Cara Delevingne’s Instagram, like any good Instagram, is an advert for what a brilliant life she leads – not only does she hang out with all sorts of model mates and receive the best sorts of freebies, she also has a really cute bunny called Cecil who pops up on her feed from time to time. (He also has his own account with 99,000 followers.)
That’s why it came as a bit of a surprise to us that she Instagrammed a screengrab of the comments below an inspirational quote she’d borrowed from fellow model Joan Smalls. Confused by modern life? We’ll explain.
Joan Smalls Instagrammed an aphorism: ‘Dear Mom, If all my friends jumped off a cliff, it’s because it was my idea. Your child is a leader, not a follower.’ Not exactly the sort of thing you’d like to see on a greetings card, but still, inspirational enough, not least because it fits into that whole #leanin ideology of making moves and getting stuff done.
Cara Delevingne, a bit ironically, re-grammed the image, following Joan Small’s lead. (Yep, it’s an infinite repetition of an image within an image, a bit like that Ryan Gosling wearing a T-shirt of Macauley Culkin thing again.)
This image then got a comment from a follower, saying: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being a follower. Watch ‘The Power of Introverts’ on TedTalks and you’ll see why. Stop encouraging a society that is prejudiced against those who don’t want to lead.’
Cara immediately replied, saying: ‘You make a very good point!!! Thank you for enlightening me! I love TedTalks, all I was trying to say is if you are a leader then don’t be afraid x’
Cara then screengrabbed this conversation and posted it on Instagram, with the caption: ‘Very good point @alexandrakreuzgoldberg you are totally right x’
The commenter wasn’t talking about TED talks in general, though, but this specific one, and the idea of leadership versus followership (that’s actually a word, who knew?)
The talk, by Susan Cain, discusses how ‘in a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But… introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.’
It’s a bit like what Girls star Zosia Mamet recently said, that she wouldn’t quite mind leaving the world of acting so that she could go to live in near-nowhere working at a bakery, but that other people would get annoyed about it.
It’s not a matter of saying the whole #leanin #BanBossy culture is flawed, it’s about realising that quieter people can get a lot of shit done, too. And actually, look at what Cara learned from following the Instagram commenter? Check out the video here:
** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.