“Picked for you: Fitness” is a digital self-portrait representing an amalgamation of young, white, female “fitness” fashion bloggers who heavily feature photographs of themselves wearing minimal clothing sourced from discount fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21. In order to create this look I aggregated a large of number of images of scantily-clad fitness girls which appeared on my Instagram Explore page in the “Picked for You: Fitness” content block. Then I pieced together the various rules and guidelines of visually belonging to the fitness babe aesthetic identity, namely:
1. Pose in a way that amplifies your butt and hides your waist,
2. Have long, well-coiffed hair or extensions, preferably color-treated, usually blonde,
3. Wear a full face of makeup and false eyelashes to appear gorgeous, poreless, and contoured,
4. Have well-manicured long nails, and 5. Wear inexpensive, revealing clubstyle clothing.

Back in the lighting studio, I filmed a timelapse of the four hour process of setting up lights, backdrop, applying makeup, getting into costume, and taking the final photos of my full-fledged digital persona. In the end I created an image which would look at home next to other fitness girls on my Explore page, successfully simulating an identity suggested for me by the Instagram algorithm.