I enjoy the Duchess of Sussex’s Instagram so much, and I love that she’s gotten back to the point where she feels comfortable sharing family photos and updates about her life. My only criticism is that she should have gotten back on IG long before this year! I was one of the people begging her to get back on IG and I still think it’s one of the best PR/communications moves she’s made in recent years. With her personal IG and the As Ever IG (which is run by Meghan and her team), she’s able to subtly clarify situations, pivot away from certain storylines or change the narrative completely. Well, interestingly enough, American Vogue just published something about Meghan’s IG: “The Millennial-ness of Meghan Markle’s Instagram.” It’s basically like… wow, Meghan really is true to her “live laugh love” generation. An excerpt:
If you visit certain corners of the internet or read certain papers, you’ll find yourself amongst a populus convinced that Meghan Markle is some sort of manipulative, narcissistic mastermind. (“She wanted to be the victim because then she could convince Harry that it was an unbearable experience and they had no choice but to move to America,” an anonymous source told The Times of London. “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears,” another anonymous source told The Hollywood Reporter.)
I’m not a psychiatrist. So I’ll refrain from weighing on what personality traits Markle does, or does not, have. Nor have I ever met Meghan. So I’ll also refrain from commenting on what she is, or is not, like.
But I won’t refrain from this: Markle’s Instagram presence makes her seem so… harmlessly millennial. Everything has a filter. (She loves a black-and-white photo). Captions contain the crying laughing emoji. (Gen Z prefers the skull.) She posts mood boards with cheesy sayings that seem plucked from Pinterest: “You cannot make everybody happy. You are not a jar of Nutella,” or “I love you with all my butt. I would say heart, but my butt is bigger.” There are also video slideshows and random photos with text overlaid. (“My husband’s hat gets a twirl,” reads a red caption over a photo of Prince Harry’s cowboy hat from Kemo Sabe.)
Before Meghan Markle joined the royal family, she had her own Instagram. She posted overly-saturated travel photos with her back to the camera, yoga poses, peonies, and inspirational quotes in millennial pink like “find what you love, love what you find.” Nearly everything was followed by a hashtag.
By the way, so did everyone else: in the mid 2010s, it was common to pose in front of dramatic backgrounds before slapping the Clarendon filter over it, and to share things that today wouldn’t warrant a post at all. (Back then, we didn’t have stories or slideshow features—and it showed.) The aesthetic Meghan had was the defining one of the social media platform.
But then in 2018, she logged off. It took her seven years—and a dramatic move from the United Kingdom—to log back on: this time, under the username of @meghan. But while the rest had moved onto a candid, darker-toned, photo dump style of posting, Meghan went right back to the highly saturated filtered-ness.
Her haters might call her presence cringey. Her stans might call it endearing. But no matter where you fall on that Markle spectrum, you can’t deny its disarming. It’s hard to have strong, angry feelings about a woman who posts cheesy quotes about Nutella, awkwardly dances in a hospital room, or posts captions about her children that says “love you more than all the stars in all the sky, all the raindrops, and all the salt on all the french fries in all the world.”
This sort of reminded me of something Tina Brown (of all people) said about Meghan this year. I’m paraphrasing, but Brown basically said that Meghan is throwing it back to the Obama administration. While Brown has said some awful sh-t which I do not cosign, I think the Obama-Era-ness of Meghan’s online energy is accurate. Meghan posts like it’s 2014, like the “British years” didn’t happen and the Trump catastrophes are not on her radar. As for the relative coolness or uncoolness of Meghan’s social media… she’s not “cool” like a Gen Zer, but I think the youths probably appreciate Meghan’s whole vibe and energy, right? If she’s on their radar whatsoever.
Photos courtesy of Meghan’s IG and As Ever’s IG.
Wow, last week Jezebel published this exact talking point: how Millenial-coded Meghan’s insta is and like, who is it all for because that won’t sell to Gen Z, what is she doing, cringe! It’s like they’ve never seen a woman just exist for herself before.
Gen Z doesn’t have any money, it’s better to sell to older folks.
