Eve's Message For Women On Instagram Is Everything

Eve returns to the big screen in Barbershop: The Next Cut , a film which acknowledges recent fads like botox, fake butts, boobs, and Instagram celebrities, all while getting a haircut. Although such topics are laughed off in the movie, largely in part to Nicki Minaj's character Draya ("It's like walking around with a black Amex... and I never get denied."), there's something deeper here that goes beyond the barbershop walls.

I sat down with Eve while she was promoting the new flick in Los Angeles and got a piece of her mind. If you've seen her Instagram, you'll notice a blatant absence of sexy selfies, arguably pioneered by the Jenndashians. "I don’t take good selfies though. [Laughs] I’m so whack, my selfies are so awkward!" she says. "Hashtag awkward-f*ckin'-selfie. I wish I was better, but I can’t. I don’t even try to pretend."

Even if she could pretend, though, she wouldn't. "I like to show things that are happening in my life. That’s how I started being comfortable with Instagram," she explains. "I didn’t feel like I had to just be like, me, me, me." She points out that users who post constantly may do so because they just aren't fulfilled by other areas of life. "I don’t think they’re really happy people. Not all of them, not everyone. But I think there has to be a level of, ‘I need some approval in some way.’ You need to be within yourself."

With social media and the constant race to get more followers, there's no denying the around-the-clock, ungiving pressure. "I think it’s annoying. I do. We, already as women, without Instagram, put pressure on ourselves," says the actor. "Before we walk out the door, before we take a selfie. To have that extra [addition] of Instagram, it sucks."

The problem, however, is spreading beyond our feeds into areas of real life. Eve has the scorching tea:

What I’m not liking about what’s happening with women at the moment is that we are relying too much on our bodies and what we look like and not on the talents that we actually have in being intelligent, being a businesswoman, or whatever it is. That has just gone to the back burner.

Although she's acutely aware of the unfortunate emphasis on physical appearance, even she couldn't fight the external voices which urged her to be perfect. "That’s something we all have to work on. It’s something I’ve had to work on. I still have to work on," she says. "I think about getting stuff done, we all do. We’re women. It is what it is. Ultimately, we’re all gonna be a project to ourselves and as long as you’re happy with yourself then everything else is going to be OK. And it takes a minute sometimes."

But we can all prevail. And her advice in doing so is history book-worthy:

Just stop. There’s nothing that is perfection, you’re driving yourself crazy. You’re giving yourself unnecessary stress by trying to be perfect and who are you trying to be perfect for? For people you really don’t know. You don’t know these people. And what’s the point? Seriously, be happy with yourself.

And although it's tempting, because as Eve puts it, "Obviously, the more naked you are, the more people pay attention sometimes," you should never strip down for the sake of getting more likes or followers — unless, of

, it's yourself you're feeling, not the pressure.

"If I’m showing myself in a bikini it’s because I want to," says Eve. "Because I’m having fun on vacation and not because I need to."

*Praise*