There was a time when I lived in happy harmony with social media. I was never much of a selfie poser or life update poster myself, but I never thought twice of scrolling down one feed or another: I enjoyed peeking at picturesque travel pics, carefully arranged library study sessions, and don’t even get me started with the perfect baked goods that Instagram dished out to me.

It was never a matter of complete ignorant bliss, though – filters were no secret to me, I knew very well how a particularly juicy burger could in fact be pimped up with hairspray, and that the seemingly careless selfie was, more often than not, a product of multiple shots and careful arranging. But I thought, clicking on the next mouthwatering chia and maca pancake photo, how much could projecting perfection instead of the mundane actually matter?

A lot, it turns out. I caught up with Stina Sanders, model and blogger, whose social media experiment made headlines back in 2015. The model went, quite literally, unfiltered, on her seemingly perfect Instagram stream: the photos got real with everything from her weekly hair removal routine to no-makeup pictures and even the colonic to help relieve symptoms of her IBS, all to show that what we see is not what we get, and that sometimes even the model doesn’t look like the model in the photo.

“I always found social media to be a competitive platform. If people aren’t comparing themselves to others, they are telling the world just how great their life is. And like the majority of people on Instagram, I too would be obsessed with looking ‘picture perfect’ and pretending that I had a great life – yet the truth of the matter is that my life is far from perfect,” Stina says.

“The idea for the experiment sparked when someone I knew refused to believe I was suffering from depression because of the photos that I would post on Instagram, which would show me as a happy individual, living the high life. I realised then that although I don’t walk around looking glum all the time, I was actually hiding my true feelings and what my life is really like. It’s not all yoga sessions, photoshoots and brunches. I do go to therapy and I do wake up with stress-related acne! I knew then that it was important to speak out on those things because not only would it make me feel better about being honest, it would make other people feel good to know that no one’s life is perfect. Not even a model’s!”

"I was actually hiding my true feelings and what my life is really like. It’s not all yoga sessions, photoshoots and brunches"

Stina Sanders

Not everyone felt good about the experiment, though: faced with the disillusionment with picture perfection, thousands of followers clicked ‘unfollow’, and Stina’s then modelling agency went as far as to quit the contract with the model who had outed the truth.

But the backlash was outdone by a general positive response and new doors opening where others had closed: new followers swarmed the account, and Stina has since then become a successful blogger with her #UNFILTERED blog as well as an author of a book of the same name, talking openly about everything from social media to mental health and to what it is like being a woman, saying what others don’t dare to say.

For Stina, though, the most important outcome of her experiment was how it made people feel: “Many people to this day still contact and thank me for making them feel better about themselves. It was a wake-up for everyone to remember that celebrities, models and everyone in the world are only human and we all have cellulite and body hair. It’s something that we can’t hide from. So why not just embrace it? I’m also grateful that the experiment got everyone talking about important issues like body image and mental health.”

The change in attitudes is also reflected in what we see on social media today: “I think there has been a shift in what people post on social media. There are definitely less [sic] selfies and less [sic] bragging statuses. I think it’s uncool to act like your life is constantly perfect. Celebs like Chrissy Teigen and Lena Dunham have certainly helped that by posting photos about their stretch marks and mental health. I personally think social media should reflect life, which is a constant up and down cycle. Therefore posts should be mixed – and should show the good, the funny and the sad aspects of your life. Having said that, you should post whatever you feel comfortable in doing. It is your social media after all.”

With a move away from the overly perfect, I cannot but wonder how this ties in with a career in modelling. After all, media still glamourises models and portrays them as perfection – just what Stina set out to counter with her experiment in a social media context.

I ask Stina about a piece in the Daily Mail, where photos of her on a beach where accompanied by a heading ‘Blogger Stina Sanders puts on a cheeky display as she shows off her pert derriere while frolicking on the beach in Miami’.

“Articles like this is just part of the job. I don’t feel it takes anything away from the experiment because these are just pap shots of me on holiday having fun. If a journalist wants to write about my ‘perky bum’ I’m happy for them to. However, my blog and social media will always tell you differently.”

Beyond ‘perky bums’ and ‘pert derrieres’, in her experiment Stina also talked about mental health and shared her experiences with anxiety. While her won anxiety was always health-related – thinking that she was having a heart attack and panicking about dying – and not linked to what other people were doing, she realises how social media can be a big contributor to anxiety.

“I can see why people get affected by social media posts because it’s natural for humans to compare themselves to others. Especially when people are posting photos of their perfect lives. We can all be a little bit jealous sometimes but I think it’s important to notice when you get these feelings and if you do just turn your phone off and go for a walk. Go see a friend for coffee. That way your anxiety can stop overwhelming you,” she says.

Is oversharing caring? Making the personal public

But even with all its failings, social media can serve as a tool to manage mental health as well: “My anxiety is a lot better now but every now and then, especially when I get stressed, I can feel my panic attacks forming and I have to just calm myself down using the techniques that I’ve learnt in therapy. If I ever do feel anxious I will also write a blog post or put a pic on Instagram and reach out to others who might be feeling the same. It’s amazing the response you can get from doing so.”

In the one and a half years that have passed after the experiment, Stina has taken on social media from a whole new perspective: she is co-developer of Huggle. The app connects people who go to the same places and share the same lifestyle, rather than focusing just on the way they look. “It’s the perfect app if you’re new to a city, uni or if you just want to meet people who go where you go,” Stina says.

That, to me, sounds a lot like real life – properly unfiltered