Essena O'Neill

O’Neill said that when she quit social media she had several projects planned, after having performed sponsored posts and received payments from YouTube.

After her announcement, she decided to launch a website called "Let’s Be Game Changers," meant to "inform people". In the site, she posted videos questioning social media and encouraging followers to think about the way they use social media. The site also featured a section called "behind the image," which served to shed light on the details and preparation behind her previous images posted to her Instagram account.

O'Neill took down Let’s Be Game Changers in December 2015 because being online "felt toxic", followed by an email newsletter sent to her followers. Around this same time, Let's Be Game Changers redirected to a blank site with her name on it. She then announced that she would be writing a satirical book called How to Be Social Media Famous.

In late October 2015, then eighteen-year-old model and vegan advocate Essena O'Neill deleted over 2,000 photos on her Instagram that had over 600,000 followers. She renamed the account "Social Media Is Not Real Life" and rewrote captions for old posts. She also decided to quit all other social media accounts, including Tumblr and Snapchat.

Essena O'Neill (born 1997) is a former internet celebrity from Coolum, Australia who made national and international headlines when quitting social media in 2015.