PS to Vogue: it’s “populace”
Yeah, that Jezebel piece was an uncalled-for hit job.
People who see Meghan filtered through tabloid talking points will find any reason to not like her posts. Oh no, she’s too millennial! Tell me you’re a tabloid reader without telling me you’re a tabloid reader. Tell me you hang out in deranger spaces without telling me you hang out in deranger spaces. Which fine, if it’s too millennial for some people, then move on and go somewhere else.
I dont know about the jezebel article but this article doesnt’ seem that negative to me. Meghan is a millennial (fine a xennial) who became big on IG during the 2010s. of course thats what her IG reflects now. its fun and harmless and shows her online personality – somewhat cheesy, a lover of black and white photos, and someone who likes text overlay.
like the article says – how can you really have strong angry feelings over this woman? She’s such a cheeseball!! and I say that with love bc I am also hugely cheesy lol.
For sure, the tone of this vogue article is cute. And it’s a good example of how a detail can be turned into something cute in one publication or something negative in another. I used to read jezebel a long time ago and actually did click on that link….and then just went nope, no thank u. But this one is cute.
Ahem, certain among us prefer the term “elder millienial” (less so geriatric millennial”, but ok.) i feel like 1980 is the cutoff. I
Ummmmm.
There are tons of people who post and write in a similar way, filters and all. Are they all millennials? I have no idea. Because millennials are aging differently and it’s hard to pin down someone’s age by how they look or act. Which is wonderful.
I just see a woman that I respect and admire, posting and sharing the things she wants to post and share. That’s it. I don’t think she overthinks most of what she posts. Most millennials don’t. We are just like awwwww! Post.
I find it incredibly offensive that the whole media continues to call her Markle when she clearly is Meghan Sussex and that last name belongs to her horrible paedo father.
I (a GenXer) used to read Jezebel like 20 years ago, when it was dominated by millennials and still part of Gawker. I stopped reading when certain bloggers and commenters there began acting as self-styled gatekeepers on every progressive cause, to the point of extreme obnoxiousness. It’s shocking what a 180 they’ve done. Completely misinformed, misogynoirist as hell, and its commentariat is full of derangers and people talking out of their asses. At least the old Jezebel thought it had principles. Now it’s just a shameless sack of s**t.
One of the gifts of aging is not following, understanding, or even knowing about new trends, new slang, etc.
And trying to incorporate gen z’ speak as a gen x woman over 50 would be “cringe” as the youths may or may not say anymore.
I don’t know, i’m a woman over 50.
I am a Duchess of Sussex fan, and it seems like just- who she is- with a filter, which is fair.
I also frankly don’t find the youths all that cool. Have you seen how the kids dress these days? That’s a nope from me.
Omg 😂🤣 yes.
I saw a video of a get ready with me and this girl put on “low rise” jeans and I was like …. If you aren’t factoring in how recently you were waxed, those aren’t low rise jeans.
They were right under her belly button 😂🤣
@ariel, I’ll add, not caring about the age of the person hosting the show/SM/podcast, whatever. I’ve found a lot of people much younger than me educating me on new shows. While I know about a lot of them, they seem to know a lot about most of them. And, gulp, I’ve pretended to not know to keep them talking about the subjects that’ve interested me.
Love what Madame Duchess shares/inpires that you can do these things to and just be you.
I think her style adds to her authenticity. It’s a difference between being staid and stuck in the past as if you’re cosplaying a Victorian lifestyle, and just being like this is the era I grew up in so these are the references that I make and what I like.
It’s more cringe to me when people use slang and jump on trends that they know don’t fit them in an effort to ” appeal” to wider demographics. People can tell if you are doing that, so it would be a failure anyway.
In any case I’m just getting a vibe from a lot of traditional media that they are frustrated with the amount of narrative control and direct contact this Instagram allows her. It’s not just the British media. I’ve long said that the Tina Brown’s and Graydon Carter’s didn’t like that their ability to be gatekeeper’s was taken away from them, but it feels like some of the younger media is doing the same.
Her insta isn’t for the Gen Zers and that’s ok!
