As you move through life, your body ends up picking up all sorts of nicks and bumps.
From ‘over your handlebars’ stitches to faint lines where your appendix once nestled, few of us reach adulthood with baby-smooth skin.
Which is why the complete overreaction to Gabrielle Epstein’s Instagram post was so very strange.
The 24-year-old full-time model and Biomedical Sciences graduate from Australia’s Gold Coast shared a picture of herself in a blue bikini with a tiny white scar just visible at the top of her left leg.
Revealing this ‘imperfect’ part of her toned bod to her 1.7 million followers, Gabrielle wrote the following caption:
If you look closely you can see my scar on the top left of my leg.
It’s far more common nowadays for hip young fashionistas to be open about the ‘flawed’ bits and pieces of their bodies; adding a refreshing slice of humanity behind their perfectly contoured expressions.
However, some disgruntled followers were quick to criticise – and even unfollow – Gabrielle. Some thought the scar was way too minuscule and pale to see, and complained about her drawing attention to something so small.
One person commented, ‘Unfollowing just before [sic] of the caption.’ This particular comment was liked 70 times.
Another person even rudely questioned Gabrielle’s intelligence, sarcastically commenting:
If you look even closer you can see how my brain doesn’t work as it should… who else has a plastic brain?
Gabrielle was quick to retort how she wouldn’t really miss this person if they made the decision to unfollow her.
However, others appreciated Gabrielle’s candid post; prompting them to share varied scar stories of their own.
One person revealed:
I have a heart scared on my right thigh, a permanent impression from my mamma I got in a skateboarding accident right after she passed away.
Also, right after asking her for a sign. Some people wear their heart on their sleeve. I wear mine on my thigh.
Another confessed:
I have a scar from when my dad’s parrot bit me on my hand.
Just two days after the little scar caused a big divide among her followers, Gabrielle replaced the ‘controversial’ caption with a simple – and hopefully inoffensive – ‘Morning’.
One apparently relieved person commented:
u didn’t have to change ur caption but I might follow u back since u did.
Body positive fitness model, Louise Aubrey, recently caused a social media stir after posting a side by side picture of her bum. Her intention was to demonstrate how misleading the ‘body perfect’ world of Instagram truly is.
One picture showed her posing, while the other showed her standing naturally. Her bum looked to be a much different – and perfectly fine – shape in both pictures.
Louise told UNILAD:
I think a lot of women struggle to love their body because of the ideal body we are pressured to get.
What is even harder nowadays is that this ideal is informal – it is not the one we see on billboards, the girls we know are models anyway, it is all the women showing their best angles on social media.
And it is natural to want to look good in a public space, but it is just detrimental to me to only show one side of reality that makes us believe we are the problem not to look flawless 24/7.
Luckily it appears Gabrielle hasn’t let the trolls bring her down, continuing to share sunny bikini pics with her admiring followers.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.