what were the 2010s?

The First Instagram Posts of 100 Celebrities

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Kim Kardashian West/Instagram, Serena Williams/Instagram and Lupita Nyong’o/Instagram

When was the last time you went a day without checking Instagram? Don’t be ashamed; we’re all mad here. Instagram has come a long way since 2010, when its filters were a novelty and likes weren’t an endangered species. Just as we civilians moseyed on over from MySpace, celebrities joined up too and together we assaulted feeds with X-Pro II and duck faces. Over the course of the decade, old posts either died in the archive or get buried deep down on a profile. We scrolled back – yes, manually scrolled all the way down – to 100 different stars’s very first Instagram posts. Some, like Jennifer Aniston, are brand new to the grid. Others, like Kendall and Kylie Jenner started their accounts as teens, which explains why they’re some of the earliest to start posting. And the rest are an embarrassing yet wholesome time capsule for the last decade. Happy scrolling.

Jennifer Aniston 2019

Jennifer Aniston’s own break the internet moment.

Michael Douglas 2019

Truly no better reason to join Instagram than to flex all your success.

Matthew McConaughey 2019

The production value is certainly much better than it would’ve been in 2011.

Michelle Pfeiffer 2019

The purr-fect introduction.

Nicole Kidman 2018

Another Golden Globes-related first Instagram post! Take that, Emmys!

Jake Gyllenhaal 2018

Disney better not get any ideas.

Miley Cyrus 2018

Miley rebranded in 2018, depriving us all of old Hannah Montana set pics.

Julia Roberts 2018

What isn’t she good at?

Natalie Portman 2018

A resolution for the next decade, too.

Nick Offerman 2017

Concise and to the point. No notes.

Daniel Day Lewis 2017

A slideshow of Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis through the years that you might wanna bookmark … for … reasons.

Frank Ocean 2017

The kings of New York.

Jennifer Garner 2017

And thus began an incredible Instagram career.

Taylor Swift 2017

The Reputation-era rebrand’s first victim was Taylor Swift’s Instagram. The singer deleted every post before the now-iconic snake videos, leaving us with only our memories of her curly hair and Southern accent.

Will Smith 2017

A social media star is born.

Jane Fonda 2017

Work, Jane!

James McAvoy 2016

A classic Eiffel Tower pic. James McAvoy is well on his way to becoming an Instagram baddie.

Tom Hiddleston 2016

Maybe his then-girlfriend Taylor Swift inspired Tom Hiddleston to join Instagram.

Sandra Oh 2016

So many comments about Cristina Yang. She is the sun!

Halle Berry 2016

Another Catwoman, this time prowling in the jungle.

Helen Mirren 2016

In the words of Lady Gaga, Helen Mirren’s first Instagram post is, simply put, “talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it.â€

Kristen Bell 2016

#relationshipgoals

Lady Gaga 2016

Gaga in the throes of Artpop.

Julianne Moore 2015

Now, that’s what I call content!

Salma Hayek 2015

Photograph as caption is quite subversive, actually.

Janet Jackson 2015

Shout out to Janet’s team!

Ryan Reynolds 2015

The Deadpool press campaign began in 2015?? Time is fake.

Bad Bunny 2015

Different hair, same deep captions.

Viola Davis 2015

Alright, time to cry.

Sterling K. Brown 2015

So many tears.

Adele 2015

And 30 is nowhere in sight. Come through, Adele!

Dolly Parton 2015

Okay! It’s iconic! We’ll admit it!

Diane Keaton 2015

Diane Keaton is an art heaux and we live for it.

Angela Bassett 2015

Shout out to the glam squad!

Robert Downey Jr. 2015

Hashtagging all of the Avengers but tagging the photographer? Would love to walk through RDJ’s thought process on that one.

Regina King 2015

The copyright. The WhoSay watermark. This photo belongs in a museum. It’s a historical document.

Cardi B 2015

We’re taking hot dogs as emphasis right into 2020.

Antonio Banderas 2015

The Goyas get an Instagram premiere. Eat it, Academy Awards.

Anne Hathaway 2014

The Ice Bucket challenge generated $115 million for ALS research …

Adam Sandler 2014

… And got a couple of celebrities to join Instagram.

Laura Dern 2014

Wholesome as ever from Laura Dern.

Mark Ruffalo 2014

Do we underestimate Mark Ruffalo’s shade-throwing arm? Something to ponder on.

Lucy Liu 2014

We’re assuming this is a dog, but if someone told us that a polar bear was wandering around a fashion party Lucy Liu was at, we’d absolutely believe them.

Mark Hamil 2014

Wow, maybe this corporate synergy was meant to be!

Timothee Chalamet 2014

Archetypal soft boi post from a just-18 years old Timothée.

