Instagram Accounts That Captured the Zeitgeist of 2020

This March, like many able to work from home, one New York City woman found herself bored and starved for gossip. This anonymous woman also happened to be in control of a mostly dormant Instagram page with a few hundred thousand followers. So, she birthed one of the year’s most talked about celebrity gossip sources. @Deuxmoi is an Instagram account that posts anonymous tips about celebrities. It can tell you who always tips, who smiles at strangers, and, every once in a blue moon, it may even share something as entertaining as the claim that Leonardo DiCaprio wears headphones during sex. Though people may send salacious tips, @Deuxmoi’s anonymous owner is mostly interested in, as she says “the stupid stuff,” mundane, fun tidbits about famous people. The private account is less about circulating vicious scandal—afterall you can’t directly repost from an account that isn’t public—and more about sharing low-level fun gossip, which was a welcome distraction for many this year.

When Céline Semaan Vernon founded The Slow Factory, a 501c3 organization dedicated to a more sustainable fashion future, she envisioned an “open-knowledge, open-source movement” focused on connecting different people and ideas. Unsurprisingly, the group’s Instagram page—which boasts almost a quarter million followers—is integral to its mission of sharing knowledge. This fall, the group offered a series of open enrollment classes, with offerings from making upcycling projects with famed artist Nicole McLaughlin to learning about sustainably produced olive oil. The fashion industry was forced to slow down in 2020, and consumers took note. For more and more shoppers, especially those in Gen Z, the environmental impact of clothing is an important determining factor for purchase. With extra time and an eagerness to learn more about potential circular supply cycles, greenwashing myths, and truly sustainable production, people followed The Slow Factory online, and the group’s Instagram page has become a prominent voice on sustainability and the fashion industry. 

Before quarantine, Ziwe Fumudoh was a successful comedian. She wrote for Desus and Mero and hosted Baited, a successful Youtube series. Now, however, she is a household name. When the pandemic shuttered her work on Baited, which featured Fumudoh tricking friends into saying something racist, she came up with a new idea. The comedian started Instagram Lives where she talked about race with controversial, often “canceled” figures like Caroline Calloway or Alison Roman. The show was a smash success. Some of the show’s appeal comes from the fact that “audiences can engage in real time, and we’re all feeling the tension together,” Ziwe told W Magazine. “The concept of talking about race publicly is naturally taboo in American culture. That’s something I’m subverting.” Riffing on the conventional talk show format, Ziwe’s show aims to expose the inherent racial biases held by different people. The comedian is very much not out to “cancel” her guests, but to, in her own words, “create tools for everyone” to learn and grow. The host’s impeccable comedic timing and confident delivery allow her to effectively use humor to investigate her serious premise, and her live shows eventually generated so much buzz that the comedian signed a book contract and will soon be hosting her own variety show on Showtime.

Less than a year old, Verzuz has already amassed over 5 million followers on Instagram. The web show is the brainchild of producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz and began as an unofficial impromptu livestream. Now, the show is its own entity, centered around a musical battle where artists go head to head against each other. At one point the Verzuz team essentially “broke Instagram.” Millions tried to tune into the livestream, revealing that Instagram could only host about 1,000,000 users on a Live at a time. So far, the show has featured guests including Ashanti, T-Pain, Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Patti LaBelle, DMX, Brandy, and Snoop Dgg. The show teamed up with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote initiative in the spring, and both Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Georgia politician Stacey Abrams have appeared virtually on the show to encourage viewers to vote in the presidential and Georgia senate run-offs, respectively. Harris appeared for Brandy and Monica’s August 31 face-off, while Abrams opened a November 19 battle between Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane, who, after a few rounds of diss tracks, shockingly decided to squash their 15-year-old feud. Verzuz was a show born out of quarantine creativity, but has quickly evolved into a cultural mainstay. 

When the cooking collective launched Instagram Live series Gastronomical Cribs this spring, a new type of cooking show was born. Suddenly, viewers could cook alongside the likes of Michèle Lamy, Naomi Campbell, and Tony Hawk, feeling a new kind of intimacy with celebrities through sharing recipes. Hawk made his favorite avocado-egg bagel sandwich, and Lamy made a lemon chicken to enjoy on her terrace in Paris with husband Rick Owens. Campbell, on the other hand, made her favorite dessert: banana pudding. The show not only provided comfort and entertainment during quarantine, but furthers Ghetto Ghastro’s larger mission during a time when it feels particularly important. The cooking collective is a self described “Black Power kitchen,” drawing inspiration and highlighting the cuisines of diaspora-born communities across the globe. On Gastronomical Cribs, Campbell talks about her love for Senegalese food, and explains to the audience that, “it’s very difficult once you eat African food to eat any other way.” During a year when a number of brave chefs spoke up about institutional racism at places like Bon Appetit and in the culinary industry as a whole, Ghetto Gastro’s work highlighting and celebrating communities in the Bronx feels particularly important. 

Everyone’s favorite fashion watchdog pivoted from its usual content this summer. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the Instagram account began documenting both police abuse against protestors and racial injustices in the fashion industry. In the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, the Instagram exposer documented the hypocrisies of the Trump administration, encouraging followers to vote for Joe Biden. Though the account sometimes faltered, like when it framed a Gap Kanye West collaboration as a direct affront to Telfar Clemens, Diet Prada’s attempts to adjust its content reflected an increase in social consciousness—and perhaps virtue signaling too—among Instagram users.

Twenty-twenty was the year of Megan Thee Stallion. The rapper released her first album to glowing reviews and went viral countless times. In the wake of a traumatic shooting she penned an emotional OpEd in the New York Times, delivered one of the most powerful SNL performances in recent memory, and advocated for women’s sexual empowerment, all while still pursuing her degree in health administration (by the way, she launched a scholarship fund, too). Despite the popularity of the star’s personal Instagram, an alternate account may best embody her year. @frenchie4oe, an account supposedly maintained by Megan’s dog 4oe, offers a peek into the star's happy home with the French Bulldog and her other pups 5ive, Dos, and X. Like many of us, Megan was not immune to puppy fever during quarantine. 4oe, however, is a bit more high profile than most of our dogs.  Between getting a matching outfit and starring in his mother’s collaboration with FashionNova and accompanying her to talk show appearances, 4oe may be more high profile than most dogs, but Megan’s clear love for her pup and his goofy posts were a bright spot during tough times.

It seems 2020 may have saved the best for last. After years of lying dormant, a certain abandoned, dare we say forgotten, infamous onion ring stan account is back. New Zealand-born singer Lorde has revived her formerly-anonymous onion ring reviewing account. Perhaps the quarantine boredom finally got to the pop starlet, or perhaps she figured that the world needed a little levity. Either way, our obsession with the singer’s dedication to her favorite food shows just how desperate we all are for a little bit of joy right now. Regardless, her decision to finally reopen the account, and our collective happiness in response, feel appropriate as 2020 comes to a close.