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Transcript

The Shani Grimmond Effect · Outspoken the Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: We want to jump in before the episode starts to
0:02
Speaker 1: point out that this isn't part of our regular Friday programming.
0:06
Speaker 1: We are having a couple of Fridays off to spend
0:09
Speaker 1: with our new nephew, Jack. So in the meantime, we
0:12
Speaker 1: have put together a deep dive series on Shiny Grimmond.
0:15
Speaker 1: This is episode two. Shiny Grimmond was living out her dream.
0:22
Speaker 1: The 18-year-old was working full-time as a YouTuber and signing
0:26
Speaker 1: lucrative deals with the world's biggest makeup brands.
0:29
Speaker 2: Pretty much only been using this product right here. It
0:31
Speaker 2: is the Morphe eyeshadow palette in 350.
0:35
Speaker 1: She'd fallen head over heels with 23-year-old accountant Jonathan Sauer
0:39
Speaker 1: and things were moving fast. A new friendship with fellow
0:42
Speaker 1: beauty blogger Michael Finch was blossoming and she was just
0:45
Speaker 1: about to head up one of Australia's hottest influencer clicks.
0:49
Speaker 1: But it wasn't long before the downfalls of fame struck,
0:52
Speaker 1: with Shani facing her first online controversy and personal dramas
0:57
Speaker 1: after her home was targeted by thieves. In this series,
1:00
Speaker 1: we explore the phenomenon of Sharni Grimmond. Hello and welcome
1:05
Speaker 1: to Outspoken. I'm so excited to get into part two
1:09
Speaker 1: of our Sharni Grimmond deep dive. We had such a
1:11
Speaker 1: great reaction to the first episode. Yeah, we got a
1:13
Speaker 1: lot of messages from people saying they felt so nostalgic
1:16
Speaker 1: listening and that they really miss Sharni. Yeah, that seemed
1:19
Speaker 1: to be an overwhelming response. And it is testament to
1:22
Speaker 1: the fact that Sharni really felt like a friend to
1:24
Speaker 1: so many people growing up watching her YouTube videos. Now,
1:27
Speaker 1: when we left you, Shani had just gotten into a
1:30
Speaker 1: very new relationship with Jonathan Sauer. And after four months
1:34
Speaker 1: of dating, Shani and Jonathan officially moved in together. I
1:39
Speaker 1: didn't know that things moved that quickly. So Shani had
1:42
Speaker 1: just moved out of her family's house and into a
1:45
Speaker 1: townhouse when Jonathan thought, well, I'm sick of traveling 45
1:49
Speaker 1: minutes to see you. Let's just move in. Here's how
1:52
Speaker 1: Shani broke the news to her YouTube audience.
1:55
Speaker 3: Have something very serious to talk about.
1:57
Speaker 4: This little bug, ball sack, moved into my house about
2:03
Speaker 4: when I moved in pretty much because you haven't been
2:05
Speaker 4: living in your own place. No, but he like officially
2:08
Speaker 4: moved in like last week or something. Brought all his
2:10
Speaker 4: stuff there except his golf clubs because they're not going
2:13
Speaker 4: to fit in my house. They can set his own house.
2:15
Speaker 1: With the young couple now living together, Jonathan became a
2:18
Speaker 1: permanent fixture on Sharni's channel and And viewers loved seeing
2:22
Speaker 1: them navigating living together for the first time.
2:25
Speaker 3: I was so scared to fart in front of you.
2:27
Speaker 2: Like I would literally get cramps in my stomach because
2:30
Speaker 2: I was holding a fart in for that long.
2:32
Speaker 1: Sharni also admitted to occasionally needing space from Jonathan and
2:36
Speaker 1: getting fed up from being together too often. She said
2:39
Speaker 1: that she values having me time and likes to chill
2:42
Speaker 1: by herself or with her friends. And this made me
2:45
Speaker 1: remember that she was only 18 at the time. She
2:48
Speaker 1: just moved out of home for the first time. And
2:51
Speaker 1: she was in this serious relationship that went from one
2:54
Speaker 1: to 100 in the space of just four months. And
2:56
Speaker 1: at the time, Jonathan was working full time as an accountant.
3:00
Speaker 1: And in a video, he admitted to being jealous of
3:02
Speaker 1: Sharni's YouTube channel. Here's what he said.
