Butt Selfie Belfie — Woman in white swimsuit taking a mirror selfie showing her rear view

Butt Selfie Belfie

2012photographclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Butt Selfie, or Belfie for short, is a Selfie subgenre where the subject photographs their own backside instead of their face. The first known example was posted to Instagram on July 18, 2012, and the shortened term entered wider internet use in mid-2013 as celebrities, models, and adult performers picked up the format.

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Overview

Butt Selfie, known casually as Belfie, is a Selfie subgenre where the subject photographs their own backside to show off its shape and size3. The pose is dominated by female users, who typically use a mirror or an over-the-shoulder angle to frame the shot2.

The format grew alongside the wider Selfie boom of the early 2010s, with dedicated collection sites like BootySelfie.com (NSFW) archiving user submissions and refreshing the front page daily2. The Daily Dot later traced the internet history of the format from its 2012 origin1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Instagram
Date
2012

The earliest known Butt Selfie was uploaded to Instagram on July 18, 2012, by a female user who tagged the image #buttselfie along with 18 other hashtags to work around Instagram's missing search function at the time3. The Belfie contraction had not yet appeared in public use, so heavy tag stacking was the only way to make a rear-facing photo discoverable1.

How It Spread

The phrase "Butt Selfie" itself first surfaced online on July 28, 2013, roughly a year after the initial Instagram upload3. In the week that followed, between July 28 and August 3, 2013, the term made about 18 recorded appearances across the web1.

By late 2013, celebrities, fashion models, and adult performers were posting their own Belfies alongside standard Selfies1. Lifestyle publisher collegecandy went further with a tutorial that split the pose into three named variants: the Head Turn Butt Selfie, the Doggy Style Booty, and the Basic Beginner Level Booty2.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Belfie is shot in a mirror with the phone at hip level, or held over the shoulder with the lens pointed back at the subject2. Common convention includes arching the back and turning the head slightly toward the camera. Tutorials often break the shot into difficulty tiers, from a straight-on beginner angle up to more posed setups like the Doggy Style Booty2.

Frequently Asked Questions