Last week, Instagram announced its 2025 Rings winners, a new award that celebrates creators' commitment to pushing creative boundaries and sharing content that’s true to themselves. The 25 winners, including Gabriel Moses, Golloria, Laufey and Tyshawn Jones, received an exclusive gold ring around their Instagram profile and a custom ring designed by Grace Wales Bonner. 

Spanning a wide range of niches and categories, from athletes and foodfluencers to musicians and beauty creators, the first-ever Rings winners were chosen by 13 renowned creatives across the globe. The judging panel was filled with legends across the entertainment, fashion, art, culinary, music and beauty industries, including Spike Lee, Marc Jacobs, KAWS, Marques Brownlee (MDBHD), Adam Mosseri, Eva Chen, Pat McGrath, Cédric Grolet, Tainy, Murad Osmann, Illona Maher, Grace Wales Bonner and Yara Shahidi. They selected winners not for their follower count but based on their ability to create something meaningful and true to themselves and inspire others along the way.

To honour the inaugural Rings winners, Instagram gathered the judges and winners for a celebratory cocktail hour in New York last Thursday evening. Surrounded by special blooms from @FlowerBodega (of course, with the Instagram handle on full display), Rings winners had their custom gold rings sized and industry icons like Spike Lee, Marc Jacobs and Pat McGrath mingled with some of the internet’s most beloved creators. One person even compared the ring-filled event to an engagement party – a marriage to Instagram. 

Before the dinner, we spoke to two Rings judges, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, and music producer Tainy, about choosing the 2025 Rings winners and what it takes to stand out online.

Adam, what made you want to honour creators with Rings? Can you shed any light on where the idea came from?

Adam Mosseri: Instagram, in a lot of ways, has always been about trying to support creativity. We started with these fun, crazy photo filters and frames that allowed people to express themselves, so we’ve tried to stay true to that over the years. Though how we support creativity has changed as the world has changed, that has been one of the core parts of our identity. Last December, we were trying to think about how we might give flowers to creatives, so to speak. This idea of finding a bunch of people who we knew were doing interesting work and having them pick, vote on and nominate other people to celebrate, and we thought we’d give it a try. It’s the first year, and I’m sure it will evolve and change in the future, but we're very excited about trying something new.

There are billions of people on Instagram. Where did you start when it came to finding potential Rings nominees?

Adam Mosseri: First, we looked at a panel of judges and creators we knew because they’re already pretty influential people in different verticals. We wanted to get a large, diverse set of industries represented, so we then asked those people to nominate people and vote on creatives to give the award to. We went through a few rounds, and the process itself has been an interesting experiment. It was super important to us that it wasn't us picking the winners and that we were empowering creatives to celebrate other creatives.

So, what do you think makes a Rings creator stand out from the crowd?

Adam Mosseri: People doing interesting things. Not just on Instagram but also off. Obviously, we were looking for people who are using Instagram as part of what they do, but it didn’t have to be the focus of what they do. We want to be there to support digital native creators out there, but also anyone, whether you are an author, musician, actor or designer. Ideally, our aspiration is to be the best home online for creators.

Tainy, what’s your current internet obsession?

Tainy: I scroll all day, and my explore page is a mixture. I just had a son, so I see a lot of baby clothes, then architecture and wood panels, old school rock and interviews.

What was the hardest and most fun part of being one of the Rings judges?

Tainy: The tricky or more stressful part was that all the contestants were so amazing. There were people I didn’t even know about before that I got to know, and there’s only a certain number that you could select. Everyone brings something different to the table, but I just tried to go with who I personally resonated with. And, for me, the most fun part was just to laugh with some of them or become interested in their approach. Seeing different people from all around the world making amazing content was really inspiring.

How do you find musical inspiration on Instagram?

Tainy: Nowadays, I’m kind of a historian, going back to before I was born and how these amazing iconic bands or artists approached the music being created in their time. How they did production or recording of the instruments, just to see a different approach from what I see today.

Do you have any advice for musicians who hope to be considered for Rings next year?

Tainy: Always think out of the box and grab inspirational ideas from everything that's out there. Never hesitate to do what feels amazing and authentic to you. It’s understandable to second-guess yourself and try to go with the trend or whatever people are gravitating towards at that moment, but everything is going so fast that if you do something that feels you, that’s going to connect with more people and it's going to stand the test of time.