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Influencer Danae Mercer tells fans not to compare 'real' bodies to a 'highlight reel'

Danae Mercer is showing fans why they shouldn't compare themselves to what they see on social media.

On Wednesday, the self-love advocate shared a video on Instagram where she compares a posed photo of herself to what she looked like just moments before taking it, to combat unrealistic beauty standards.

"If you’re feeling bad about your body today, this is for you. This bit of love. This soft reminder. That says again and again how worthy you are. Until it starts to sink in. Until you start to believe it," she captioned the post.

In the video, Mercer explained that with an outfit change, good lighting, a filter and strategic posing, it's easy to snap the perfect photo.

"If you're feeling bad about your body today, remember this is me. And this is me seconds before," she said, before showing herself standing in a relaxed position, comparing the instantaneous difference in her appearance.

"I just changed my outfit. Twice. I changed my lighting, I put on a filter and then I popped my hips back. Really, really far back," she revealed, while demonstrating the pose from a less flattering angle.

"All just to get one single photo. So, don't compare their highlight reel to your real," she concluded. "Your body is worthy, and you're doing great."

Fans thanked Mercer for her transparency and for normalizing "body fluctuations."

"I love your transparency so much. I wish everyone was this honest about the work that goes into making their selfies appear flawless. It's also an important reminder about body fluctuations! It's totally normal to look different in size at certain times of the day, week or month," one person commented. "Even people who are in 'perfect' shape still get bloated sometimes! What we see in photos is literally what they looked like for about a split second, not what they look like 24/7."

"Love how you expose those unrealistic beauty standards," another Instagram user wrote.

"Crazy how angles and lighting have such a huge impact on how we feel about ourselves!" someone else chimed in.

"Absolutely love this! Thank you," another shared.

One person penned: "Love this message so much. People are so negatively impacted by these unrealistic images, thank you for always keeping things real."

Last month, Mercer shared another body positive post on Instagram, calling out early-2000s media for shaming young girls.

In the video, she points out some of the many times TV shows, including "Zoey 101" and "Toddlers in Tiaras," blatantly perpetuated diet culture in young girls.

"Times where media normalized body shaming young girls, and it’s awful. It’s awful, awful, awful," Mercer wrote to her more than 2 million followers.

"Children shouldn’t be skipping cake in an effort to ‘be good,' or making jokes about not eating so that they’re more pretty. They shouldn’t be forced to wear makeup and filmed as they cry. Or spray tanned before being put on a stage," she continued.

"They shouldn’t be asked what size they are, even if they’re starlets," she added. "Even if they’re very famous. And then laughed at, as though their discomfort was a punchline. They shouldn’t. Not then. And not now."

"While we can’t fix these past mistakes, I can only hope that we’ve moved to a place where we know, we know that our littles deserve better," she explained. "That the diet talk and weight loss jokes stop with us. That we can replace shame with self-love. And show our smalls, our tiny children, the kind of love we all deserve. We can start now, today. With ourselves. In our own homes. We can do it for us. We can do it for our tomorrows."

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