Swimstagram

Instagram has changed the way we interact with style. Before you raise your hand to tell me that we’ve already covered this topic at least 100 times, consider this angle: where it was previously considered a breach of girl code to knowingly copy another cat, it is now acceptable and rampantly accessible.

In fact, it’s become so commonplace to tag your credits or jump to the immediate assist of she who asks, “Where did you get that skirt?” that it’s a breach of WOMAN code — the female oath legitimized — to keep sartorial secrets to yourself.

Perhaps the greatest proof of this is when it comes to the world of swimsuits.

To Insta-inquire-then-copy someone’s swimsuit is to copy an entire outfit. If you and Becky G show up to the same shower in matching bandeaus and bottoms, you’re both wearing the same thing. Never mind your shoes or hat; when it comes to swim, it’s that which covers your boobs-n-butt that matters.

Yet we social media swim voyeurs have developed a sort of sisterhood; a mutual understanding to the tune of: I’ll share mine if you share yours. Ain’t no shame in the game of claiming that you found out about Made by Dawn via a surfer you follow so long as you pass on the good word in your Instagram.

Found a Solid and Striped suit courtesy of Taylor Swift? Something scalloped by Marysia via your cool cousin? What about Lisa Marie Fernandez by way of Leandra Frito-bean Medine? Soulja girl, tell ’em. Your friends are listening.

You remember Kiini, right? The two-piecer that took the world by neon knit elastic storm? It proliferated because A) Kiinis are pretty and B) one girl posted her Kiini, another saw it, liked it, bought it, wore it, posted it, and the cycle continued. Women Code.

I guess it’s kind of like The Ring. Which is kind of how this whole Internet thing works. Virility; a digital sneeze. That feeling of, I gotta share this.

And because I don’t want that girl from The Ring to come after me on vacation, let me share this:

See? Millennials aren’t selfish at all. We’re middle children, which makes, “Hey where’d you get that?,” I guess, our version of hand-me-downs.

PS: We know not everyone is the same size. “Stay tuned” (literally) for a swimsuit shopping story with Katie Sturino (you remember her, right??) in June.