3:05
Speaker 3: I'm jealous. I'm kind of jealous about the whole YouTube thing. Yeah,
3:09
Speaker 3: because I can work from home. Yeah, like you. I
3:12
Speaker 3: never knew anything about YouTube until I met Sharni. And
3:15
Speaker 3: I still don't know a lot of things. And it's literally,
3:16
Speaker 3: it's like a whole nother world, hey?
3:17
Speaker 2: It is.
3:18
Speaker 3: It really is. And you can meet so many people.
3:20
Speaker 3: I think everyone should start a YouTube channel.
3:22
Speaker 1: Ironically, after this admission, it wasn't long until Jonathan left
3:26
Speaker 1: his full-time job to become Sharni's manager and also launch
3:29
Speaker 1: his own social media career. And it did make sense
3:33
Speaker 1: because he did attract a large following just from appearing
3:36
Speaker 1: in a couple of Sharni's vlogs. At the height of
3:38
Speaker 1: his fame, he had close to 200,000 followers. And as
3:42
Speaker 1: Sharni's manager, one would assume that he took a lucrative
3:45
Speaker 1: cut from her deals. Do you think they would have
3:47
Speaker 1: been together as long as they were if he hadn't
3:49
Speaker 1: made the move to a career in social media? Well, potentially,
3:52
Speaker 1: I actually think the opposite. Maybe they could have been
3:55
Speaker 1: together for longer because, you know, early on Sharni was
3:58
Speaker 1: already talking about feeling that she needed time to herself.
4:02
Speaker 1: So with him quitting his job, presumably they saw even
4:04
Speaker 1: more of each other and potentially got on each other's nerves. Now,
4:07
Speaker 1: if you think back to this time, One of Sharni's
4:10
Speaker 1: most famous catchphrases, and I think Michael Finch also had
4:14
Speaker 1: a lot to do with his catchphrase becoming so popular,
4:17
Speaker 1: was Bindi. Bindi is the name of the puppy that
4:26
Speaker 1: Sharni got in 2015, and she is still a regular
4:30
Speaker 1: fixture on Sharni Grumman's social media accounts. But ironically, the
4:34
Speaker 1: catchphrase almost didn't happen because When I was scrolling through
4:38
Speaker 1: the archives, I was shocked to discover that Bindi's first
4:42
Speaker 1: name was actually Audrey.
4:45
Speaker 3: You guys are going to love her. Look how little
4:47
Speaker 3: she is. This is Audrey. She's so beautiful.
4:51
Speaker 2: She's a toy poodle across Shipsy across Maltese and she's
4:54
Speaker 2: just so little.
4:56
Speaker 1: I was so confused at first thinking, is this a
4:58
Speaker 1: different dog? But I can confirm this is in fact Bindi.
5:03
Speaker 1: Underneath the YouTube video, one follower wrote, your puppy is adorable.
5:07
Speaker 1: And I personally think Bindi would suit her more. It's
5:10
Speaker 1: not clear if this comment inspired the name change, but
5:13
Speaker 1: I like to think that it did. Now, Sharni purchased
5:16
Speaker 1: Bindi right as she moved into her new home with Jonathan.
5:19
Speaker 1: So they were immediately this cute little family.
5:23
Speaker 3: Good morning, guys. I'm going to be vlogging today.
5:26
Speaker 5: And Bindi says, good morning. Bindi.
5:32
Speaker 2: Hey.
5:34
Speaker 3: Oh, she's so cute.
5:34
Speaker 2: I let her sleep with me every night, and she, like,
5:38
Speaker 2: cuddles up into my chest.
5:39
Speaker 3: It's so cute. Look at her. Oh, my little baby.
5:44
Speaker 3: He's done with them. What are you doing over there?
5:52
Speaker 1: After a couple of months of Jonathan and Sharni living together,
5:55
Speaker 1: without warning, Sharni disappeared from YouTube for over two months.
6:00
Speaker 1: And this was a huge shock to her followers. This
6:03
Speaker 1: absence led to a lot of confusion and speculation from
6:07
Speaker 1: her followers. Yeah, and Shani did eventually make an anticipated
6:11
Speaker 1: return to YouTube with a dramatic tell-all video revealing that
6:16
Speaker 1: she had been robbed. Here's what she said.
