Australian model Essena O'Neill painted the picture of a perfect life on her social media accounts.
She posed on yoga mat along a serene beach, took post-workout selfies, and wore an alluring white gown, like so many Instagram and Facebook users often do.
This week, O'Neill said it was all a ruse; a lie made from touched-up photos and freebies given to her in exchange for brand recognition. As of Wednesday, the 19-year-old star's YouTube and Facebook accounts were no longer visible, and her Instagram page - which still has about 45,000 followers - was made private after O'Neill deleted most of the posts.
Pictures that remained had re-edited captions, many which began with "NOT REAL LIFE" followed by the picture's background story.
"I had the dream life," O'Neill said in her final YouTube post. "I had half a million people interested in me on social media - on Instagram sorry - I had over 100,000 views on most of my videos on YouTube."
"To a lot of people, I made it. I was signed, I'm still technically signed with - and I don't want to model at all anymore - one of the biggest agencies in Australia - I had one of the biggest agencies in America wanting me to sign me for my modeling and for my YouTube and I want to tell you that having it all on social media means absolutely nothing to your real life."
O'Neill said that it would be her last video post before shutting down all her social media accounts, save her Instagram page which was renamed "Social Media is Not Real." Her motivation came from talking her sister and realizing that a growing number of online followers only added to her loneliness.
"When you let yourself be defined by numbers, you let yourself be defined by something that is not pure, that is not real, and that is not love," O'Neill said.
O'Neill said her focus has shifted to promoting personal website letsbegamechangers.com, admitting that she has "no idea" how to make money going forward.
The fact that O'Neill held on to an Instagram account and openly said her website needed support caused pundits to question her true motives. A slew of YouTube videos popped up overnight calling O'Neill a hypocrite for using social media to, essentially, protest social media.
Nina and Randa Nelson, O'Neill's former friends, broke down the model's YouTube confessional, debunking claims that social media is fake and pointing to her recent breakup as reason for O'Neill's decision.
"I think the person that is fake here is Essena," Nina said.
She added, "The only reason she can spread this message of how social media is so horrible is because of social media."
Watch O'Neill's last YouTube video below.
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