This is heartbreaking.
TikTok star Addison Rae has taken to Twitter to share her response to body-shamers.
The 19-year-old, who quickly amassed over 35 million followers on the wildly popular app, wrote that she’s seen multiple tweets and videos today making negative remarks about her weight.
She says that comments calling her “a whale” or saying “she’s fat now” hurt and make her feel insecure.
However, the viral star also mentioned that she’s going to make this negative situation into a positive one by turning her haters into her motivators.
“it makes me feel insecure, but luckily i’m looking at it in a different light. i’ve been very motivated to start eating better and working out everyday to become the healthiest version of myself!,” she wrote.
She finished by telling fans not to listen to hurtful comments about themselves. “I just want to encourage everyone who hears these things about themselves to love yourself!!,” she tweeted. “you are perfect.”
While fans appreciate Addison taking the high-road, many are upset that she would feel the need to change herself because of body shamers.
“i understand if you don’t feel confident with your body, but don’t change just be people are saying it,” one user responded.
“if you do this do it for yourself and not by the opinions of others, i love u,” wrote another.
Unfortunately, body shaming seems to be par for the course with these young social media stars.
Addison’s bestie and fellow TikToker Dixie D’Amelio also recently spoke out about what it was like being body-shamed online.
In a Twitter thread from March this year, she wrote that reading negative comments about her body is something she has struggled with for a long time, but ultimately she is more concerned with her younger audience reading those comments who may project those opinions onto themselves.
“personally the comments that are meant to put me down and don’t affect me as much anymore but tiktok is full of young kids and teenagers who might compare themselves to others,” she said. “and speaking negatively about someones body type (which they can’t control) is very toxic.”
TikTok as a platform has faced backlash lately for promoting behaviours such as body-shaming, cyber-bullying, and disordered eating.
Last month, documents obtained by The Intercept revealed that the creators of TikTok instructed moderators to “suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled.” This information was leaked shortly after celebrities such as Lizzo started publicly questioning TikTok’s algorithm and moderation process.
Though TikTok rebuts these claims, telling The Intercept that these guidelines are “no longer in use” or some “appear to never have been in place,” moderation is an on-going problem with the Chinese app. Some speculate that TikTok’s inconsistency and unclear guidelines on what’s deemed “appropriate” or not may lead users to jump ship to more predictable social media apps.
We sincerely hope Addison takes her own advice and doesn’t listen to the body-shamers. Because every body is beautiful, and no one deserves to feel otherwise.