And honestly, would the Gen Z’ers really even care or be turned off or mad about it? It’s like mom and dad posts.
All this discussion about Millennials, Gen X & Z has made me curious about Celebitchy’s readers. I wonder, what’s the demographic on this platform? Any ideas? I’m certainly not a Milliennial! And the wildly hateful Tina Brown & Graydon Carter’s, who were highly influential in their heyday – both baby boomers – have now lost their gatekeeping powers (as someone commented here). I wonder if Brown’s issue with Meghan might have something to do with her waning relevance, and she can’t stand watching the rising influence of a millennial like Meghan. Of course there’s likely racism & snobbery involved as well.
i get the impression there’s a wide variety of ages here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the readership skews a little bit older just bc the coverage tends to be of older celebrities and not that many reality stars.
I myself am a xennial, I’m about 6 months younger than Meghan.
I’m a mid century baby, old I tell ya! And have read Celebitchy for years and years.
My guess from comments the biggest group is 40 to 50ish, with the range roughly 35 to 75 plus or minus.
How shocking that a millennial-age woman has a social media account that resembles that era and the decade in which she came of age/established her career, etc.
🙄
BUT HOW CAN SHE BE COOL OR POPULAR IF SHE ISNT DOING PRODUCT PLACEMENT POSTS ALL THE TIME. OR SAYING MID.
They can say what they want but I like her instagram posts. She is showing her true self cheesy and all. She seems very happy and doesn’t give two shits what people think. Keep posting Meg!!
When I look at other celebrity pages , a lot of posts are just them going out somewhere and posing, vacation pics, or putting on makeup. I don’t see anything wrong with her page either except I’m not into gardening so all the flower posts are just ok. I love most of what she’s shared. The last few posts have really been great and with good photos and content.
@ariel and @Dee(2) I agree with what you both wrote. This is how anyone can tell that Meghan is being 100% authentic – this is her true self. She really has come full circle and built on top of it. She is posting what she likes, how she likes. She is posting like someone of her age, born of her generation. Very relatable. She speaks, dresses and interacts like an intelligent, educated, curious, fun, creative person, again, of her generation. If she had attempted to post like a Gen Z-er it would ring false.
The thing is this: genuine people attract people from ALL walks of life and all ages, and that reflects Meghan’s fan base to a T.
One of her most impressive skills is the ability to be both aspiration and relatable. She lives in a mansion in sunny California with a massive garden… and she posts photos of herself with little/no makeup, hair flying, relaxed at home.
(Which, yes, I know that even her “casual” content probably required a lot of prep and was far from spontaneous, but it LOOKS like elder millennial women and moms everywhere. Just in nicer clothes.)
Prince Harry has a cowboy hat!?!? Sorry I missed this…🤣😎
Harry wore an Australian-style flat-brimmed cattleman’s hat to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter concert.
Meghan posted a pic of the inside brim, which was custom stamped with flags and the names of his kids.
Heh—thanks!
Can we all just go back to the Obama era please?
Right?! That’s what I want. Not waking up every day in a panic about our fascist hellscape would be lovely.
Yes Please!
I was listening to a podcast where the millennial host and her millennial guest were talking about how they liked her, but found With Love, Meghan absolutely cringe.
I just laughed. As a Gen X/boomer cusp, all I could think was that she seemed like an absolutely normal millennial to me. You two may not be happy that she’s “a” voice of your generation, but she absolutely is. LOL.
She’s 44 years old, it would be weird and cringe if she was posting like a Gen Z person.
Exactly. What’s wrong with acting your age
An a GenXr who occasionally posts a food or vacation pic on Instagram, I’m totally out of the loop on what Instagram should look like in the 2020s. I see a post, look at pictures, and move on. I look at a lot iof styling pages but don’t pay a lot of attention to what celebrities are posting. She is sharing what she chooses to share. Why is this a thing? Can someone give an example of what an au courant 2020s instagram page should look like?
That’s a good question. Bc I feel pretty out of the know with that. And I thought the kids used tik Tok more anyways? But yes what is the current trend for insta. The article says darker-toned photo dumps? Okay, sure?
