10/10

Gurnaaz Kaur

Yet again, breaking the monotony in our social media lives is a challenge—the #10YearChallenge. This one has taken the internet by storm; that’s after a humble egg beat Kylie Jenner’s record of most-liked photo on Instagram!

Some days back, there was also a clamour that people decided to do a blindfold challenge after watching Netflix movie Bird Box. Coming back to the matter of the moment, the ‘10 Year Challenge’; this one has become a rage in just two days. If you are on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you must have had your news feeds, walls and time-lines filled with photos of friends—a collage of two pictures of themselves taken 10 years apart!

Then & now

So, this then-and-now trend has attracted a lot of takers among celebrities and masses alike, but has incurred some wrath too from those who think it’s all about showing off your looks or giving too much importance to them. There are many memes doing the rounds too. Some define development by putting a regular dustbin next to a paddle bin; another picture shows wired earphones with ear pods. In one, fun has been made about US debt 10 years back and now!

But truth be told, most of those who have taken this challenge are all for ageing or growing up gracefully. Also being called #HowHardDiDAgingHitYou and #GlowUpChallenge, from the post of celebs, we can conveniently say it’s a fun way of comparing how much one has changed in a decade.

Celeb brigade

Changing physically, emotionally and mentally is a sign of growing up and among those who have taken it positively are Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway, Tommy Dorfman, Sonam Kapoor, Jesica Biel, Diana Penty, Ellen DeGeneres, Padma Lakshmi, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and many more.

If Anne’s post reads, “Wow. Check out 2009 me trying to so hard not do anything wrong. Check out 2019 me doing what feels right.” Reese says, “Time sure does fly when you are having fun.”

Sonam Kapoor shared a collage of her from movies Delhi 6 and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga on Instagram to which her hubby Anand Ahuja replied, “Show Off. Hahahaha.” One more interesting post was by the Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo who shared pictures with his wife Sunrise. Mark captioned his post as, “#10YearsChallenge #20yearsmarriage.” Vishal Dadlani writes, “Yo, #10YearChallenge! Thanks for giving me a legit excuse to go back and look at how sickeningly fat I was, and how much difference losing some weight has made!”

These epic throwback snaps surely show how celebs are owning growing older and learning self-love and appreciation with each new challenge. Let’s say, life has only got better in the space of 10 years.