🤔 The 'Love Island' Season 7 (U.K.) Instagram Audit
After following Season 7's Top 10 on social media, were any of them worth the time?
Reality TV has a way of making us over invest in the lives and loves of essentially random people. “Love Island” does it better than maybe any other franchise, if for no other reason than because it’s on every single night for two months. After it’s over, you miss spending your nights with those people. So you go looking for them. And there they are, right there on Instagram.
I will preface this by saying I carry the fact that I follow fewer than 50 people on Instagram as a weird badge of honor. Fewer than 15 of those are actual friends. (Famous people are just more interesting.) But those famous folks undergo a thorough vetting process before I decide if they’re worth a Follow. The truth is most aren’t. (Famous people aren’t that interesting.) That goes double for reality stars, who go from no following to a holy following overnight.
So, having recently finished Season 7 of “Love Island” (U.K.), this is the test I gave myself during the past week: I followed the Instagram accounts of the top 10 cast members — eight finalists and two who self-eliminated before the final — to decide if any of them were worth following.
Here’s my list, from the least promising accounts (10) to most (1)…
10. Jake Cornish
Account: @jakecornish7
Jake’s is probably one of three most active accounts of these cast members, but there’s just one problem: I freaking hate his face. To an account owner following more people, maybe you can drown out his workout OOTDs with the algorithm. But that’s not me. What’s worse is he goes by “J A K E Y” on his profile, the pet name his longtime Island partner Liberty gave him. I’m pretty sure that when their relationship ended terribly that that name legally was transferred back to her possession, and, therefore, he should be jailed for using it as a public identifier. Jake sucks!
Cameo? Jake’s currently on vacation in Turkey with Brad McClelland.
Follow? No.
9. Tyler Cruickshank
Account: @tylercruickshank_
In theory, if you wanted to throw your support behind one Islander while avoiding any Instagram feed shakeup, Tyler would be your safest bet. He does not post; or when he does, he’s modeling. Trust me, I’ve been personally embattled with whether or not I should reward him for the fact that he so clearly doesn’t care about Instagram, but I just can’t get behind a professional modeling page.
Cameo? Millie and Liam’s home couch!!!
Follow? No.
8. Liberty Poole
Account: @libertypoolex
The other night I had a dream that Liberty wasn’t Liberty’s real name. That confused me, although it was just nonsense. Anyway, let me first say that her placement here is partly an effort not to just line up every male Islander in order at the bottom of this list; with that said, her profile is certainly the least interesting of the women. To her credit, though, she understands Instagram. Her profile is textbook, and I do hope that’s lucrative for her. But, for me, there’s not much personality in it.
Cameo? She and Kaz Kamwi have planned a trip, so Liberty recently polled her followers to guess where they were planning to go. I assume it’s L.A., because if I learned anything from this week of following these Islanders it’s that you go to L.A.
Follow? No.
7. Kaz Kamwi
Account: @kazkamwi
I think Liberty might be better at Instagram than Kaz, but my approach to this list isn’t to rank the Islanders based on Instagram skill. I ended this audit with a better understanding of who Kaz is behind the curtain. While I’m a bit annoyed how much she’s pushing her YouTube channel, I do have a deep appreciation for those who use Instagram Stories to vent about a show they love. For Kaz, that’s a show called “Top Boy,” which actually isn’t the “America’s Next Top Model” for Men that it sounds to be but rather a Netflix drama that “takes viewers into the housing estates of east London. There is tension between the drug gangs that operate almost openly and those who strive to live honest lives against the odds in the crime-riddled area.” Alrighty then.
Cameo? Nothing really.
Follow? No.
6. Liam Reardon
Account: @liamreardon1
I appreciate that Liam shared so much of his St. Patty’s Day lads weekend in Dublin with his followers via Stories this past week. He even dabbled in food influencing by sharing a recipe for mixed-berry pancakes he says he makes often. But as of Wednesday night, his second most recent post to his profile was an underwear ad. I’d have a hard time letting that onto my feed.
Cameo? Nothing really. He clearly had a large friend group before he was an Islander.
Follow? No.
