A social media influencer from Australia has copped to using a little magic to fake an entire trip to Coachella.
Instagram model Gabbie Hanna came clean Monday about how a photoshoot seemingly at the Palm Springs, Calif., festival grounds last weekend was part of a social media stunt.
The blogger — — who has 3.8 million followers — changed all of the captions to the photos, saying “OOPS i faked it all!”
In a YouTube video, Hanna explained she didn’t want to attend the music festival because it “feels like a lot of work for something you’re not enjoying.”
Though the snaps can help influencers get noticed, Hanna said the trip can take “weeks of preparation and thousands of dollars.”
Instead, she decided to “get the best of both worlds” by using PhotoShop to get social media content at Coachella. The blogger took pics at a pal’s house and lawn in Marina del Ray, California, wearing festival-style threads.
“I know people who double up their outfits on the first weekend and take photos so they can pretend to go to both weekends,” Hanna said. “So what I’m doing is not that far from reality.”
Hanna said she wants the prank to be a reminder that everything on social media might not be what it seems.
“People look at people on Instagram and social media, and they think, ‘wow their life is impossibly perfect,’” she said. “That body, that vacation, that car – so much of it’s fake, and that’s ok.”