I’ve just realised something both hilarious and heartwarming.
My first ever Instagram post was made all the way back on 27 May, 2013. That means I have been faffing about on the app for nearly 12 years. A dozen years of food pics, community updates, bad choices, and thankfully not too many selfies.
But here is the twist. My blog actually started in December 2010. That is two and a half years of vegan ramblings online before I ever even thought to open the Instagram app. Why did it take me so long?
Keep reading to see the extremely average photo that started it all.
The answer lies in a very specific time and place. Portland, Oregon. 2013. I had jetted over to attend a vegan blogger conference called Vida Vegan Con and while I was there, surrounded by passionate plant-based folks with cameras at the ready, I kept hearing people championing Instagram. Apparently it was the future. People were already sharing their meals, their vegan shoes, and their activist t-shirt photos. I was late to the party but I decided to give it a go.
That very weekend I posted my first post. I was sat out the back of a bar on a patio in Portland and someone handed me a box of vegan doughnuts. I had no clue what I was doing. I am fairly certain I was using a BlackBerry. Remember those? I held the doughnut box up, clicked a blurry shot, and that was that. My Instagram journey had begun with zero fanfare and absolutely no skill.
Looking back, it is wild to think that from that slightly wobbly photo I went on to post thousands of times, share parts of my life, connect with people across the globe, and be part of an ever-changing platform that still somehow holds my attention more than a decade on.
So here it is. The humble box of doughnuts that started it all. Bad lighting, a dodgy filter, and a whole lot of sweet nostalgia.
Thanks to everyone over at Instagram for sticking around with me all these years. Here’s to many more blurry photos, good meals, and digital mischief.
Take a look at home far I’ve come on the app by checking out my latest Reel from today.
You can order my book ‘Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t’ online now. It has been out a while now but is still a good read. You can also listen to the Audiobook read by me!
You can watch/stream my weekly podcast Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) on YouTube and Spotify.
Follow me on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Facebook, and Blue Sky.