The other week, Sophie Allen shared two side by side pictures of her bum. Very quickly, the personal trainer’s Instagram post had gone viral, racking up over 20,000 likes.

But unlike other stories that start like this, this one happened for all the right reasons.

Allen was determined to show the reality behind the filtered world of “before and afters” that populate social media.

“UNFILTERED AF**** Just keepin’ it real with y’all #ihavecellulitetoo and it appears when I squeeze my butt & disappears with the simple act of slightly tilting my hips out!,” she captioned the cellulite-positive snap.

“Don’t ever let Instagram take away from your achievements, because there’s a lot of editing, tilting, posing, angles, lighting and all the rest going on. We all do it.

“Just don’t beat yourself up if you feel like you see all these celluliteless peeps out there. We have to embrace and love our bodies as they are, whilst working towards our healthiest, strongest selves #buttcomparison #alwaysreal #honestyhour.”

“I love being real with my followers, and I’d been asked a few times about cellulite and how to get rid of it – I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share that I didn’t actually get rid of cellulite, and even when you’re fit, strong and healthy, you can still have cellulite among other features deemed ugly or undesirable by so many,” she toldMamamia.

Her followers quickly responded to her honest pictures, praising the nutrition student for sharing.

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“I absolutely needed this today. Thank you for posting this. I’ve been struggling heavily with my body the past few weeks even going to the gym and eating religiously.. very thankful you posted this,” commented one, while another added, “Love this! It’s so important for us woman to see real thing. Brave and real!”

Allen, who has over 150,000 followers on Instagram, is the latest health and fitness personality to join the growing trend of ‘realistic’ before and afters, exposing the tips and tricks many use to present a filtered version of their bodies online.

She says even she can get caught up in it.

“Absolutely, I have days where I compare myself, or see images that I allow to make me feel bad about myself. I question my own progress, second guess what I’m doing to achieve my goals, but ultimately I try to surround myself and follow people who inspire and motivate me and post real stuff. It’s so much cooler to be relatable.”

Dutch blogger and fitness model Imre Çeçen also shares Instagram versus reality images to her 350,000 followers.

“Anyone familiar with the concept of having all ‘normal’ legs when you’re standing but as soon as you sit down they transform into huge piles of meat? Why is it that those two sticks we use to walk expand to the size of Texas whenever they touch a chair?” she wrote.

This reality check is something Mamamia Co-Founder Mia Freedman is also passionate about, with her #ConfrontingStomach posts among her most popular.

Finnish blogger Sara is also earning a reputation for her body positive “before and after” shots.

Her latest shows two pictures taken just half an hour apart after eating breakfast.

“All bodies look different from morning to night and your weight will fluctuate throughout the day SO MUCH. It’s completely normal!!,” she wrote.

“All photos I used to post on Instagram during my fitness phase were taken in the morning, or after a workout so I would never look like that throughout the rest of the day so please don’t worry about these things.”

Studies have shown social media has quickly taken over from magazines and adverts as serious influencers over the way we view and feel about our body and appearance. Overwhelmingly, that influence has been negative.

As more and more carefully curated images being presented as the “norm”, images like the above are important and refreshing to remind us that no two bodies are the same, nor is everything you see on Instagram as it seems.

Given the strong link between body dissatisfaction and the development of eating disorders, and the growing number of carefully curated images being presented as the “norm”, images like the above are important and refreshing to remind us that no two bodies are the same, nor is everything you see on Instagram as it seems.

Allen says she hopes her images makes people realise that “being healthy and fit looks different on everybody”.