It’s late at night, as I open up Instagram to scroll through my feed and I see a video of a young girl doing her makeup. Impressed, I think to myself ‘Wow I wish I could do that.’ But when I click on the thousands of comments, some people seem to be thinking a completely different thing.

They say things like “She’s too young” or “This is what is wrong with society.” One even reads “If her parents are letting her do that.. they’re disgusting. Have some common sense she’s only like 5.” To some extent, I understand some of the points saying girls don’t need to put on makeup to feel beautiful and that she shouldn’t be exposed to this mindset at such a young age.

Looking at the video, however, she looks so happy doing what she is passionate about. There shouldn’t be any shame in doing what you love. I think rather the negative comments would impact her more than the fact that she is doing her makeup at a young age.

With social media, anyone can write a comment anonymously on a post without fearing the consequences. This leads to an increase in cyberbullying on the internet. Just because you can make those negative comments doesn’t mean you should.

I see people commenting more negatively than positively. Innocent posts are pulled apart as people make it into something that it isn’t. A person may say one wrong thing, and the media is all over it, twisting their words.

Even if you think the person is bad, or you disagree with what they are doing, there is no need to shame them for doing what they are passionate about. That post won’t affect you whether or not you comment on it, but that comment that you leave may affect them. So instead the next time you go to comment on another person’s post, think about how it can affect them.