The environment, beauty standards, LGBTQ rights and women’s issues – here are five voices using their captions / selfies / follower count for good
Six months ago, Instagram announced they'd hit 400 million users. And while most of us use the social platform as a means to humble brag about our lives, there's actually a tiny pocket of people using it to (try and) make the world a better place. Recently we launched the Dazed 100 (in partnership with Calvin Klein) an incredible curation of 100 of the most inspiring voices who are pushing culture forward in 2016. In a mix of musicians, designers, photographers, filmmakers and artists, we also found 14 of the most incredible activists who are actually using their captions / selfies / follower count for good. Whether making their voice known on issues like the environment, beauty standards, LGBTQ rights or women's issues, here are just five of those voices – check out the rest here.
ELIZABETH FARRELL (@GLACIER996GIRL)
What started as a school art project, titled Remember The Glaciers, to explore the relationship between globalisation, capitalism in society, mass consumption and the environment spawned Farrell’s Instagram feed and moniker, Glacier Girl. Albeit its importance on the future of our generation, it seems most young people tend to tune out at the whisper of ‘climate change’ – but Farrell makes environmental activism accessible to the Insta-generation through her photo shoots that re-appropriate infamous logos like Shell and Apple in an intelligent way.
JAZZ JENNINGS (@JAZZJENNINGS_)
Any Instagram profile that starts with "Embrace who you are", followed by five consecutive multicoloured emoji love hearts, is a good place to start for body positivity. At six-years-old, Jennings became one of the youngest ever people to publicly identify as trans. Now 16 – alongside tackling high school – she’s become an important voice for LBGTQ rights, as well as one of five cover models for Dazed's spring 2016 issue.
ART HOE COLLECTIVE (@ARTHOECOLLECTIVE)
The Art Hoe Collective are where art and activism intersect with the power of online. Co-founded by teens and friends Mars and Sage Adams, Art Hoe aims to give a platform to POC creatives, taking up space in the art community by posting submissions they receive from their followers. Embraced by Willow Smith and Amandla Stenberg, they've hit 36k followers and counting. And even though numbers don't faze them, it's clear they're steadily building up an army both IRL and online. "This is for us by us", reads their bio.
ADWOA ABOAH (@GURLSTALK)
“If you’re outspoken, you’re a diva. Stand up for yourself and you’re difficult. But fuck it and fuck what anyone else thinks!” That’s a mantra to live by if there ever was one, courtesy of model turned activist Adwoa Aboah. Pushing back against the restrictive beauty standards that the fashion industry – heck, the world – impose on young women, Aboah’s feed should be your first scroll stop off every morning.
SISTERS UNCUT (@SISTERSUNCUT)
Whether they're storming the red carpet of the Hollywood film Suffragette premiere or dying the Trafalgar Square fountain red as a protest against women’s refuge cuts, Sisters Uncut are one of the most rapidly growing activist groups in the UK. Although recently organising themselves into London fractions – North, East, South and West – they’re still extremely unified in their voice, with their main ethos being “We occupy. We disrupt. We shut shit down”.