Billie Faiers defends using Instagram filters on pictures of her children

Billie Faiers has defended her decision to use Instagram filters on pictures of her children, after receiving fan criticism for doing so earlier this month.

Former The Only Way is Essex star Billie, who is mum to daughter Nelly, three, and son Arthur, eight months, has reportedly faced backlash in the past over her choice to use filters from the social media site on snaps of the pair.

Now, speaking to the Daily Mail's Femail, she's hit back at the negative comments, and called on fellow mums to be more supportive of each other.

'I just took a photo and put a filter on it with the flash. It looked... pure, they're babies they're going to look pure anyway, but it was literally just a filter,' she told the paper.

'It was such a nice photo that I wanted to share it and I got a lot more positives than negatives, but there were a few people that were commenting saying I'd edited it,' she said of the image in question, which shows her two children lying on a rug in matching white outfits. 'It was a filter, in this day and age people use filters all the time.'

'Everyone's got their own way of doing things. I think as mums we should all support each other - because everyone's situations are different - and not be so judgmental.'

Billie has frequently posted pictures of her young family since first becoming a parent back in 2014, but there's one element of her life as a mother that she's not shared on social media - breastfeeding.

Earlier this year, during an episode of her younger sister Sam's ITVBe reality show The Mummy Diaries, Billie's partner Greg Shepherd was seen advising the pair not to feed their babies on camera.

'No Instagraming you suckling!' he declared. 'You're both famous enough, you don't need to do!'

However, Sam has famously ignored Greg's words, even going as far as to breastfeed son Paul during an appearance on This Morning.

What do you think? Do you use filters on pictures of your family? Let us know in the comment box below!