Here’s What It’s Actually Like To Be Part Of An Instagram Couple

Relationships are lovely things (I hear) but they’re also bloody difficult at the best of times. It doesn’t take much for things to go tits up, and social media can be of real assistance on this front. Back in the day bae might’ve blocked you on MSN. Then it was spotting some mole commenting on your main squeeze’s MySpace wall. Now we’ve got Instagram running the show and shit’s getting real lit, and not always in a good way.

I recently spoke to two couples who both have ridic followings on Instagram (and even a conjoined couple profile) on how they navigate everyday life, insecurities and public scrutiny with the added pressure of Insty on their sides. You might be surprised, mates. Keep reading and what-the-hey, follow ’em all while you’re at it. THEY’LL LOVE IT.

Jamie Allen (155K followers) and Kayne Lawton (133K followers) have a couple Insta together called @youmegoals (16K followers). Jamie even has a swimwear line with another 116K followers. This pair are a living, breathing, double-tapping ~influencer~ relationship, and Jamie explains that it’s quite the different kettle o’ fish to us normal people.

“Our normal day isn’t the same as others. We go somewhere and usually have to take photos of outfits etc or stories of what we are doing, so finding a balance between the two is key,” she says.

Do they do most of their shoots hand in hand? Yes and no. “I’ll get booked for fashion shoots, Kayne will get booked for his sponsor photoshoots and then our fit ones are usually together.

She tells me their relationship is not competitive (like some would think) when it comes to followers and gigs, and that they actually help each other out with their online presences.

Whenever one of us gets an email from a company we will usually tell the company about one another. We’re really supportive of each other, I wouldn’t even know who gets more bookings or event invites.”

In relationships like these, a line needs to be drawn between what’s private and public because, you know what they say: is nothing sacred?

Kayne’s always been a super private person so whenever I’d capture something where he’s actually being his cute self he wouldn’t want me to put it up. He’s definitely gotten better though, guys just don’t want to come across as pussies so he struggles a bit with that fine line.


And how do they deal with looking to picture-perfect all the time, even if it’s not all hunky dory?

I don’t feel any pressure at all from followers or anyone to maintain any type of relationship,” Jamie tells me. “In earlier years, it did take us a while to sort out the whole social media thing. I used to feel like he wasn’t proud of me if he didn’t put up pics of me in ages, but now we’ve grown so much together and we are on the same page with everything.

Jono Friend (17K) and model Roberta Pecoraro (28K) have been together almost four years and don’t really don’t think their relationships all that different from others. “Maybe a few extra free festival tickets here and there, but that’s about it,” he explains.

2.0.1.8 ???? @jonofriend

A post shared by ROBERTA (@robertapecoraro) on

While Jono comes across as an extremely chill bloke, he does admit that what we all see of his and Roberta’s relationship on the ‘gram isn’t 100% legit. “You’re only going to see the good side of things through our posts. Obviously no one would post about an argument,” he tells me. He’s not wrong.

When we are going through a difficult time in our relationship we don’t worry about what’s going on Instagram, that’s not a priority to us.

While they’re not at all interested in creating a couple account and don’t compete for higher followings, Jono did tell me that they didn’t have as big followings before their relationship.

Noon midnight rave

A post shared by Jono Friend (@jonofriend) on

Think about it. No one’s blind to how Luke Shadbolt’s following goes up every time Nicole Warne tags him in something. Does that mean his Insta isn’t fucking amazing? No. It is. But it brings it to people’s attention.

You can see how it works. If you can honestly say that you don’t look thoroughly look through the feed of someone tagged in your friend’s photo, you’re amazing and I need more people like you in my life. But seriously, there’s a reason brands look to bloggers to tag them in content – in doing so, they cop a shit-ton more followers – it’s money well-spent imo.

This isn’t just limited to romantic relationships either, but twin blogging accounts like They All Hate Us and When Words Fail too. It’s a lot of tagging individual accounts through the vessel of a combined one, and growing each and every presence simultaneously.

So fuck it. Cop a tag every now and then. Last I checked, this is the world we live in.

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