I am a self-confessed Insta-holic. I love Instagram. My Facebook news feed can get cluttered with a lot of rubbish; my Twitter feed is filled with extremists on both sides of politics and a lot of links to articles which I don’t have time to read and just make me want to cry about how I wish I did have more time to read. So I end up, like many millennials, spending a lot of my time on Instagram. In Australia, Instagram was the second most popular social networking site for 2018 with 46% of social media users on Instagram (a 15 point increase from 31% last year).
Last week, I was doing some research on Walmart’s corporate structure for my most recent article on Democratic Capitalism. I came across a woman by the name of Carla A. Harris - and I fell in love.
Ms Harris’ accomplishments list goes on and on and on. Not only is she an renowned businesswoman but she is an author and a top-selling singer. I was so excited to read her story.
My next move was to do what I always do - look her up on Instagram. But there was no Instagram account. And this isn’t the first time this has happened.
A number of women I look up to and admire have very little to no Instagram presence. The list includes businesswomen Lynelle Cameron, Kesha Cash, Elaine Dinos, Amy Domini, Audette Exel, Donna Morton and Nidhi Raina.*
You probably think these women are too busy to be on Instagram.
Well, yes… and no.
Over 60% of Instagram’s user base are millennials. Young people like me who want to follow amazingly inspirational women and know what they are doing to feel empowered and inspired.
I meet so many other young women who want to make an impact in the world but feel they can only do that through working for a not-for-profit. They feel the choice has to be either ‘sell-out’ in business or risk being a life-long volunteer and / or never being paid as much as they would in the private sector.
However, there are so many powerful, successful women to prove that you can create a meaningful impact in business. A lot of them aren’t on Instagram though - and for young women like me, we suddenly feel unconnected.
Instagram doesn’t have to take up too much time (although for me it does - but that is because I let it). It can be a quick post every couple of days, a few moments in the story on really exciting days. I would feel so much more empowered if I could open up my Instagram and follow these incredibly powerful business women and what they are doing with their day, from their morning routine, to their meals, to their evening routine, to their weekend hobbies and, of course, their general day to day boss-women lives in the office and creating meaningful impact.
Therefore, I urge everyone who wants to inspire future generations to sign up to Instagram. It is so easy to do, and there are millions of young women (and men) like me who want to follow the journey of successful people creating an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for us all.
*I had previously included Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, in my list of women with little to no Instagram presence, but she has recently just kicked up her 'gram game, and it has been the best week of my life!
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