SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- With a community of 40 million members worldwide, We Heart It announced today the company's new recognition program, dubbed Heartists, to spotlight its most engaged users. Heartists are leaders in creativity, inspiration and discovery, with interests in fashion, beauty, travel, food, and fandoms. This move comes after We Heart It was named to Google Play's annual list of Best Apps of 2015, cementing a year of top honors for the company by recognizing its own top users.

"Google's recognition of We Heart It as one of the Best Apps of 2015 is the perfect moment to introduce the Heartist program which recognizes our incredible members," said Tim Crowhurst, CEO of We Heart It.

Heartists come from 143 countries around the world and are responsible for more than 400,000 creative collections on We Heart It. Heartists are chosen via a proprietary formula that takes into account engagement, activity and followers. Heartists receive a special badge on their canvas recognizing them publicly, and gain access to a range of benefits and opportunities from We Heart It and its brand partners.

We Heart It offers a positive, supportive environment for young women to express who they are and who they want to become without the pressure and negativity of other social platforms. Heartists are engaged, creative, inspiring, and empowered to spread the message of positivity—all values of We Heart It. The Heartist program further recognizes those members whose creativity is in their curation -- a key attribute of Hearters in general. By adding, collecting and sharing images and video, Heartists are inspiring others through their curation efforts.

Heartist Caroline, from Sweden says, "We Heart It offers a positive community where I can feel free to express myself safely, without fear of negativity or mean comments."

Heartist Zakia, from the Netherlands adds, "We Heart It allows you to be yourself. I think of it as a virtual diary in pictures."

Rena, a Heartist from Vancouver, says about the people she follows on We Heart It: "I look at the person's collection as a whole and see if I'm interested in getting to know more about them. If I feel something, I follow the Hearter."

"Heartists are the heart of our company. We want to reward those users for inspiring others on the platform while also tapping into their artistry and passions," said community manager Chelsea Pearl. "Heartists are leading the way by championing others and spreading a message of positive engagement, something that's not always the case on social media."

We Heart It is one of five apps honored with the Best Apps of 2015 designation by the Google Play Store in the Communications & Social category, along with Twitter and Skype.

ABOUT WE HEART IT:

We Heart It is an image-and-video based social network focused on inspiration, expression and creativity. 40 million members use We Heart It to discover, collect and share images and video on its highly rated mobile app and website. Members from around the world turn to We Heart It for a positive and supportive environment and have hearted over 10 billion images and video. The network serves more than 60 billion images and video a month.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151207/293941

SOURCE We Heart It