Teen Olympia Nelson takes stand against sexualised selfie photos
Australian Story
Updated Mon 23 Sep 2013, 2:50pm AEST
Video: Student attacks ‘anxious competition’ of hunt for social media approval (ABC News)
Map: Melbourne 3000
When Melbourne schoolgirl Olympia Nelson made headlines earlier this year with her critique of explicit selfies, it was not the first time she had been at the centre of a media storm.
As Australian Story reveals, Olympia first found herself on national front pages in 2008 when she was 11.
At issue, was a picture taken by her internationally renowned photographer mother, Polixeni Papapetrou, and reproduced on the front cover of Art Monthly magazine.
The stylised photograph showed an unclothed Olympia, aged five at the time, against a painted background in the style of a famous picture from the English Victorian era.
It was published in the wake of the furore over artist Bill Henson’s works featuring pubescent teenagers, and then prime minister Kevin Rudd denounced the picture, saying he “couldn’t stand this stuff”.
Now 16, Olympia has been critiquing another development in photography – selfies, or self-portraits, posted on social media.
The phenomenon has exploded over the past few years, but Olympia felt compelled to make a stand against the increasingly competitive trend towards sexualised pictures aimed at garnering ‘likes’, or votes, from an individual’s followers.
Analysis: The selfie generation
Selfies, sexting and twerking are part of a teen continuum outraging older generations, writes Vanessa Gorman.
Encouraged by her parents, she sent an essay on the subject to The Age newspaper in Melbourne.
The newspaper published her thoughts in a column, sparking renewed debate about selfies and exhibitionism on the net.
Age editor Andrew Holden said the column instantly generated a reaction from readers.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Heigh ho, atomou must be about the place somewhere. Gerard’s taken out the topic of child sex/nudity for another little trot around the block.
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No, it was the ABC who started and brought this subject up. It was also on Australian Story. Don’t honour me with that now.
Any of your articles coming up soon?
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No, the ABC never started nor brought this subject up HERE because , guess what, they don’t post here. In fact they didn’t start or bring it up anywhere – it’s a perennial. One you can be relied on to raise whenever atomou’s about as sure as night follows day, whether or not you’re able to find someone else someone writing about it at the same time.
For the nonce you’ll have to console yourself by re-reading some of my old articles. Or get a tantalising taste of what you’re missing out on from my comments.
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OMIgod, this one too
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See? It’s that kind of mediated reality, the innocence of children, the staging and placement as a kind of performance, the challenging of norms of nudity and the use and/or exploitation of children to sell products. Extraordinary.
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I always said. If I had kids, I said, I’m gonna open a sweatshop because children are quite good with nike.
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The exploitation is by Nike not by the children.
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I am so excited about this, isn’t it a great accompanying video to that picture? Olympia’s dad was one of my professors at Monash! If you imagine this guy with a bowtie! That’s Olympia’s Dad!
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Yes, but he is not her dad.
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