It happens all the time. You see photos of someone else's life and although you were perfectly content just a minute ago, somehow seeing their smiling photos and glamorous lifestyle makes your life seem less than. What many people don't know is that a picture-perfect life is always an illusion. Mommy blogger Josi Denise recently made waves when she exposed the dirty little secret behind her "perfect family," a secret that nearly destroyed her marriage.
All of the photos Josi took of her smiling family were just to sell advertisements. Her blog, The American Mama, garnered 50,000 unique viewers a month, and Josi was making $1,500 per blog post. Constantly having to portray her family as happy, trying to sell her everyday life as a story, and always having her camera out for money nearly cost Josi her family. She was missing out on her real family life in order to make money off of her fake one.
“I was posting photos that were happy because I needed that post," Josi told. "If it was a sponsored post especially, I needed the happy photos! If I had deadlines to meet for sponsored posts, and we weren't actually having a great time, I still needed to get those photos."
When Josi couldn't take it anymore, she shut down her blog and wrote a scathing admission of guilt.
“[Ninety percent] of the fake nonsense I used to share on the internet as a mommy blogger writing about my fake life and oh-so-happy marriage, they are pure bulls**t,” Josi wrote. “I feel better about myself [now]. I don't have the constant insecurity and need to post constant cheerful, positive messages online. It's definitely a relief to be able to be authentic."
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