Socality Barbie Wants To #LiveAuthentic; Is More Hipster Than You


Barbie has at last turned over a new leaf, it seems. She’s traded in her Corvette for a Subaru, her heels and glam wardrobe for  a pair of hiking boots, flannels, and black-rimmed glasses, and her beach-blonde hair for a shade of auburn so rustic it’ll make you want to grow a full-on lumberjack beard and live your life like an Instagram filter.

This is Socality Barbie, where her entire life is an ode to the hashtag #LiveAuthentic, there’s always the right filter for every pensive moment, and she is way better at hipster-ing than you.

Socality Barbie was created by a wedding photographer based in Portland, Oregon, who wishes to be kept anonymous, so as to preserve the character’s authenticity. She created the account three months ago to satirize Instagram users who constantly hashtag their posts with #liveauthentic and #socality. The account is now 7,000 followers strong and rising, and this is proof how homogeneous their socality has become and has turned into something ripe for satire.

“I get it, it’s pretty to look at”, she says. “But it’s so dishonest. Nobody actually lives like this. And it’s so overdone that it’s becoming boring”.

The irony of using a Barbie for her project is not lost on the creator. “People were all taking the same pictures in the same places and using the same captions,” she says. “I couldn’t tell any of their pictures apart so I thought, ‘What better way to make my point than with a mass-produced doll?’”

Every shot would fit perfectly well in a “Kinfolk” issue. So perfect, in fact, why not indeed put her on the cover?

One of the reasons behind the success of Socality Babrbie is perhaps because we’re so familiar with the aesthetic. Why? Perhaps it’s because we’ve already practically seen it everywhere. “I think it’s because she’s so relatable,” the photographer says. “Either your Instagram looks just like hers or you know at least one person whose Instagram does.”

We sense a shout out to this series of photographs.

Keep doing you, Socality Barbie. Keep living free, keep the #liveauthentic vibe alive. In fact, we dedicate this song to you. We’re sure it’ll warm the cockles of your little wilderness-loving hipster heart.

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Kossi

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