A Sunshine Coast teen with more than half a million Instagram followers is revealing the ugly truth behind her social media images that display “a perfect life”.

Coolum resident Essena O’Neill, 19, said she was paid up to $2,000 for the posts, which show her posing with products and often in revealing positions.

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With more than 600,000 followers on Instagram and 260,000 on YouTube, Ms O’Neill has deleted many of her original photos and re-captioned others with more honest descriptions.

“Not real life — took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten that day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals,” one of her posts now reads.

She has also changed her @essenaoneill Instagram account name to Social Media Is Not Real Life. Ms O’Neill made the announcement via one of her YouTube videos.

“I have created an image of myself that I think others feel is unattainable, others look at as a role model, others look at as some type of ‘perfect human’,” she announced in her video.

“I get people saying every day on my Tumblr or on Instagram … ‘I wish I was you’.

“Lately I’ve realised how horrible that is. For someone to follow my content and think I wish I was you, that is the opposite of what I want to promote.”

Warning: video contains offensive language.