6:20
Speaker 2: So my house was broken into one month ago. So
6:23
Speaker 2: I was in New Zealand with my boyfriend on a
6:27
Speaker 2: holiday and I honestly never, ever, ever would have thought
6:31
Speaker 2: something like this.
6:32
Speaker 3: Would have happened.
6:34
Speaker 1: This incident really rocked Sharni. She no longer felt safe
6:38
Speaker 1: being on her own or being in this house. The
6:41
Speaker 1: robbers had actually stolen her house keys and car keys. Luckily,
6:45
Speaker 1: they didn't end up taking the car, but it did
6:48
Speaker 1: lead to a lot of anxiety that the robbers could
6:51
Speaker 1: be back at any moment. So Sharni and Jonathan only
6:54
Speaker 1: lasted a few days in the rental before moving back
6:57
Speaker 1: in with Sharni's family. The one positive to come out
7:01
Speaker 1: of the ordeal was that it brought Sharni and her
7:03
Speaker 1: family a lot closer together. The downside for her followers
7:07
Speaker 1: was that at her mum's house, she couldn't film. So
7:10
Speaker 1: her camera and makeup had been stolen and her mum
7:13
Speaker 1: had no backdrops to film in front of. Sharni did
7:16
Speaker 1: preface that she also wasn't emotionally stable during that time
7:20
Speaker 1: to film.
7:21
Speaker 2: I remember asking mom how much did they take and
7:25
Speaker 2: she said everything and at this point I didn't really
7:29
Speaker 2: know like how it happened I didn't know anything about
7:31
Speaker 2: it all I knew is that they took absolutely everything
7:33
Speaker 2: I had like no idea who it could have.
7:37
Speaker 3: Been because no one or not.
7:39
Speaker 2: Many people at all knew where I lived I never
7:42
Speaker 2: told anyone where I lived after the break-in I now
7:47
Speaker 2: have trust issues I can't trust anyone I honestly question
7:50
Speaker 2: the littlest things. Like if someone wants to be my friend,
7:52
Speaker 2: I'm like, do they really want to be my friend
7:54
Speaker 2: or are they using me like for followers or something?
7:57
Speaker 2: Like I honestly just, I can't trust anyone and I
8:00
Speaker 2: have trust issues now, which really sucks.
8:02
Speaker 1: This ordeal really shaped Shani as a person going forward
8:06
Speaker 1: and it made her question a lot of her interactions
8:08
Speaker 1: with people. She has spoken a lot about suffering from
8:11
Speaker 1: anxiety and this incident really exacerbated that. What also led
8:16
Speaker 1: to a lot of debates about influencer privacy. So months earlier,
8:20
Speaker 1: Sharni had shared an extensive house tour showing her followers
8:24
Speaker 1: through every room of the house, even the garage where
8:27
Speaker 1: her car was parked and the different entry points into
8:30
Speaker 1: her house.
8:31
Speaker 3: Let's start with my land room. So my front door
8:34
Speaker 3: is right here. And this is the first thing that
8:36
Speaker 3: you see when you walk into my house.
8:38
Speaker 2: It's all black and plain.
8:39
Speaker 3: I need to add some color and stuff.
8:41
Speaker 2: The land room, we have a staircase that goes all
8:44
Speaker 2: the way up to my three rooms and my bathrooms
8:46
Speaker 2: and stuff.
8:46
Speaker 3: But I'll show you that later.
8:49
Speaker 1: The public began questioning whether influencers were putting themselves in
8:52
Speaker 1: danger by oversharing. Now, following the incident, Sharni released another
8:57
Speaker 1: vlog urging her followers for privacy when it came to
9:00
Speaker 1: her new rental.
9:03
Speaker 2: So on a serious note, a few people have been
9:05
Speaker 2: commenting on my Instagram photos.
9:07
Speaker 3: So for everyone to see and saying, I.
9:09
Speaker 2: Know where you live.
9:10
Speaker 3: I saw you drive into a new place.
9:13
Speaker 2: It's honestly so disrespectful and so frustrating that How would
9:18
Speaker 2: you like if I went around telling people where you lived?
9:22
Speaker 2: This is probably how I got broken into, people seeing
9:25
Speaker 2: me drive into my house and telling their friends and.
9:27
Speaker 3: Then it gets around to other people.
