About

Sellotape Selfies (also referred to as #Sellofies) is a photo fad in which individuals take pictures of themselves after wrapping their faces in adhesive tape as to appear grotesque in a contorted and squished manner. Each Sellotape selfie is then uploaded to Facebook with an invitation for a friend to take one, in the same style as neknominate.

Origin

On March 19th, 2014, Brighton University student Lizzie Durley created the Facebook^[2] page “Sellotape Selfie.” Durley explained to The Daily Mail^[1] that she got the idea from a scene from the 2008 film Yes Man in which the character of Carl Allen, a bank loan officer played by Jim Carrey, wraps and distorts his face with clear tape as to avoid being recognized. The Facebook page gained over 50,000 likes within five hours.

Spread

On March 20th, Durley's selfie Facebook page was picked up by the Mirror^[3], E!Online^[4], and The Huffington Post^[5] among others, with many of the articles describing the phenomenon as the latest unpleasant social media craze. On the following day, Karl Stefanovic, host of the Australian morning show Today, wrapped entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins' face in tape on the show. He then took a picture of Wikins' and himself and tweeted it:

The trend has caught on among British and Australian users on Facebook and Twitter, with Durley's page earning more than 120,000 likes and the hashtag #sellotapeselfies^[6] mentioned over 5,700 times in less than 72 hours.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References