I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror — so I boycotted filters

Sadie Bass is embracing her natural look.

The influencer has decided to toss filters for good after realizing she couldn’t even recognize herself in the mirror anymore.

The 27-year-old — who boasts more than 90,000 followers on Instagram — got candid in a recent video shared on the female empowerment YouTube channel, Shera.

Bass admitted that she was “reliant on filters” and felt that she couldn’t post envy-worth pics on social media without slapping on an edit.

“I see my face on a phone screen more than I do in the mirror, which is actually wild to say,” she confessed.

She revealed she used to rock so many photo sheens and would heavily edit her snaps before sharing them because they made her feel pretty.

Without the edits, the London-based influencer believed that she was “horrific” and ugly.

Bass began her full-time job as an influencer six years ago, where she would edit her posts to make sure they looked perfectly impeccable.

However, when the COVID-19 lockdown happened in 2020, Bass realized she needed to make a big change in order to live her life to the fullest.

Sadie Bass is a 27-year-old influencer from England.

The model opted to ban herself from using filters and showcase her “flaws” for the Instagram masses.

It wasn’t until the pandemic that she gained some self-confidence back and decided to embrace the au naturel look.

She noted that being her authentic self has been quite a journey.

While she has built her brand on being a mid-sized fashion and lifestyle guru, Bass felt like she was a “hypocrite” because she was telling her followers about her body but she was “not showing my real face.”

Much of her message was about loving one’s existence and Bass began to post more easy-going videos on her feed while being stuck at home, such as content showing herself talking directly to the camera.

The blogger had chosen to cease use of the filters “cold turkey” and she noticed that seeing herself fresh-faced in the clips was hurting her self-esteem a bit.

She said: “I felt like I’d started going backwards because I’d done all this work and I promote to love yourself.”

Bass explained that her skin was not in the best shape due to getting off of birth control pills and this made her feel unattractive.

“We all say filters are damaging but all of us have the power to just stop using them or promote to not use them,” she continued in the YouTube video. “I thought that could be me, and maybe that would help one person be like ‘I don’t need to use a filter.’”

But after a while, Bass “got over it” and just choose to roll with her new filter-free look.

While she does still wear makeup, she does “feel a lot more refreshed without” the photo glazes.

The style queen said having self-love is “scary” for her, but she’s ready to fully embrace her curves and physique.

In the past, even if Bass would sport a bikini or show off her body, she would still edit it to the extreme by using airbrushing.

She was afraid of any negative comments that may come her way because of how she looked and she hid behind editing software to make sure she looked flawless.

While there have been several nice statements from kind followers, Bass noted that there have been some mean trolls thrown into the mix.

A few users have called her body “fat” and “disgusting” in previous times.

However, talking about her body image struggles online with other women who are in the same boat has increased Bass’ self-esteem exponentially.

“I get one life,” the Brit declared. “I can [now] honestly say I go weeks and it [my body] doesn’t cross my mind. I go out and wear things that are tight and my belly jiggles, and I literally don’t care.”