9:29
Speaker 2: It's so annoying. You have to let someone have their
9:33
Speaker 2: privacy once in a while. Just because I have followers
9:36
Speaker 2: on Instagram or YouTube, it doesn't make me any different
9:39
Speaker 2: to you guys.
9:40
Speaker 1: Even eight years on, influencers are still facing the same
9:45
Speaker 1: issues when it comes to their privacy. Sharni's best friend,
9:48
Speaker 1: Chloe Zept, had the same issue when she and her
9:51
Speaker 1: now fiance, Mitch, brought a property on the Gold Coast
9:54
Speaker 1: because as soon as they posted a photo in front
9:57
Speaker 1: of the sold sign, which I want to preface did.
10:00
Speaker 1: actually have the address blurred out, it didn't take long
10:03
Speaker 1: for followers to track down the address on realestate.com. And
10:07
Speaker 1: Mitch said that he even had followers messaging him the
10:10
Speaker 1: address saying, we know where you live. A year on
10:14
Speaker 1: and the couple were also dramatically robbed in a home invasion.
10:18
Speaker 1: So We're still at a point where influencers have to
10:21
Speaker 1: be so careful about their safety. It's a hard one
10:24
Speaker 1: because obviously Molly May as well in the UK, she
10:27
Speaker 1: got robbed. And I know that stopped her from posting
10:30
Speaker 1: a lot. But then suddenly she was just sort of like, well,
10:33
Speaker 1: fuck it. I'm going to share my home account. Like
10:35
Speaker 1: it sort of restricts a lot of influencers from being
10:38
Speaker 1: able to do their job when they do have to
10:40
Speaker 1: really consider, you know, parts of their life that they're
10:44
Speaker 1: sharing online.
10:45
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:45
Speaker 1: Now five months on from the robbery- Sharni ended up
10:49
Speaker 1: posting a YouTube video revealing she knew who broke into
10:53
Speaker 1: her house. So she explained that straight after the robbery,
10:56
Speaker 1: she received a message from a random girl saying she
10:59
Speaker 1: deserves to know the truth. Now, the girl was fearful
11:03
Speaker 1: that the robbers would come after her if they found
11:06
Speaker 1: out she told Sharni. Sharni ended up convincing her to confess,
11:10
Speaker 1: and she revealed that a group of eight teenagers had
11:13
Speaker 1: committed the robbery. Now, the kids were aged 16 to 17,
11:17
Speaker 1: with half of them guys and half of them girls. Now,
11:20
Speaker 1: Sharni took this message to the police, who said the
11:22
Speaker 1: message wasn't enough proof to convict them. So Sharni started
11:27
Speaker 1: doing some investigating of her own. So she and Jonathan
11:30
Speaker 1: jumped online. And at this stage, they knew the names
11:33
Speaker 1: of the robbers. So they trawled through their social media
11:36
Speaker 1: accounts and found photos of the robbers wearing their clothes.
11:40
Speaker 1: One of the robbers even brazenly captioned his post, I
11:44
Speaker 1: robbed you. Now, after that, Sharni started receiving an influx
11:48
Speaker 1: of messages from followers saying the group had been bragging
11:51
Speaker 1: at underage house parties that they stole Sharni Grumman's makeup. Now,
11:56
Speaker 1: Sharni chose not to reveal the robbers' names in her
11:59
Speaker 1: video as she said it was clear they were after
12:01
Speaker 1: airtime and attention. Now that she had photos of the robbers, though,
12:06
Speaker 1: wearing her clothes, She took that information to the police,
12:09
Speaker 1: who again said they couldn't do anything about it. They
12:12
Speaker 1: said they needed a confession. Isn't this just so ridiculous?
12:16
Speaker 1: I understand that this is how the justice system works,
12:19
Speaker 1: but you almost got to catch people in the act
12:22
Speaker 1: robbing your house or have CCTV vision of it. Now,
12:26
Speaker 1: shortly after the robbery, the gang ended up breaking into
12:30
Speaker 1: her house for a second time. Luckily, Sharni and Jonathan
12:34
Speaker 1: had moved out of the townhouse and they were staying
12:37
Speaker 1: at her mom's house. Sharni arrived at the townhouse to
12:40
Speaker 1: discover a note on the door from police saying your
12:43
Speaker 1: door was left wide open. This street has been broken into.
