the ‘Send Nudes’ craze began

When I was around 13 years old the ‘Send Nudes’ craze began in my year group. It became the norm that girls phones would be overloaded with nightly messages from various boys in my year asking what underwear they were wearing, complimenting the way they looked around school and eventually inflating my ego so much that I felt like I owed them photos of me in my underwear. It was constant. Every evening, multiple different guys asking the same things.

My friends and I didn’t find it uncomfortable in the moment though. We thought it was funny and we were young and carefree so would freely send these nudes to the guys, often in the same rooms as each other as a sort of fun weekend routine. It was a form of amusement for us and them. The feeling of amusement we got was definitely a different type of enjoyment as it was for them and upon reflection that is deeply uncomfortable. We would laugh and cringe at them but didn’t know better that to not send them. We would ask them to say ‘sexy things’ in return and laugh hysterically at their openly horny and strange responses. Sending us voice notes saying things like “you naughty girls”, “dirty sluts”.

Strangely we didn’t feel off put by these. I am still unsure why. These photos began to be spread, we didn’t know when, by who or how (as Snapchat shows you the screenshot prompt) but they did. My friends and I lost girl friends and boy friends over this fiasco and something that felt so normal and empowering became something humiliating.

Lucy