National Selfie Day

National Selfie Day, observed on June 21st, celebrates the self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a smartphone, that became one of the defining photographic and social media phenomena of the early 21st century. While people have taken self-portraits since the earliest days of photography, including a notable 1839 self-portrait by American photographer Robert Cornelius considered one of the first ever taken, the term "selfie" itself emerged more recently, first appearing in an Australian online forum post in 2002 before gaining widespread global usage through the rise of front-facing smartphone cameras and social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook in the following decade. The word's explosive popularity led Oxford Dictionaries to name "selfie" its Word of the Year in 2013, reflecting the term's rapid integration into everyday global vocabulary and the cultural ubiquity of the practice itself. Selfies have sparked extensive cultural commentary and academic study, examined through lenses ranging from self-expression and identity formation to narcissism and social validation-seeking behavior, while also enabling genuine documentation of travel, milestones, and everyday life shared instantly with friends and followers. The holiday, founded by National Day Calendar, encourages people to snap and share a selfie, often accompanied by the hashtag #NationalSelfieDay across social media platforms.