12:47
Speaker 1: So again, this group had targeted Sharni and it was
12:51
Speaker 1: easy for them to do so because they still had
12:54
Speaker 1: her house keys and car keys. So they were coming
12:57
Speaker 1: and going as they pleased. Now, months after the incident,
13:00
Speaker 1: when Shani posted her video revealing that she'd been robbed,
13:04
Speaker 1: that night she received a Facebook message from one of
13:07
Speaker 1: the female robbers. Here's what she said.
13:11
Speaker 2: Love your new video without emoji. Hope you look after
13:15
Speaker 2: your makeup a bit better next time. Slanty face emoji.
13:19
Speaker 2: If you want to drag me into it, beep, the
13:22
Speaker 2: person that the main person that did it is going
13:25
Speaker 2: to be more than happy to continue the drama.
13:29
Speaker 3: Excuse me.
13:31
Speaker 2: Is she literally threatening me that she's going to like
13:33
Speaker 2: break into my house again? She literally just dobbed that
13:37
Speaker 2: person in and said that he's the one that did it.
13:40
Speaker 3: And I've got it in writing.
13:42
Speaker 1: It quickly became apparent that the girl was incredibly jealous
13:45
Speaker 1: of Shani's success and lifestyle. So she had been following
13:49
Speaker 1: Shani for some time and was training to become a
13:51
Speaker 1: makeup artist herself. So in a follow-up message, she told
13:55
Speaker 1: Shani to get a real job and stop bumming around
13:58
Speaker 1: home making YouTube videos like it's an actual job. She
14:02
Speaker 1: then asked Sharni why she doesn't do a makeup course
14:05
Speaker 1: and said she wasn't smart enough and that it's harder
14:07
Speaker 1: than it looks. Now, these robbers kept popping up in
14:10
Speaker 1: random places with Sharni confronting one of the robbers' brothers
14:14
Speaker 1: at a music festival. The robbers' friends also continued to
14:18
Speaker 1: dob them into Sharni, confirming they used Sharni's car during
14:21
Speaker 1: the robbery to take carloads of her belongings to a
14:24
Speaker 1: house and it had been planned for a very long time.
14:28
Speaker 1: To me, this just confirms that they were scouting out
14:31
Speaker 1: her house through her YouTube videos. And they also knew
14:35
Speaker 1: that it was a good time to strike because they
14:37
Speaker 1: could see on her Instagram that she was away in
14:40
Speaker 1: New Zealand with Jonathan. It's just so messed up that
14:42
Speaker 1: the police couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't just
14:44
Speaker 1: some random robbery. These people were clearly targeting her, as
14:49
Speaker 1: we said, because they were jealous. I mean, imagine if
14:52
Speaker 1: it had escalated further. Well, I think because the role
14:55
Speaker 1: or the job of an influencer was perceived so differently
14:58
Speaker 1: at the time, I don't think that the police took
15:01
Speaker 1: her level of fame seriously enough. And if anything, they
15:04
Speaker 1: probably blamed her for putting that information readily out there.
15:08
Speaker 2: First question is, did you do it to fit into
15:11
Speaker 2: the Kylie Jenner trend?
15:13
Speaker 1: In this series, we've touched on the shiny grim and effect,
15:16
Speaker 1: but what about the Kylie Jenner effect that was simultaneously
15:20
Speaker 1: happening in 2015? At 17 years old, Kylie started setting
15:25
Speaker 1: the beauty standards when she went public with her lip fillers.
15:29
Speaker 1: At the time, she denied getting the procedure done, but
15:32
Speaker 1: after intense public scrutiny and backlash, she was forced to
15:35
Speaker 1: reveal the truth on an episode of Keeping Up With
15:38
Speaker 1: The Kardashians. Now, the day she revealed the news to
15:42
Speaker 1: the world, the number of Google searches for the procedure
15:45
Speaker 1: shot up by 70%. I remember at the time she
15:48
Speaker 1: just kept saying, oh no, I've just been over lining
15:51
Speaker 1: my lips. And it was like, no. Well, it really
15:55
Speaker 1: did spark an obsession with her lips. And she used
15:58
Speaker 1: that to her advantage because she launched her Kylie lip
16:02
Speaker 1: kit six months later. I remember this was at the
16:04
Speaker 1: time Snapchat was just massive. And Kylie would always be
16:09
Speaker 1: posting about the lip kits. Like she was such a genius.
