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For these LGBTQ+ creatives, #ShareWithPride is not just something they do — it’s who they are. 🌈🖍📸🎨🎤📝✨⁣ ⁣ “I #ShareWithPride by existing. By not giving up my rights to life. By working and fighting and dreaming,” says Samuel Franca (@samueldesaboia), a painter who splits his time between São Paulo, Paris and Los Angeles.⁣ ⁣ This #PrideMonth, Samuel invites us to #ShareWithPride along with fellow creatives from all over the world, @kingtexas, @christineandthequeens, @kai_isaiah_jamal and @sonialazo.⁣ ⁣ See their work and hear the inspiration behind it, right now on our story.⁣ ⁣ Photo of @samueldesaboia; Photo by @kingtexas; Photo of @christineandthequeens; Photo of @kai_isaiah_jamal by @viclentaigne; Photo illustration of @sonialazo⁣

These pancakes are easy to make, even for grown-ups. 😋⁣ ⁣ Meet Taku Sekine (@taksekin ) and his newest sous-chef: his son! Together, they’re teaching us how to make yummy savory pancakes served with soy sauce, rice vinegar and LOVE. ⁣ ⁣ Since France went into lockdown earlier this year, Taku, owner of the restaurants @chevaldorparis and @dersouparis , has been cooking more at home, and his attentive 2-year-old son has picked up a few of his skills along the way. “He adds the ingredients little by little, which is a sign of a good chef,” Taku says. “Sometimes, he does my same gestures, so I’ve realized he has been looking at me very, very closely when I am working.”⁣ ⁣ Today, the cooking duo is here to share their pancake-making skills. Check out our story now to follow their recipe and share your creations using #TryThisAtHome.⁣ ⁣ Photo and video by @thesocialfood ⁣

Don’t sleep on these posts... especially if you love kitties that want to be lions 🦁 relatable workouts 🤓 and New York City ❣️⁣ ⁣ Check out our story for more things that have us smiling this week. 😊⁣ ⁣ Videos by @thezenkitty, @jtfirstman and @design

Every two years, Dhaka becomes the unlikely site of Chobi Mela (@chobimela), one the world’s most unusual photography festivals. Almost a dozen exhibitions span the city, ranging from a movie theater with disc-shaped photographs suspended in mid-air, to vinyl-printed images carried along by a roving fleet of cycle rickshaws. “There are lots of photographers like me who have grown up with Chobi Mela,” says photojournalist Munem Wasif (@munemwasif), now also a festival curator. “It's entirely a Bangladeshi-run festival for an international audience. Normally the festivals are based in the west and it’s not possible for us to go and visit all these places.” He reveals the logic behind the obscure venue locations that transform the exhibition experience into a scavenger hunt through the congested streets of the old city. “We want people to travel, and struggle, and see how Dhaka is.” To see more celebrations of photography at Chobi Mela, explore the #chobimela and #CMVIII hashtags. Photo by @asmitaparelkar

Lost (and found) in the mists of time. Photographer Jordan Hammond (@jordhammond) shared this magnificent photo taken in Xiandu, China. For his upcoming birthday, Jordan is headed back to China to explore a different area, the province of Guizhou. Follow along as we share more of our favorite submissions to last weekend’s hashtag project, #WHPgoingplaces. Photo by @jordhammond

Welcome to performer, artist and model Ellen Sheidlin’s (@sheidlina) twisted fantasy world, where imagination runs wild and creativity plays out through her surreal imagery and absurd beauty looks.⁣ ⁣ “My art covers sensitive issues like bullying, self-acceptance, body positivity,” says Ellen, who lives in St. Petersburg, Russia. “I make sculptures, paint, sew clothes and organize interactive exhibitions. The videos are images that come to life, and these are cartoons in which I am the heroine, both a villain and a savior.”⁣ ⁣ Everything Ellen creates is shot IRL with her husband — and without a big team or huge budget. “Everything is very modest; we make props in the workshop; my husband takes photos of me and I process them. The shooting takes two minutes and the preparation takes three days,” she says.⁣ ⁣ “The internet for me is like a picture book in my childhood,” says Ellen. “Every social network has influenced my artist identity — every app, every filter.”⁣ ⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣ ⁣ Photos by @sheidlina