@L4Frimaire, from what I read, the famous people use their accounts mostly for business and promotion now. They don’t post much about their personal lives, cute family photos, etc.
Instagram is a different place now compared to a couple of years ago, which is why Meghan haters are making the comparison. It use to be able people sharing their lives, but now it’s mostly just a marketing tool and everyone is trying to sell something or get engagement. Celebrities now mainly post photoshoots, bikini shots or are promoting something. The only things that go viral are stupid TikTok dances. No one posts unless they are getting something out of it, which is why Meghan haters are saying her Instagram is a throwback, probably because it reminds them of a simpler time of what the platform use to be.
She would come off sounding completely disingenuous if she tried to mimic Gen Z style stuff complete with slang and then people would [SHOCK!] complain about her. The derangers and Meghan haters will always be there, no matter what she does or says. This is coming from a boomer by the way, and I think I’ve managed to adapt to the way younger generations have changed the social media world quite well without giving up my boomerism or sounding like a desperate housewife.
They would call her “fake” and “try-hard”.
You mean you wouldn’t buy her saying “skibbidi toilet” while performing choreography from the latest Blackpink song?
@Dutch, do people do that? 😭😭 I feel old now..
My kids say skibbidi and it cracks them up. I seriously have no idea what they’re talking about.
One of my favorite things to do is walk in a room of gen alphas or whatever and just say THE RIZZ IS SKIBBIDI!!!!!!! ITS BUSSIN’!!!!!! they all get so embarrassed.
I feel like Steve Buscemi in that scene from 30 Rock where he says something like ‘hello fellow kids’ as he’s trying to be blend in and be cool lol.
TRY IT!! haha .
@Becks1, I learned “rizz” from Conan’s podcast 😭😭 He is sometimes trying to learn new words from young people and he kept saying “I got the rizz” 😂 So, I am gonna wait for Conan to explain to me what the hell “skibbidi” is.
Lol why does Meghan have to appeal to every generation? Like she has fans of every age I’m sure but she’s supposed to appeal to 18 year olds and 80 year olds…..all of them everywhere at the same time? Are those people even on Instagram? My tween daughter says Instagram isn’t cool but what do I know. I’m a gen X technically (1979 baby) but a millennial at heart and I love her Instagram. It gives off happy wholesome vibes.
Jezebel posted a piece that was suspiciously similar recently. I guess this is the new criticism they want to throw at her.
She finds magic in her life and it’s telling who finds that off-putting about her.
Do these publications do regular Instagram page reviews of celebrities or is Meghan just exceptional and special? This is another version of telling someone how to run their life because what they actually choose to do goes against their assumptions.
It’s strange to me that Meghan’s Instagram is always talked about as if there aren’t millions of Instagram accounts that are unique to each individual, company or whatever. To me it’s more of these people’s preconceived idea of who they think she is or what she would or should share with them. None of us actually know her and from what we’ve heard from those who do personally and intimately know her, she’s a goofy, fun, lighthearted person who is also passionate about those she loves and issues that she has always cared about. So to me her Instagram being very similar to the Instagram she previously had isn’t about getting the approval of any generation of people, but her just being her authentic self. I think that if it weren’t for the attacks and threats she would be even more like she was previously and even go as far as to share more of her family life and her children’s faces. It’s the very media talking about her Instagram now (positively, but especially negatively) who are the reason they aren’t getting all they want from her post. I’m loving her posts and although I understand how some wish she would have returned sooner, I think she needed to go through a grieving and healing process before she could return to Instagram whole.
I also wanted to add that I laughed out loud when I read the anonymous sources comment about her “bringing grown men to tears” because all I can picture is crying William being comforted by a crying Knauf 🤣.
Yeah, so? She must be attracting somebody with all her views and likes and followers and people searching frantically for her casserole pot. Vogue only wishes it had that kind of pull.
