A 21-year-old influencer has defended herself after getting backlash when she announced she bought her first home, with viewers thinking she did not deserve it due to the nature of her employment.
On Saturday, Katylee Bailey, a 2.8 million-follower British TikTok influencer who typically posts motivational content about self-love and lifestyle content about spending time with her grandparents and friends, posted a video in which she could be seen popping a confetti cannon shaped like a Champagne bottle as an on-screen caption on the post read, “Mortgage-free and a homeowner at 21 babies!!!”
According to Daily Mail, in comparison to her other posts, which generally attract hundreds of thousands of views, Bailey’s video earned 3.8 million views. While many readers praised the influencer, emphasizing that owning a home at her age was an important achievement, others were scathing, claiming her message was out of touch and inconsiderate for people trying to pay rent and housing.
“So sad the people that work the least get this, and people putting their life on the line can barely afford to heat,” one person wrote. “Meanwhile everyone else has real jobs and struggles to make ends meet,” another commenter wrote.
Several commentators stated they couldn’t afford to buy a house mortgage-free with their wages, which they said covered the care sector and engineering, hinting that influencers made a disproportionate amount of money for the amount of labor people assumed they did. One person said: “Maximum everything for minimum effort.”
Insiders recently reported that UK people were increasingly turning to TikTok to exchange money-saving suggestions to cope with the country’s cost-of-living problem, as food and energy costs skyrocketed over the last year.
According to the UK housing and homelessness group Shelter, this has been especially disastrous for low-income tenants; according to the most current data, over 2.5 million UK people are either behind or constantly struggling to pay their rent.
Bailey replied to the online reaction with an apology to her fans in a follow-up video posted on Monday. “I’m sorry to anyone who feels like I’m bragging about the house thing,” she said. “Yes, the system is absolutely fucked. I will never get my head around the fact that I’ve been so lucky.”
The influencer went on to say that she “did not grow up with the money” and was proud of herself for being able to buy a home due to her job, which she said did require hard work. “I do actually work, and let me tell you something, social media is so mentally draining,” she said.
The post gained 3.7 million views, and commentators were mostly supportive of the influencer’s comments, stating she should not feel obliged to apologize for harsh opinions. “Wow do not sit there and apologize for something you have achieved YOURSELF you should be proud and so should everyone,” one person wrote.
Influencers who have released videos about huge or extravagant purchases in the past have faced criticism, with charges that their posts were out of touch with the realities of most people.
Insider reported in October that lifestyle influencer Quentin Blackwell drew outrage after informing her TikTok followers she “accidentally” bought a couch for $100,000 before implying the entire thing was a hoax. The following month, Tara Lynn, the creator of OnlyFans, was chastised for claiming in a TikTok video that she paid $10,000 for Harry Styles tickets so she could be close to the stage.