show their babies" - like can they truly not comprehend it's not a lack of pride but a privacy consideration? Especially when someone has hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers?
Elyse Myers doesn't show her two sons' faces. But I hate what she does - she shows their bodies and slaps a stupid emoji over their faces. Just don't include them at all! I hate those dam emojis over the faces.
I am neutral on that approach but I actually have empathy for someone like Elyse who developed an Instagram following based not on lifestyle "influencing" but just on being funny and making stuff people like (she's a comedian but not a stand up -- she writes but makes funny videos, mostly about being awkward and having OCD). Then she had kids and because her comedy obviously draws from her life, it was inevitable that being a mom would be part of that, but she has obviously always wanted to protect her kids from public exposure. I think it's just tricky. If she excluded them entirely, it would be inauthentic because being a parent of young kids is obviously the biggest thing going on in her life at the moment. But she doesn't want them on camera and I think she also is careful about what info about them she shares -- she really focuses on her own experience as a mom and does not include a ton of anecdotes about them or quote them a ton.
That's really different from someone who is making money off their image as a mom/wife/homemaker, who puts their kids in everything even when they don't need to because they know a photo with cute kids will sell better. Chrissy Teigen is a good example -- she uses her kids to sell her cookbooks and other products, they show up in a lot of her paid promos even when it's for something that has NOTHING to do with children, plus she just posts a lot of photos of them generally knowing those pics get a lot of clicks. I think it's gross, especially because they have sources of income that have nothing to do with their kids and could easily shield their children from that without giving up their rich-person lifestyle. They do not need to exploit their kids to pay for college, you know? She's really just doing it for the validation because she knows people will click and like more if they see the cute kid faces.