Selfie (noun): a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

Love them or hate them, selfies are now a part of world culture. The word, now even included in the Oxford Dictionary, has taken off due mostly in part to social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Now flight attendants – especially the attractive ones – are getting in on the craze.

In one photo, five Emirates Airlines attendants can be seen in uniform draped over each other in the style of Vanity Fair magazine with hashtags such as #crewlife #airhostess #emiratescrew and #flightattendant.

Shawn Kathleen (who doesn’t use her last name) said, “Aviation is a very close-knit community. We get each other, because we’re living the same lifestyle.” Kathleen currently blogs at “Rants of a Sassy Stew” and is in the process of trademarking the phrase #crewlife.

In fact, just searching Instagram and Twitter for #crewlife brings up more photos than can be mentioned here.

However, Heather Poole, an 18-year veteran flight attendant and author of New York Times bestseller “Cruising Attitude” is concerned about this new trend.

“When I go to my Instagram feed and see [flight attendants] posting pictures in uniforms, I can’t believe they do that,” she said. “It’s a big deal. The airlines protect their image, everything is very strict. You could lose your job.”

Poole even refused to reveal the name of her airlines out of fear of getting fired for revealing too much information about their #crewlife.

But Delta airlines does allow their attendants to post selfies, as long as they are in “uniform compliance” and not doing anything illegal. The Delta handbook reads: “Our standards are, [you can do it] as long as you [act] in a professional image and [portray] the company in a professional manner.” Delta, however, does not allow attendants to post photos with celebrities.

In some of the mile-high selfies, even the captains got involved.

Although many of the photos are reminiscent of the stereotypical flight attendant image of the 1960s, it’s all in good fun and both male and female flight attendants are embracing it.

Hey hey morning ! Last day working before holidayyyy! Hiks pic.twitter.com/x4o5kay2H7

— aamer azmeer (@aamerazmeer) February 28, 2014

For more fun photos, check out one of the Instagram pages.

Image via Instagram