Instagram’s first 25 Rings go out to all kinds of creators
Earlier this month, Instagram unveiled Rings, its own version of YouTube’s creator plaques.
Well, sort of.
In YouTube’s version, every creator who reaches certain subscriber milestones (one million, 10 million, 100 million, etc) is given a plaque. But Instagram’s approach is different. Instead of going pure quantitative, it’s qualitative–and limited. Only 25 creators at a time are awarded Rings. As for who does the awarding, it’s a panel of career creatives and executives from various industries. Each judge shortlists their own selection of creators, and then the panel as a whole votes on who should be given Rings.
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The first Rings judges’ panel included jewelry designer Grace Wales Bonner, who made the IRL golden ring each winner will receive, along with folks like iconic filmmaker Spike Lee, fashion mogul Marc Jacobs, artist KAWS, tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, journalist Eva Chen, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
Those judges have already finalized the inaugural wave of Rings winners–and they’re not exactly what we were expecting. We’re used to YouTube’s plaques being awarded to rising star and/or career digital video makers–people whose primary designation is YouTuber.
However, Instagram’s first Rings winners are, in large part, people who’ve made their names in careers outside of digital content creation. There are athletes, actors, singers, comedians, and traditional artists like photographers and illustrators, some of whom built their careers before Instagram was even a thing. Now, don’t get us wrong: these people all maintain sizable Instagram accounts, and clearly have found success documenting what they do on social media. But we wouldn’t describe most of them as Instagrammers.
In any case, each of these people will receive, as we mentioned, an IRL ring, along with a digital golden ring around their Instagram profile image that will show up on their bios and in their Stories.
It’s not clear how often Instagram will give out these awards, but for now, we have a 25-account-strong cohort of people who are officially considered ‘golden.’
Lifestyle creator/comedian/musician who went viral with a bad-date story on TikTok in 2021 and now shares funny and emotionally open snippets across social media
Indian American stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and NYT bestselling author (though recently criticized for participating in Saudi Arabia’s controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival)
aka BrianCantStopEating, the foodie enthusiast whose content focuses on the “joy of working with restaurants to highlight their cuisines and share their stories”
Photography/storytelling project run by three creators–Grant Weintrob, Christian Baiocco, and Griffin Katz–that documents strangers’ lives from around the world
San Francisco-based self-described “director, photographer, DJ, all around multi-disciplinary creative and production company co-owner” who says he makes “Content to help you make better content”