This Is What You Don’t Know About Having A Massive Instagram Following

"Instagram is the reason I'm bullied constantly at school."

Updated 11 years ago, December 12, 2013

It’s the unspoken goal of every human in 2013 who isn’t living under a rock–followers. Not everyone dreams of being hugely famous, but no one scoffs at the idea that people follow their work or ramblings because they find them interesting or attractive or funny. Everyone likes being adored.

I caught up with Texas high school student Brady Good who in his teens has already amassed a social following of over 200,000 (mostly on his selfie-rich Instagram) to see what it’s really like.

Why do you think people on the internet “picked” you? Like, out of all the Instagram accounts of your peers, why is yours so popular?

I feel like I got popular online because I have a great attitude about life, I don’t put up with bullies, I stand up for what I believe in, I don’t care what people think about me, I support anti-bullying and a lot of girls find me attractive.

Brady Good's Instagram — Brady Good’s Instagram

Lots of teens worry about their looks, it’s an insecure time in life, do you think posting photos of yourself helps or hurts this?

Before posting photos of myself, I really felt like there was nothing to me. I felt just like every other person, yes I was insecure.

When I started posting photos of myself, people actually liked me and made me feel better about myself. Instagram has really helped me with my self-esteem.

Do you ever worry that colleges or future employers will google your name and be put off by the selfies?

No, I don’t. Maybe all my selfies will interest them–all my selfies contain a inspirational quote as the caption to help other people and bring a positive outlook to them.

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What’s something most people wouldn’t realize about having an internet following?

Most people don’t realize having a lot of followers affects me in real life. My followers assume I’m the most popular kid in school, that I have no drama, that I have the perfect life. When really Instagram is the reason I’m bullied constantly at school. Everyone there see me as “Brady the kid at school” not “Brady the celebrity” so they don’t understand and they give me so much hate for it.

I don’t think people realize how strong you need to be to be famous online, constantly being judged for everything you do. But in the end, it’s all worth it.

Can you talk more about bullying? What do people do?

People are constantly judging and bullying me because of my Instagram, they call me names. They take picture of me out in public and post it saying “OMG THE Brady Good” just to be rude, my whole school is constantly judging me thinking I’m conceited, gay, or full of myself. None of it is true.

All my drama is revolved around Instagram, if I had no Instagram people would treat me like everybody else.

The good thing about Instagram is I have so many people that look up to me, I inspire so many people to stand up for themselves. I help people be better. I get to preach about bullying. On Instagram, I can be myself. The bad part, I can’t please everybody, people watch my every move and are constantly judging me.

Everyone who has an internet presence has to deal with negative commenters. Do they ever get you down? How do you get it to stop bothering you?

Negative comments, yes, I’m not going to lie–they do hurt me. yes. They do bring me down. But then I remember, I have so many people that support me and love me for who I am. More people love me than hate me.

My followers are the ones who keep me strong through everything.

Do you hope to continue to grow your internet presence bigger and bigger, forever? Or will you get tired of it?

I hope to grow bigger and bigger and never stop and be online famous for the rest of my life. I could never get tired of the fans.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you?

I want people to know about me, I’m a human. I have feelings, I’m not conceited, I’m not full of myself. I’m actually really shy and humble. I’m also a great friend. I’m actually a great person. I wish people would talk to me, before they talked about me.