The Ugly Girls Club, Social Media Done Right
Join The Ugly Girls Club
The Royal Holloway Feminism Society was hosting a stall on consent at their University when they overheard a fellow student call them the 'Ugly Girls Club'. Rather than get offended, the girls took it as a joke and started sending each other unflattering selfies using the the hashtag: #uglygirlsclub. A viral social media campaign was born.The students running the Royal Holloway Feminism Society has no idea that what started out as a joke between friends would actually speak to a lot of people. The pictures they started uploading scrunching up their faces and pulling funny faces as well as taking selfies from an unflattering angle, went viral and more and more people started joining in. As it grew, they decided to change their name on Facebook to: Ugly Girls Club and launched a full blown social media campaign similar to: #NoMakeUpSelfie.
President of the now named, Ugly Girls Club, Natasha Barrett, spoke to The Telegraph about the selfie campaign they started: “The aim of the campaign is to empower people to not just think of their worth in physical terms. The selfies were tongue-in-cheek to start with - but they carry a serious message, too. Your worth shouldn't be dictated by how well you fit conventional beauty standards." This positive message obviously struck a chord with thousands of people who have now uploaded their 'ugly' selfies to Twitter.
It wasn't just girls supporting the campaign but boys also took to Twitter to support the cause with their funny selfies.
Still receiving selfies for our #uglygirlsclub campaign! Keep them coming in - against superficial criticism. #femsoc pic.twitter.com/8oq4mv5bmm
— Tasha Mitchell (@mufasabarrett) November 28, 2014
This social media campaign is so refreshing to see, in a world where people usually spend 10 minutes trying to get the 'perfect selfie', and use 100 different filters so they look perfect on Instagram. Futhermore, it has recently come to light that people are getting plastic surgery because they are not satisfied with their selfies. Their message is simple: "We are more than our appearance and so are you." The Club also reported that one of the students at their University had announced that they would no longer delete their unsatisfactory selfies, which was more than what they could have hoped for.
#uglygirlsclub pic.twitter.com/EbSLJhFot5
— Molly Coulthard (@mollycoulthard) November 23, 2014
What started out as a joke, became a fully fledged campaign challenging superficial judgement and beauty standards. That one guy that called them 'ugly girls club' has no idea what he just started.
Laura is a recent graduate from University of East Anglia in Film and Television Studies, currently interning as a content writer but hoping to one day live off her writing. Follow her @LauraAtSMF.
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The Ugly Girls Club, Social Media Done Right
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Thursday, December 04, 2014
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Anonymous
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