Leonardo Di Caprio 2014

And who would’ve known that just five years later Leonardo DiCaprio would set fire to the Amazon forest?

Zoë Kravitz

A Jack Nicholson photo and A Beyoncé lyric? Zoë Kravitz really said icons only.

Selena Gomez 2013

Seven years later, she’s onto SG2.

Cher 2013

Honestly, I’m distracted by the four letter @ name. Only Cher.

Olivia Wilde 2013

Sweet Jesus, this was seven years ago.

The Rock 2013

Instagram did get rocked. The Rock is now the third most followed celebrity in the world.

Reese Witherspoon 2013

Wholesome, but any coins to be collected from this photo are hers and hers alone.

Meryl Streep 2013

#Me! Taylor Swift is quaking.

Martin Scorcese 2013

Who has @martinscorsese with no underscore? How dare you?

Sarah Jessica Parker 2013

A glimpse into Sarah Jessica Parker’s life and into life before Instagram had a slideshow feature.

Lupita Nyong’o 2013

BRB, printing this out and taping it to my wall.

Ian McKellen 2013

Ian McKellen opted out of the filter/frame combo.

Justin Timberlake 2013

He’s unfortunately correct.

Alec Baldwin 2013

The security guard in the background is so lucky no one was checking Alec Baldwin’s Instagram for reaction memes in 2013.

Charlize Theron 2013

Using Instagram for good.

Naomi Campbell 2013

First posts include a tribute to one world leader …

Kelly Clarkson 2013

… and another.

Jennifer Lopez 2013

She had to let y’all know.

Pierce Brosnan 2013

Pierce Brosnan with the artsy shirtless selfie. Caught on to what Instagram’s about real quickly.

Hugh Jackman 2013

If you didn’t know Hugh Jackman has a coffee shop in New York City … now you know.

Gwyneth Paltrow 2013

Sweet photo brought to you by WhoSay.

Rihanna 2012

Rihanna calling her fans “assholes†is peak Rihanna. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ali Wong 2012

Duct tape bows! 2012 was a better time.

Kim Kardashian West 2012

Te be honest, nothing has changed.

Beyonce 2012

2019 Beyoncé would not be caught dead in those glasses unless they were covered in Swarovski crystals.

Harry Styles 2012

Deerstagram.

Tracee Ellis Ross 2012

Will forgive the filter/frame because this dog is ridiculously cute.

Chrissy Teigen 2012

The rounded corners … let’s not talk about it.

Rob Lowe 2012

Is that a monkey, Rob?

Oprah 2012

Is she hiding behind them … †or?

Paris Hilton

This will also be in the aforementioned museum.

Lena Dunham 2012

Wouldn’t have expected anything different from Lena Dunham.

Daniel Dae Kim 2012

It’s a comfort to know that behind the camera is Daniel Dae Kim, looking good as always.

Mindy Kaling 2012

As a society, we still hadn’t fully mastered selfie angles in 2012.

Mariah Carey 2012

Mariah Carey invoking “All I Want For Christmas Is You†in July! Simply love to see it.

Madonna 2012

Look how hopeful people once were.

Shakira 2012

A view shot is a cornerstone of Instagram.

Channing Tatum 2012

So. Much. Going. On.

Hailee Steinfeld 2012

Tired: feet on the dashboard pic. Wired: feet on the console pic.

Steve Aoki 2012

Before we fully understood the science of selfie cameras and flipped images, Steve Aoki dared to experiment. Put it in the museum!

Zendaya 2012

Zendaya’s arc from Disney darling to international star will also be displayed in a museum, but this one is solely dedicated to her cultural impact.

Ansel Elgort 2012

Very impressed by the first name only Instagram handle.

Pitbull 2012

A studio album and world tour called “Global Warming†just would not happen in 2019.

Gabrielle Union 2012

Not as tardy as everyone ahead of her on this list.

Priyanka Chopra 2012

So blurry it looks like pointillism, but not enough to make it chic again.

Drake 2011

Instagram loves a private jet flex to this day.

Justin Bieber 2011

What’s even more remarkable that this post is that Justin Bieber’s second post is a photo of Selena Gomez. 2011, man.

Ariana Grande 2011

Is it time to cry again?

Andy Cohen 2011

No idea what’s going on here.

Britney Spears 2011

Two thousand, and I cannot stress this enough, eleven.

Serena Williams 2011

Warner Bros., we found the new Superwoman.

Amanda Seyfried 2011

Interesting Halloween content.

Jaden Smith 2011

He’s been flexing since the start.

Kendall Jenner 2011

Kendall pivots to horse girl content after this.

Kylie Jenner 2011

Spoiler: she gets much better at this Instagram thing.

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The First Instagram Posts of 100 Celebrities