If you follow your average Islander on social media, you'll discover they all share similar views when it comes to the following: negativity online (rightly so), oversharing with journalists (fair) and their Love Island press photos - in that the majority of them downright despise them.
Now, all tea no shade, you'd think in a world of filters, Photoshopping and facetuning we could get to a stage where Islanders would be happy with their press shots (the first official images released of Islanders by ITV2 as they enter the Villa for the first time, lest we forget).
We've been covering Love Island for a long, long, long time (so can appreciate a little Photoshop) and we genuinely don't think we've spoken to a single Islander who was actually happy with their press photo. In fact, we can't help but recall the time Love Island Series 7 star Millie Court revealed that she thought she looked like a "40-year-old school mum" in hers.
Which reminds us, let's not forget that half of social media thought bombshell Charlie was in his 40s thanks to his press photo. He's 28 by the way.
Here at Closer, we're some of the first to see these press photos for the first time and when we finally get around to seeing the corresponding Islanders in the villa, we're left, well, baffled is the word. Some of the snaps are not the one and, frankly, just don't do some of these gorgeous human beings an ounce of justice. So what's the tea? Are producers doing Islanders dirty with their press shots and if so, why? Our cynical side leads us to believe that it's so we're utterly wowed by these creatures when we see them on screens, but we thought it best to actually speak to some Islanders to get to the bottom of this.
In the most recent edition of Love Island Secrets we asked dumped Islanders, Chyna, Josh and Coco whether they were happy with their Love Island press shots. Chyna immediately revealed that Islanders "don't get to see them" before they are made public – no approval in a world of influencers is downright anxiety-inducing – but the real tea-spilling came from Coco.
Coco said, "Mine is horrendous. They did me so dirty on that. No, vile."
She added, "You can't even see my face, my hair's like covering it. It was like something out of a horror film."
Josh added, "Yeah, the pictures were a bit... harsh. Harsh."
To which Chyna added, "Yeah, mine was not cute at all."
Also, that lollipop background design is a hard no from us; it makes us feel sticky and icky - not the feelings we want to feel when we're drooling over a fresh batch of Islanders.
It turns out Coco despised her press shot so much, she actually went and booked her own glow-up shoot to create the shots she would've liked to see plastered all over social media by the press - you go, gurl.
She added the following caption to her professional shoot pics, "How my press shot should have looked 😂🤪 #donedirty."
Some of her fellow Love Island stars have even commented on the new pics.
Lacey wrote, "Beautiful girl!!! 😍😍."
While Summer commented, "Sexy gal."
And the press photo shade doesn't stop there. Coco and Josh recently guested on Murad Merali's podcast to continue their tirade against Love Island photographers.
In a tearful chat where Murad brought up some of the harsh criticism Coco has faced online, she said, "It hurts, you see, because it's about your appearance and however I was perceived on the show is not, like, my personality anyway. They've edited me to look a certain way. To comment about my appearance is obviously hurtful; like, I've been cast for a reason."
She continued, "How you look on those cameras, or the press photo, is not the most flattering stuff. I mean, I think all of our press photos... we're all a lot better in real life."
Big thank you to Murad for going and giving our girl a hug at the end of this chat. We love to see it.
We think you look gorgy in both shots and IRL, for the record, Coco, but we hate that you (and so many other Islanders) didn't like your OG shots and have faced such horrific unsolicited criticism. Do better, social media.