Paulina Porizkova Shares Her Thoughts On Posting Selfies

Model Paulina Porizkova has a lot of thoughts on beauty and aging.

The 57-year-old model has been sharing a lot of thoughts on life in her new collection of essays, “No Filter: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful,” which is out in a few days.

On Tuesday, November 8 (which just so happens to be Election Day!), the Czech-born model decided to share some of her own thoughts on snapping selfies with her Instagram followers.

On Tuesday, November 8, the stunning supermodel took to Instagram to share a glam selfie, with her long blonde hair styled in loose waves over her shoulders. “Are selfies a show of narcissism, a desire to be validated -or to connect?” she asked. “I believe they may be all of the above.”

“Did you know we are programmed to look for faces? There is much scientific research on the topic. We, as infants, first see our parent’s face. The eyes, the nose, the lips,” she continued. “The human brain is wired for face recognition, so explicitly in fact, that we even see faces in inanimate objects!”

“This is called face pareidolia,” she explained. “All we need as humans are three points of focus set within a specific range to interpret this as a face. And from this, we can even interpret emotions! This is why lovely photos of landscapes, interiors, art and objects get less traction on social media than a face. Being good at interpreting faces and emotions is a social skill that helps us survive.”

“So, no need to feel bad about taking - and posting selfies - whatever your motivation is,” she continued. “And all of you amazing and beautiful women (and few men) - my #paulinasnofilterchallenge is still up- I’ll make a decision on the weekend. So if you haven’t already, do post a selfie of your beautiful self with no filters and hashtag it #paulinasnofilterchallenge.”

Fans were quick to show support for Paulina’s message. “I consider the selfie a celebration of ourselves,” one follower wrote. “When I post one, it's because I want to capture the moment where I love myself and find myself beautiful. I don't think it's narcissism. I view it like a way to document the moments when I feel good about myself.” Paulina replied, “We all need a healthy dose of narcissism.”

However, several fans took issue with her well-meaning comment. “Careful not to confuse adaptive narcissism (self-confidence, self-reliance, and the ability to celebrate one’s self) with maladaptive narcissism (entitled, aggressive, unable to connect with empathy, tendency to take advantage of others),” one user replied. “Under the umbrella of maladaptive narcissism there are 5 kinds: overt, covert, antagonistic, communal, and malignant. Narcissism itself has become a buzz word commonly associated with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which many have experienced through relations with family, friends, partners, acquaintances, business relationships, or suffer from themselves.”

“I can’t speak for Paulina, but she’s extremely well read on psychology, and I’d feign to guess she is referring to adaptive narcissism, which is not, in fact negative,” they added. “We don’t differentiate between the two major categories of narcissism often in dialogue, especially on social media. It’s something that I hope will become a healthy talking point over time. Thanks for hearing me out. Blessings.”

A few days ago, Paulina took to Instagram to issue her fans a “challenge” of sorts ahead of her new book, “No Filter.”

“Take a selfie or have someone take your photo of your beautiful self, hashtag it #paulinasnofilterchallenge and post to your own feed!” Paulina explained. “Make sure you hashtag ‘paulinas’ filter challenge - I forgot to mention this in the video- because there are many no filter challenges up already!”

“I will look through all of them and pick five to get a signed copy of my book,” she added. “Do it this weekend if you can, so you don’t miss out if you’re interested! All genders are welcome, but it only applies to the residents of the US. (Sorry all of your abroad- maybe I’ll do an international challenge at some later date.)”

She capped off the post writing, “I can’t wait to see all of your beautiful faces!” So far, there have been many entries, but the lucky winners have yet to be announced so there is still time to enter!