And now for the look you’ve been waiting for... it’s actor Billy Porter (@theebillyporter), a dynamic force. He made history last year as the first openly gay Black man to win best lead actor in a drama at the Emmy Awards. This year, he’s been nominated again for his work as the character Pray Tell on the TV show “Pose.” ⁣ ⁣ “Never in a million years, as a gay Black man who came out in the 80s during the AIDS crisis, did I imagine that a show like ‘Pose’ and a character like Pray Tell could exist,” says Billy, who is known to make a statement through perspective and style. ⁣ ⁣ “I would describe my style as free. I’ve worked a long time to find a space where I don’t care what other people think about me. That’s a real interesting and hard place to get to,” says Billy. “I’m there. I’m free.” ⁣ ⁣ Cheer on Billy and the other amazing nominees at the 72nd Annual Emmy Awards (@televisionacad). ⁣ ⁣ Photo of @theebillyporter by @luckychurch

“I try and be as unapologetically Black and Black-looking as possible,” says author, plus-size style blogger and freelance journalist Stephanie Yeboah (@stephanieyeboah). “It’s all about having that pride — wanting people to know, ‘This is where I’m from, this is my culture, this is my heritage and I love it and it’s beautiful.’”⁣ ⁣ Stephanie just published a book called “Fattily Ever After” — a love letter to plus-size Black women.⁣ ⁣ “I want people to come away feeling unstoppable. They can be powerful and confident regardless of the flaws and scars or stretch marks or cellulite or hyperpigmentation. They can work through that and see themselves as the prize and see themselves as beautiful.”⁣ ⁣ Watch our IGTV to see how Stephanie celebrates Black joy, especially in this moment. “It’s important — especially considering the current climate surrounding Black women — that we find whatever joy we can, even in the smallest of things. Black women matter. Our lives matter, and it’s important that our voices and conversations are heard.”⁣ ⁣ #ShareBlackStories 🖤

For @samsonthedood, a goldendoodle from Brooklyn, New York, reading is best paired with a cup of tea (and always followed by a nap). #WHPbookworm Photo by @samsonthedood

Jakub Pavlovsky (@bookscalling) started his ongoing photo project Book’s Calling for the love of books. The 23-year-old journalism student from Prague documents the reading breaks he takes all over the city — not to mention the places he visits, like this scenic overlook in Dresden, Germany. “It is really easy to read anywhere and anytime, and there is no excuse to not read.” #WHPbookworm Photo by @bookscalling

Photographer Ziqian Liu’s (@ziqianqian) ethereal self-portraits seek balance and harmony, and her innermost longing for perfect order.⁣ ⁣ “I started shooting this way about two or three years ago,” says Ziqian. “I was very anxious at that time. I found that taking pictures would slowly release my negative emotions. My style was gradually formed in the process of shooting. I found that the minimalist pictures would make my heart calm.⁣ ⁣ Humans and other creatures of nature live in the same world; we breathe the same air, depend on each other, are tolerant of each other. I try to find a kind of balance and symbiosis between humans and nature in my works, because only in this kind of state can beauty be most embodied.⁣ ⁣ My deepest desire is symmetry and perfect order. In my work, the images in the mirror represent the idealized world I hope for. The integration with the outside just reminds me to respect and recognize the imbalance in the real world, but also to adhere to my own inner order and principles.⁣ ⁣ My work is always created indoors. I think in the space we are most familiar with our emotions can be fully released. Through talking with ourselves, we can get to know our innermost true self. So I think enjoying loneliness is also the process of discovering beauty.”⁣ ⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣ ⁣ Photos by @ziqianqian

“We are triggered by how information and technology transforms networks, cultures, societies, relationships, behaviors and interactions between people,” says Jeroen Barendse, the founder, design and art director for design studio RNDR (@rndr.studio), a Netherlands-based company that develop tools for interactive media, creating work like installations, data visualizations and generative identities that almost exclusively use their own open source framework.⁣ ⁣ In March, RNDR launched Quarantine Stories, an online platform and collaborative resource collecting personal stories of people in isolation during COVID-19 as an effort to document the effects of social distancing.⁣ ⁣ “The project started from the simple premise that the view from our window is what connects all individuals currently living in isolation around the world and is the starting point to tell a personal story that touches upon being in quarantine,” explains Jeroen. “Sharing experiences on a large scale helps readers and contributors to avoid the sense of loneliness and encourages the expression of feelings.”⁣ ⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣ ⁣ Video by @rndr.studio

