Okay so if you’re not familiar with the Tik Tok platform, let me get you in the loop. It’s all the rage right now, especially since we’re in quarantine and have nothing better to do but watch videos all day. Basically it’s an app where you can watch and create 15-60 second videos. It’s like any other social media platform where you can follow people and watch + share content.
Here’s the story: I posted a video on Tik Tok that described a story about being bullied over an outfit I wore in my hometown in high school, and a year later wore that outfit to fashion week in Toronto, where I was photographed and featured as “top 10 best dressed”.
This Tik Tok video got 2.7 million views and over 350,000 likes.
I never expected this kind of reaction when I posted it. Though it is a cool story and something pretty personal to me, I never thought this many people would resonate with it.... or hate on it either.
The reason it went viral was actually kind of funny. It was because of this: people thought I was lying and the story was "fake". They said my hair was shorter, I wasn’t the girl featured in the magazine, I wore different shoes, etc.
This was because I used photos of myself wearing the outfit in high school, and then the photos of me featured at fashion week was a whole year later when I styled the outfit a bit differently and had also changed my hair since (short and ombré).
It was insane and quite comical how many people were SO convinced that I was a “liar” and gen x kids were using terms like “cap” that I have to admit I totally had to look it up on urban dictionary.
The controversy over whether this actually happened or not boggled my mind. The comments were split:
40% were madly convinced that it wasn’t me, I was a liar and I told this story for “clout”. The worst comment was “well if you went to my high school, I would bully you too”.
Another 40% were true supporters, responding to every allegation against me and saying things like “believe it, it WAS her!!!”. Some people even went way back on my Instagram feed to find the Toronto fashion week photos of me in the outfit to prove it (and send the link to non-believers)! They’re the real ones for sure.
The other 20% I'd say was honestly just love and positivity; saying how much they loved my outfit/reminded them of the movie Clueless; that they would have been my friend in high school, etc. There was also a lot of support on the whole bullying situation. A lot of people could relate!
The moral of this post is it doesn’t matter what people say or think, you do you! Being yourself is the best thing you can be. It’s best to always show up and be honest and authentic to who you are.
When I first read these hateful comments from people that don’t even know me, saying I was a liar, I honestly felt attacked at first. I immediately wanted to defend myself. I thought “how dare they call me a liar! The story IS true!”. I started responding to each comment trying to put it as nicely as possible. Then, I created a video response explaining that it was in fact, a true story. I didn’t need to do this, but I was glad that it helped calm down the accusatory comments as soon as they saw the explanation video on my page.
In the end, I feel like this story reached a lot of people because they could relate and resonate with it and who doesn’t love a sob story with a happy ending?! Tik Tok loves that kind of content. Also - people love a good controversial debate (haha!).
To hear more about my bullying story and what went down in full detail, you can watch my YouTube video where I explain everything here.
Be sure to follow me on Tik Tok! I’ve had a lot of fun creating video content on it lately.
Thanks for reading today!
WOW
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