Instagram can now predict who America’s Next Top Model will be

By Dominic Deusdedith — September 8, 2015

Eager for spoiler alerts but disappointed by Reality Steve’s coverage? Have no fear — Instagram is here! No longer just a platform for making your life look enviable, Instagram is now being used to predict who the next stars of international fashion runways will be. Thanks to a team of researchers at Indiana University who had the arduous task of looking through gorgeous men and women’s Instagram feeds, we now have an algorithm that can determine which faces will soon not only be Insta-famous, but also famous-famous.
In completing their study, scientists examined statistics — including hair and eye color, height, hip, waist, dress and shoe size — of 400 fashion models from the Fashion Model Directory. They then turned their attention to whether these models were represented by agencies, and the agencies’ caliber. Researchers noted, “Models with a top agency have, everything else being equal, nearly 10-time higher chances of walking a runway than their counterparts represented by non-top agencies.”

Related: No more cropping: Instagram now lets you post landscapes and portraits

Finally, and here’s where it gets interesting, the Indiana University team turned to the models’ social media presences, specifically on Instagram. Metrics like their number of followers, post frequency, number of likes and comments, and the general tone of the comments (positive or negative) were all taken into account, and were ultimately used to predict how successful a model was in the fashion industry.