Haile Thomas (@hailethomas) is a 19-year-old activist, author and CEO of The HAPPY Org (@thehappyorg), a nonprofit organization that promotes youth empowerment through holistic education. One of its initiatives is to provide free plant-based nutrition and wellness education in underserved communities.⁣ ⁣ “My work is rooted in empowering others to nurture their mental, physical and spiritual health through nourishing foods and intersectional self-care and vulnerability,” says Haile, who is the youngest certified integrative nutrition health coach in the United States.⁣ ⁣ “The most important issues to me blend into an overall theme of making mental, physical and spiritual wellness accessible for all human beings and creating a more compassionate and ethical world. The topics of social justice, sustainability, food apartheid and holistic education are most definitely interconnected.⁣ ⁣ This year, we’ve witnessed the power of painful, yet beautiful, Black vulnerability. It has pushed us to learn and grow individually and collectively. Each of us is exceptionally influential just by simply living our lives.⁣ ⁣ Through sharing our truths, a certain liberation of spirit is granted that helps other Black people feel seen in our shared experiences and capable of sharing about them — whether that’s to heal, raise awareness, educate, communicate raw emotions or express the endless manifestations of our collective magic.⁣ ⁣ That’s the power of our stories.”⁣ ⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣ ⁣ Photo of @hailethomas by @alexseyreyes

François Vogel’s work captures images from reality and adds a visual twist, stretching them over space and time.⁣ ⁣ “The things I film are real, but a shift in perspective modifies them as if our vision was kneaded by some invisible hands,” says the artist and director. François’ slit-scan videos are based on his lifelong fascination with the science of pinhole cameras.⁣ ⁣ “I experimented a lot, built many cameras. Then, I did the same thing digitally. I took 360 photos or videos and then mimicked a kind of virtual pinhole camera on the computer. Sometimes people think I am using green screen or CGI elements to do my creations. The image is stretched, but there is nothing more than what was shot on camera,” he explains.⁣ ⁣ While in COVID-19 lockdown with his family in Vincennes, France, Francois found a new muse — his cat.⁣ ⁣ “My cat is very independent and pretty distant, so he is quite a difficult actor to direct. I have to know what his habits are in order to capture the proper action. It is kind of a game between him and me. My kids help me, too,” he says. “I hope that people like what they experience and at the same time they question the way they see the world around them.”⁣ ⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣ ⁣ Videos by @francois.vogel

Mr. Clean.⁣⁣ 🛁 😸⁣⁣ Today’s #WeeklyFluff is Sweeney Pop (@sweeneycooper.cats), a British shorthair who is making a paw-fect job of scrubbing the tub.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Video by @sweeneycooper.cats

“Tumbling is the most exhilarating feeling ever,” says 15-year-old Elodie de Klerk (@twisting_ellie). “The feeling of flying through the air while twisting is so much fun. It often distracts me from other things going on and I use it as my escape.”⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ “I discovered my true love for tumbling when I was 12 and began practicing almost every day at home. I was constantly determined to achieve new skills,” says Elodie. “I often get asked how I improved so fast, and the only thing I can answer is, ‘I have no fear.’ I’m never afraid to try new things. I know my general limits, but I’m not afraid to step outside of the box a little bit. When I fall, I get back up again straight away and try again.”⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Elodie says she gets her motivation from the “gymternet,” the tumbling community on Instagram. “Everyone is always so supportive and encouraging towards one another, and seeing other people achieve new skills inspires me to do the same,” says Elodie who posts motivational statements alongside her videos to inspire others.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ “I believe a little motivation every day can help someone realize how much they mean to people and that they have a place on this earth. I try to inspire people to follow their dreams and never give up.” ⁣⁣ #ThisWeekOnInstagram⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Video by @twisting_ellie

#HelloFrom the outskirts of Dubai. ⁣ ⁣ We are dreaming of this surreal, abandoned location where shamal desert winds blow bright golden sands across the asphalt roads. ⁣ ⁣ Photo by @kylevollaers

#HelloFrom Holtsós, a tidal lagoon in southern Iceland. We are dreaming of this black sand beach, nestled between blue ocean waves and a yellow glacial river.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Photo by @sebastianmzh