Carrie Miranda is a mother-of-three from Fresno, California. Almost three years ago she registered an Instagram page for her 10-year-old daughter Bella that has grown to over 17,000 followers.
When Bella was only 7, in 2014, Carrie created the account @bella_beastmode.
Carrie and her husband, Charlie, had an idea to enroll Bella in cheerleading appeared when she was only 3, but the toddler wasn’t interested just yet.
However, their dream came true when the girl was 5. She quickly surpassed the skills of many other girls her age and is now cheering at level 5.
According to Carrie, this level is “about as high as you can get” in cheerleading.
The only problem appeared when Bella asked to have an Instagram page like other girls did. That’s why her mom agreed as long as she moderated it.
The significant part of the content young cheerleaders produced were training videos, so Carrie did the same with Bella’s Instagram page.
“We actually started the page because she was doing cheerleading and she had some friends that all got on Instagram,” Carrie told BuzzFeed.
First, her account was all about cheerleading but as soon as Bella began to train harder and got involved in other athletics, “Bella Beastmode” became a personal log of her physical activities – a genre known on the platform as #fitspo.
Carrie also gave a snapshot of her daughter’s weekly workout schedule:
“She does school sports after school. Right now she’s in track and field at 3:30 p.m., then she goes straight home at 4:00 p.m. to be at the gym at 5:00 p.m. Mondays are 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the [cheerleading] gym, so that’s four hours. She does open gym twice a week. Some days she does private training for two hours. Every day she trains for two to three hours. At home, she does burpees and V-ups and push-ups. She has competitions on weekends – these days she usually has a high jump or long jump competition. She’s busy all day long.”
“She also does volleyball, softball, and cross country,” Carrie added but explained that they’re in other seasons of the school year (although that doesn’t stop softball enthusiasts training all year round with equipment like this softball swing).
Mother also said that she tries to make various content. For today, her posts mostly consist of photos of the 10-year-old flexing and flaunting the results of her training regimen.
“Bella has been an all-star cheerleader since she was five years old. We wanted to highlight her skills and strengths,” Carrie said.
Parents’ main aim is to make their daughter “a symbol of fitness” and inspiration for other girls who may come across her posts.
“I don’t care if she gets thousands of followers or not,” Carrie explained. “Just having her inspired by girls and other young children who are doing amazing things for their age … that’s the best part to me.”
“We had people who were purposely trying to knock her down for whatever reasons,” Carrie said. “Anyone who isn’t right, I’ll just block them. I probably have a thousand people blocked.”
“If it’s an older man who doesn’t have a family, I just block them,” she said.
“That would be my only real concern. We try to make it so that she’s not only showcasing her looks but her talents and how strong she is.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg-YKI1gs0b/?taken-by=bella_beastmode
35-year-old mother also admitted that today children are more fit than their predecessors. The times have changed, and now it is easier to do sports and to popularise your own profile.
“Kids are truly working toward a goal and achieving it,” she said.
“They’re pushing themselves and working hard and having a commitment to something that isn’t easy.”