I'm In This Picture and I Don't Like It (NHS Instagram Accounts)

Don’t get me wrong. I love Instagram. I love being on Instagram. I love being in pictures. I love being in pictures posted on Instagram.

However,

What the hell.

Is this even legal? It feels illegal.

Yes, that’s me. In my little pink shoes. Using the bathroom, minding my own business. Assuming people will leave me alone.

I didn’t think I had to worry about things like this when I entered high school. I’m a poor little freshman. I didn’t ask for this.

Who is running this account? Better yet, who the hell is submitting photos to this account? Who goes to the bathroom, sees someone else is also in there, whips out their phone, and crouches below the stall walls to get a photo without the victim’s permission? And what is with these low ratings? My pink shoes got a 6/10, and that was generous for NHS shoe review. For some ratings, not only was the account commenting on the subject’s shoes, but on the way in which they were sitting, or their pulled down pants. What the hell.

When my friends showed me that I was posted on NHS shoe review, I was instinctively horrified. I hadn’t known that this account had existed, or that I had to look out for it.

Later, I joined the NHS Winter Musical, which required me to stay after school most days for rehearsals. Because I was also committed to taking ballet classes four days a week, I ended up having to change into my ballet uniform in the bathroom most days. Last year, if you told me I would be doing that, I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. I never would have expected that I would be forced to endure the overwhelming fear and anxiety instilled into me that the prying eyes of NHS Shoe Review would suddenly appear without my knowledge and photograph my naked feet as I changed out of my socks and into my tights. Every day I was grateful that that hadn’t happened.

Listen, NHS Shoe Review, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. But maybe, just maybe, start taking these pictures with consent. Outside of the bathroom. Make some friends. Touch some grass or something. What the hell.