Celebrating #Pride2018 on Instagram

This year, we’ve seen young leaders step up like never before, raising their voices and organizing around the initiatives and causes that matter most to them. Instagram is a home for diverse youth activism and expression, and to help knit the community closer together, we gathered together five young leaders from the LGBTQ+ community in real life and surprised them with their role models for a conversation about their lives, their work and how they inspire people to be open and connect with others. Check out the video above to hear stories and reactions from ALOK and Sasha Velour, Blair Imani and Bethany C. Myers, Adam Eli and Hanne Gaby Odiele, Corey Maison and Ryan Stalvey, and Pidgeon Pagonis and Johanna Toruño.

This Pride, we also encourage you to discover, recognize and connect with your own role models – and we’re rolling out a Pride rainbow version of our signature gradient in parts of Instagram to help you do it. In stories, there’s a new rainbow background in Type mode, as well as new rainbow versions of the mention, hashtag and location stickers in stories so you can share stories of the people who inspire you. In Live, each time you tap the heart, you’ll see a different color of the Pride rainbow – and holding down will send a shower of rainbow hearts to the person you’re watching as well as everyone who’s watching along with you. And, finally, we worked with GLAAD to identify hashtags that people throughout the LGBTQ+ community gather around and use to connect with one another. Throughout Pride month, you’ll see a rainbow gradient on those hashtags everywhere they appear to encourage more people to discover and explore the photos and videos from people throughout the community.

Instagram is committed to fostering a safer, kinder and more inclusive community. To celebrate #Pride2018, mention your #RoleModel in your stories and share how they inspire you.

Today’s updates are available on Android as part of Instagram version 47. They’ll be available on iOS in the coming weeks.