People Empowering People: Brandon Stanton

One of the most powerful social media accounts that I follow is Humans of New York, which is a photojournalism account ran my Brandon Staton that currently has over 9.4 million followers on Instagram. Humans of New York originally began as a photography account in 2010, where Stanton planned to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street to create a catalogue of the city's inhabitants. Stanton's raw photography of people who shared authentic and brutally honest stories about themselves gained fame and soon people across the world began to notice and follow Stanton's account.

Humans of New York grew so big that eventually Stanton began traveling across the world and sharing people's stories from Pakistan, Iraq, Uganda, Vietnam, Mexico and more. Humans of New York became a voice of hope and inspiration, for the people following the account to the people he was interviewing, Stanton was able to help thousands of people share what they were truly feeling and going through to past experiences that have affected them for the rest of their lives. Stanton was able to normalize certain experiences to the world, and helped many feel like they weren't alone and weren't the only ones going through a tough time.

Stanton even got the opportunity to interview President Obama, and gave his viewers the opportunity to take a peek into the life that Obama lived. In the interview, Obama spoke about how when he felt the most broken, when he first ran for Congress in 1999 and got beat, and now how he focuses on his work and on the people he is working for so he can feel like the best man he can be. Even the people who seem to be on top of the world are human, and it is empowering to know that we all struggle with wins and defeats.

I love this account and always take time to read it when I see it on my social media feed. Sometimes everyone gets so caught up in themselves and what they are doing in their day to day life that we are quick to forget about what others are going through. Through Humans of New York I am reminded that we all are facing our demons, and that it's always a little easier to fight them when you have people by your side.

Stanton interviews people of all types: drug lords, war veterans, refugees, the homeless, the rich, the young, the old, the thriving and the struggling. Through this is bringing light to the fact that even though many people live different lifestyles, underneath it all, we are all the same, we are all human.