The stories behind Team Marie Claire’s Instagram

You’ve seen our Instagram images, now read the stories

To celebrate Instagram’s new pop-up photography exhibition #MyStoryUK, showcasing inspiring posts from women around the world, Team Marie Claire share the posts that mean the most to them…

Sian Parry, Picture Director @izzyparrylewis

'This is a favourite Instagram moment from when I was working on a shoot for Marie Claire with Monsieur Louboutin. They say never meet your heroes but this disproves that theory! Shoe lover that I am, I've been doing a shoe of the day shot for years, so I plucked up the courage to ask Christian if we could do a shoe shot together. He art directed this shot himself! I love it because his charm and mischief shines through. A special moment for shoe lovers everywhere.'

Mr Louboutin himself

Anita Bhagwandas, Senior Beauty Editor @itsmeanitab

'A villager from the Bishnoi community, about an hour outside Johdpur, India. They're vegetarian, value the lives of trees as they would humans and are dedicated to animal protection. In 1730, around 363 people were killed (voluntary martyrdom) when the then Maharaja ordered tree felling on Bishnoi land, which he later apologised for. Since then it's been illegal to harm any creature or tree in their locality. This lady made me a cup of tea from fresh cow's milk she had literally just extracted.'

A villager near Johdpur, India

Holly Rains, Deputy Digital Editor @holly_rains

'Stephen Fry is my broadcasting hero. He’s funny, outspoken, a national treasure. I got to meet the legend in the lead up to the 2015 BAFTA’s where he was doing his usual presenting gig. I don’t get nervous interviewing people, however every journalist in the room was terrified that he was going to be a complete idiot off-screen, not the friendly man mountain that we all imagined. Spoiler alert: he was perfection. He spoke about his favourite films, how young people should deal with online bullying and complimented me on my watch. Then we embraced.'

The name's Fry...

Martha Hayes, Contributing Editor @missmarthahayes

'When my boyfriend proposed to me after four years I couldn't stop crying. They were tears of intense happiness, but also relief because he'd been acting so strangely all night I was worried something was up! I was so overwhelmed and snotty faced that I didn't even notice the ring at first. But I also knew it was a moment we needed to capture forever. So he began taking pictures of me in between tears. We both use social media frequently and decided a collage of pictures of me crying throughout the proposal was the best way to let people know we were getting married. And for a laugh, and because we are total geeks, we posted it at exactly the same time on Instagram and had a competition over who got the most likes. Ah, modern love.'

An Insta romance

Lucy Pavia, Entertainment Editor @lucypavia

'This picture was taken a few years ago when I was sent to interview One Direction. The interview took place in the glass tip at the very top of the Gherkin Building on a particularly beautiful, cloudless day. It was at a time when the hype surrounding the band had tipped into a Beatles-level of mania and I arrived bracing myself for a bunch of droning pop automatons. But the five boys I met were actually very funny, charming and endearingly polite. The only person who seemed a little subdued was Zayn. His manners were impeccable but you could tell that he just found the whole press hoopla and hype around the band a bit uncomfortable. My brother Chris is a big 1D fan so at the end of the interview I asked Harry if he would mind holding up a sign saying hello to him (better than a selfie with my mug in it!)'

Oh hi, 1D!

Share your own inspiring moments on Instagram #MyStoryUK