5. Toby Aromoloran
Account: @tobyaromolaran
Look, I could not survive trying to type Toby’s last name any more than the two times I just did and the closer I look at each of them above, the more unsure I am that I’ve even spelled them the same way. There’s an awkwardness to his positioning in photos on his profile that’s a tad discomforting, as if the shot in fact captures him between two real poses rather than one or the other. But early in this audit, he shared Stories about partner Chloe’s spilt tea staining their carpet, their hours-long crusade carrying a washing machine up a flight of stairs, and testing a Formula 1 simulator. Add that he’s bragged about his FIFA playing skills and, yep, you’ve found my happy place.
Cameo? Toby’s been gallivanting around town with fellow Islander footballer Aaron Simpson, visited Matthew MacNabb in Dublin, and is pictured with Liam and Teddy. Nothing with Jake though — guess they weren’t that close after all!
Follow? No.
4. Teddy Soares
Account: @teddy_soares
Teddy’s is the Instagram to follow where it’s safe to believe in “Love Island” love. That is, of course, the reason we track these Islanders down on social media so quickly after the season wraps, to find out if they’re still in their couples. He seems genuinely in love with partner Faye. Every other post to his profile is a photo of the couple. On Wednesday night, they posted Stories from a quiet night at home, with Teddy putting together a cat climbing tree for a couple they’re fostering. Minus those cats, this might be the couple I can most relate to. Old married couple is my ideal vibe. And Teddy’s as cool, calm, collected as he seemed during the show.
Cameo? Reuniting with Liam at an event for Millie.
Follow? No.
3. Faye Winter
Account: @faye__winter
I don’t have much interest in some of the standard Instagram stuff you get on Faye’s profile, but hers is one with huge potential as a bridge to a couple other very interesting things. First, there’s her role as an ambassador for @guidedogsuk, a non-profit providing support, skills and dogs to people living with sight loss in the U.K. These doggies appeared in her Stories this past week — points for lovers of Dog Instagram. Then, there’s @faye_home, which seems to be a home interior design/DIY page Faye and Teddy launched together — points for lovers of that segment of Instagram as well. Maybe mark your calendar for the moment Faye’s profile becomes less celebrity and more home improvement dog lover.
Cameo? Just the occasional dog.
Follow? No. But, @faye_home, keep talking.
2. Millie Court
Account: @milliegracecourt
Our Sagittarius queen was in L.A. this past week modeling for ASOS and Puma. She ate food truck tacos, hiked to the Hollywood sign, visited Rodeo Drive, cuddled a random person’s French Bulldog. Et al. I feel like I even got some sun just by watching her Stories! Her profile is really well done; she’s clearly got a good team around her. Yes, it helps that she is beautiful. Two things I particularly like about her presence: She’s not shy about her love of sweatpants and, on her Stories, she shares photos of what the camera sees facing out rather than facing her.
Cameo? We stan the Lucina Strafford-Chloe Burrows-Millie friendship to the end!
Follow? Further evaluation needed.
1. Chloe Burrows
“Omg just found out what portrait mode is on my phone!!!!!! Hello selfie central” - Chloe, Jan. 26. My favorite Islander ever. Here’s a compliment I could’ve said about some others but saved for Chloe: There’s a level of unfiltered messiness to her profile that I fully go for, and that’s her personality. Yes, she’s does ads. She should! But it’s what’s leftover after them that’s so entertaining. She’s unafraid to speak and write in ALL CAPS. I like that, a year ago, just before she was to go on the show, she was asking her followers how to get rid of the black space at the sides of a vertical photo (or “piccy,” she calls it). I like that, just a couple weeks ago, she was screaming about “Euphoria” on her Stories. Having never seen the show, I had no idea what she was referencing but was no less entertained. Will the interest stick? Probably not! But at least while you’re running off the carbs of this LI season, her profile is the most likely place to find entertaining bonus content from the person you think you knew.
Cameo? We know she has stayed close with Millie and Lucinda, but this past weekend she was out at a club with Clarisse Juliette. Never underestimate the friendships formed in the villa that production doesn’t air.
Follow? If I had to choose one, the person I’d like to couple up with is … Chloe.