Martha Stewart says you should look 'provocative' or have someone edit your photo 'real well' for the perfect thirst trap

• Martha Stewart says you should look "provocative" or edit your photo "real well" for a thirst trap.
• She told Insider that a lot of "naturally amazing" girls on Instagram are "highly-edited online."
• Stewart went viral last summer for a sultry, but accidental, poolside selfie.

Martha Stewart has some simple advice for people trying to post the perfect Instagram thirst trap: "Make sure you look good," or at least "have someone edit your picture real well."

The 79-year-old businesswoman and former model, whose sultry poolside selfie went viral last summer and has over 200,000 likes on Instagram at the time of writing, shared some tips with Insider on how to replicate her success in taking thirst traps.

"Just look good and pose with a provocative look on your face," Stewart recently told Insider while promoting her partnership with BIC EZ Reach lighters.

Even if you know how to pose for pictures and assume everyone else does too, Stewart also advises against underestimating the power of good photo editing.

"A lot of the girls that you think are just naturally amazing are highly-edited online," Stewart said. "There are wizards at editing that can make you look great."

Stewart, however, told Insider that her iconic poolside thirst trap was unedited.

She had also clarified in a People interview, months after she had initially posted the viral picture in July 2020, that the thirst trap was an accident - according to Stewart, she'd been trying to take photos of plants behind her when she mistakenly took a selfie instead.

Stewart only learned what a thirst trap was after that pool selfie went viral

In the now-famous picture, Stewart is seen looking at the camera with puckered lips. The caption accompanying the photo went into detail about construction work on her pool.

"I was taking pictures of my garden," Stewart told Insider. "Somehow, I'm in my pool, with five feet of water. I was just really thinking about not getting my phone wet."

Even though it was an accident, the conversation around Stewart's viral pool selfie isn't dying down anytime soon.

In April, Stewart told "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" guest host, comedian Howie Mandel, that she got "so many proposals" and "propositions" after she posted the pool selfie.

"But I had to ignore all of them. I'm a very busy person," Stewart told Mandel, without naming any of her admirers in particular.

Even as social-media users dubbed Stewart's poolside selfie a "thirst trap" (a photo that's been taken and posted on social media with the intended purpose of grabbing people's attention) last July, Stewart herself wasn't sure what the term meant.

"I didn't know what a 'thirst trap' was, but now I do," Stewart told People magazine in November.

Amid dodging proposals and mastering the perfect selfie, Stewart has also teamed up with her famous best friend, rapper Snoop Dogg, to launch a new advertising campaign for BIC EZ Reach lighters. According to a press release to mark the occasion, these lighters, first launched in August 2020, are designed for "hard-to-reach places" in the home, like candles and grills.

"My [BIC EZ Reach lighter] designs are typical home for us, like a nice terrazzo pattern," Stewart told Insider about her custom-design collection of lighters, which look a little different from the more basic ones available in "bright primary colors."