All the angst from the various outlets suggests to me they are angry Meghan is controlling her family’s narrative. I absolutely love her posts and the peeps it gives into her life. She is a very authentic woman and at this point in her life as she has expressed, she is no longer trying to prove her worthiness. It boggles my mind how anyone can say her show With Love Meghan is cringe. The show showcases what she loves to do, how she does it, and her interacting with the quests and if you watch it carefully, you may pick up a tip or two.
You can see from the wider conversations re Meghan the House of Windsor is in deep trouble because the two most charismatic people left and there is no one to replace them.
So, Meghan is successfully appealing to one of her most valuable target audiences? An audience that appreciates her particular aesthetic and has disposable income to buy her products?
Do I have that right?
Ding ding ding….and this is why they are so mad!
Yeah, I wonder what they said about William and Kate rolling around on the beach with their kids watching. Talk about cringe.🤮🤮
She is just the way she is, and what she does is fun and enjoyable for her and many people. And she has earned a lot of respect and appreciation through her many social projects. And! she survives murderous attacks every day, has two children and works hard, fiercely and extraordinarily diligently. All this with grace, humour and dance in all situations 🙂
We lose so much meaning when we force a person’s art into boxes.
It amazes me how much time people spend analyzing everything she does! I love her so much but I’m certainly not going to go over everything with a fine toothed comb. The RR are absolutely obsessed with her, I’m kind of embarrassed for them. I also don’t respect certain publications who seem to hold her to account at a higher level than anyone else. Let the woman be.
The oldest members of Gen Z are almost 30, they are not all 18 year olds. The ones I personally know are committed to community involvement, especially if it’s hands on and I think Meghan and Harry excel at that. From what I see, they have a lot of Gen Z fans, although I’m guessing the majority of Meghan’s fans would be millennials like herself.
I just have to say she is so freaking beautiful. And alive. She glows.
I hope Meghan stays cheesy and millennial. It’s so liberating. 🥳
I agree with a lot of the comments here. I only got an Instagram account because of Meghan, and I don’t check it every day. But I’m glad she’s got it, if only to shake my head at articles like this Vogue high-tone coded snark. ‘She’s harmless, but only 39% popular.’ Has Vogue ever bothered to give popularity poll percentages on any other celebrity? Does Vogue cite anonymously-sourced quotes from other publications about any other celebrity? Yet here we are. Where a little-known Vogue writer congratulates herself on her restraint: “I’ll refrain…on personality traits…I’ll also refrain from commenting on what she is.”🤮
“It took her seven years—and a dramatic move from the United Kingdom—to log back on: this time, under the username of @meghan. But while the rest had moved onto a candid, darker-toned, photo dump style of posting, Meghan went right back to the highly saturated filtered-ness.” Puuuuhleeeeeeze. Has Vogue’s Elise Taylor or Vogue itself “moved onto a candid, darker-toned, photo dump style” for Instagram or anything else? Nah, they’re both very much into the “overly-saturated” style they disparage. You’d think there would be a little more gratitude for a subject you’re both dependent on for $$$$$$.
Just another publication sucking up to the RF.
I’m glad Meghan is living a lavish and unbothered live after the British hell she went through. She’s not an elected politician responsible to solve any problems yet she and Harry contribute a lot more with their philanthropist causes.
I mean… it is, though?
Meghan is being herself — a smart, ambitious, loving, beautiful, feminist and creative dork. And I’m here for it.
I am thrilled Meghan has kept her millennial vibe. She even still wears skinny jeans which I am surprised Jezebel hasn’t written a nasty article about yet. When I see her filters, tight pants and flighty optimism all I feel is that she is me and I am her. I think Meghan is very wise and intentional and authentic in the audience she is courting with her approach. Also agree on the Obama era vibe – super astute insight and yes millennials are old enough to have true nostalgia about a simpler kinder time.
Meghan is being true to herself and that is the most important part (no matter what generation you are from). She is posting what she feels comfortable sharing when and how she wants to do that and I love that or her!
In 1998, the extremely successful band Depeche Mode released a greatest hits album whose liner notes included terrible reviews by the media for each song.
These reporters can scream and cry all they want, but they’ll never put a dent in her success.