If our Instagram news feed were an art gallery we'd walk past thousands of avocados, sunsets and selfies.

It would also be a colossal in size - in the course of its five years of existence a phenomenal 40 billion photos have been shared on the social network.

But the showstoppers of this proverbial gallery - the pieces everyone comes to see - would be the images that received the most likes from a community of 300 million users.

And what's the common theme among these popular photographs? They're all by women.

From Kendall Jenner's whimsical hair snap to Taylor Swift's flower delivery, female stars are dominating success on the social network.

In honour of the app’s fifth birthday today, we take a look back at their most prized posts.

1) 3.1 million likes

The five most popular photos on Instagram are all by women