Usually, you won't see a member of the royal family taking a selfie. As Insider pointed out in 2019, royal protocol doesn't really stand for selfies.
"You do not turn
your back on the royal family, and you do not attempt to walk up and talk to them," Greg Agnew, a royal fan who attended the Queen's Buckingham Palace garden party in May 2017, told the publication. The palace did not confirm this rule, but Meghan Markle reportedly did in 2017: "We're not allowed to do selfies," Meghan is said to have told a fan in Nottingham.
Meghan is learning the royal ropes already, telling one couple who asked for a selfie in Nottingham today: “We’re not allowed to do selfies.”
— Victoria Murphy (@byQueenVic) December 1, 2017
With this in mind, it's particularly significant that Kate Middleton made a selfie video as Place2Be's royal patron to mark the start of Children's Mental Health Week.
"This year's Children's Mental Health Week is all about expressing yourself—about finding creative ways in which to share your thoughts, ideas and feelings. So whether that's through photography, through art, through drama, through music or poetry—it's finding those things that makes you feel good about yourself.
She continued: "And while this is Children's Mental Health Week there has never been a more important time to talk about parental wellbeing and mental health too. Last year you told me just how important this was that many of us find it hard to prioritize. This is a hugely challenging time for us all so please look after yourself too.Find those ways in which to share your thoughts and your feelings or find someone to talk to because we really do need to be the very best versions of ourselves for the children in our care."
On a call with parents from Roe Green Junior School in Brent, England, Kate also spoke on the importance of mental health and adapting to this time. She admitted to them that she had "become a hairdresser this lockdown, much to my children's horror, sitting up cutting hair."
She and the other parents on the call all chose words to describe their quarantine experience. Kate chose "exhausted."
"Fingers crossed, let's hope for the positivity as you've all been saying," she told the parents on the call. "Make sure everyone looks after themselves—it’s very hard to prioritize but it's definitely needed now more than ever."