Faith Smith and Suzy Greenwood have exchanged an unfiltered selfie every day for nearly a decade, maintaining their friendship across an 11,000-mile divide since Faith moved to New Zealand in 2017. The pair, both now 40, will mark 10 years of uninterrupted daily photos this December, amounting to more than 3,500 images each.
The tradition began on New Year's Day 2017, when Faith stood on the shores of Mount Maunganui in New Zealand and sent a photo to Suzy in South Devon with the message: "I'm going to send you one every day so you don't forget my face." Suzy immediately sent one back, and neither has broken the chain since.
A Decade of Daily Photos
Faith and Suzy first met as 14-year-old schoolgirls and became inseparable, sharing adventures from a month-long expedition to Zambia at 16 to over 20 global holidays together. When Faith and her partner, Rich, announced in 2016 they were moving to Auckland for a two-year stint, Suzy was heartbroken but thrilled for her friend.
"I knew how much they wanted an adventure," says Suzy, who runs Seaflowers, a luxury guest home in Devon, alongside a PR consultancy. "I didn't think she'd be going forever. I thought it would just be a couple of years."
Faith explains: "Brexit had just happened, I was turning 30 and having a family wasn't quite on the cards yet, so we told everyone at my birthday party that we were heading off for a two-year adventure." After travelling around New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, the couple got engaged in Wanaka and returned to the UK briefly to marry, with Suzy as maid of honour.
Life in New Zealand
Faith and Rich built successful careers in New Zealand, finding that a smaller market allowed them to progress rapidly. They decided to stay permanently, but settling on the other side of the planet came with trade-offs.
"There are obviously downsides to living so far from home," Faith admits. "The hardest thing is being away from family and the friends who have known you forever. Parenting without family support has also been hard, although we've never known anything different."
Faith recalls telling Suzy about her first pregnancy: "Suzy was actually the first person after Rich to find out, because I was due to fly to Australia to meet her for a road trip the day I took the test!" The couple now have two children, Billy and Lexi, who arrived in 2023.
No Filters, Just Real Life
Early in the tradition, the friends decided to ban filters to ensure the photos showed real lives rather than staged highlights. "Our rule is that it has to represent your day," Suzy explains. "In the early days, we used filters, but then we realised that defeated the point. It's supposed to be about seeing each other's real day-to-day life."
The daily commitment kept Faith grounded during tough moments as a new mother. "There was a point when Billy was a baby where I had a really difficult few months and came very close to stopping," she admits. "I'm so glad I didn't. When I look back at the early photos, we look so fresh and young."
Navigating an 11 to 12-hour time zone difference alongside demanding careers means long calls aren't always realistic. "It doesn't always need words," says Suzy. "We'll send a sweaty selfie after a workout. Sometimes I'll wake up in Devon, see that Faith managed to squeeze in a workout late at night in Auckland with two kids, and it gives me the kick I need to get out of bed."
Friendship Beyond Technology
The pair have met up every calendar year except during the height of pandemic restrictions. "Faith was speaking at a conference in Madrid last May, and I thought, Madrid is so close compared to New Zealand!" Suzy says. "So I flew out and worked from her hotel room while she was speaking at the conference, and then we had dinner together."
With Faith having just celebrated her 40th birthday, she set herself a bucket list challenge of '40 things before 40' – one of which was sorting through thousands of photos to create a photo book. For both women, their 10-year habit defies the belief that modern technology damages relationships.
"There's so much about how technology is making us lonely," Suzy says. "But actually, I think that if you use technology in the right way, we're so empowered to be able to stay connected." As for whether the streak will end, neither woman intends to stop. "We're both far too stubborn," laughs Faith. "Neither of us wants to be the one who stops first!"