16:12
Speaker 1: It's easy to see why she became a billionaire so
16:15
Speaker 1: quickly because she really utilized social media marketing. Yeah, because
16:20
Speaker 1: she was younger, she really seemed to understand the power
16:23
Speaker 1: of social media more so than her other sisters. Now,
16:27
Speaker 1: two weeks before Kylie admitted to getting lip filler, A
16:30
Speaker 1: trend called the Kylie Jenner lip challenge went viral. Do
16:33
Speaker 1: you remember this? Oh, well, I feel like this was
16:35
Speaker 1: the year of, there was always some kind of challenge
16:39
Speaker 1: style scenario, but I remember the name, but I can't
16:41
Speaker 1: remember what people were actually doing. So basically people tried
16:44
Speaker 1: to emulate her lips by inserting their lips into a
16:48
Speaker 1: shot glass and then sucking the air to create a vacuum.
16:51
Speaker 1: So it created so much pressure that people's lips would
16:55
Speaker 1: temporarily swell. Now Kylie's admission also led to the normalisation
17:00
Speaker 1: of lip fillers with young women heading into clinics in
17:04
Speaker 1: their droves to have the procedure done. A bit of
17:06
Speaker 1: a fun fact, I was working at Channel 7 at
17:08
Speaker 1: the time and I did this investigation into the rise
17:13
Speaker 1: in young women getting lip fillers.
17:15
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:15
Speaker 1: And we did use Kylie Jenner in the story as
17:19
Speaker 1: a key motivator because you've got to remember that in
17:23
Speaker 1: 2017 Kylie It was really new. Like I remember it
17:27
Speaker 1: being quite shocking when Kylie admitted she'd had lip fillers.
17:30
Speaker 1: Now no one cares. Well, Shani Grumman was one of
17:34
Speaker 1: those teenagers who ended up heading in to visit her
17:37
Speaker 1: local injector.
17:39
Speaker 3: Yes, I got my lips done.
17:41
Speaker 2: They are extremely, extremely swollen at the moment, so they're
17:44
Speaker 2: not going to be this big in a few days.
17:45
Speaker 3: Don't worry. People are like freaking out. Oh, my God,
17:48
Speaker 3: what did you do to your lips? Don't worry.
17:50
Speaker 2: The swelling will go down. I would never make my
17:52
Speaker 2: lips look fake. Except right now, because there's nothing I
17:56
Speaker 2: can do about it.
17:57
Speaker 1: It's interesting that Shani is prefacing in this grab that,
18:00
Speaker 1: don't worry, my lips aren't going to look fake. They're
18:03
Speaker 1: going to look natural. Because this really, as you touched on, Amy,
18:06
Speaker 1: was the first time we were openly hearing women speak
18:10
Speaker 1: about the cosmetic procedures they were choosing to get done.
18:12
Speaker 1: Because in the past, there was a lot of shame
18:15
Speaker 1: and secrecy around it. And women in the public eye
18:18
Speaker 1: would often deflect and just have to pretend that they
18:21
Speaker 1: hadn't had anything done. It's also the age factor as well,
18:25
Speaker 1: I think, was surprising hearing someone who's a teenager talking
18:28
Speaker 1: about cosmetic surgery. Yeah, that's very true because it was
18:31
Speaker 1: something that we just sort of thought that older women did. Also,
18:35
Speaker 1: because most teens probably didn't have the money to actually
18:38
Speaker 1: do it. But because of the rise of YouTubers and influencers,
18:43
Speaker 1: I think young women were getting more and more money
18:45
Speaker 1: and they were able to make these decisions for themselves.
18:47
Speaker 1: And that was the real issue because teenagers couldn't afford it. Unfortunately,
18:52
Speaker 1: they were going to places where people weren't experienced in
18:56
Speaker 1: using lip fillers, which ended in a lot of people
18:59
Speaker 1: having their lips overfilled or botched. There was very fierce
19:03
Speaker 1: debate raging at the time whether this openness was a
19:07
Speaker 1: good or bad thing because some people felt it was
19:10
Speaker 1: unethical for influencers to normalize the practice to impressionable teenagers
19:15
Speaker 1: because at the time, many influencers would vlog their procedure
19:19
Speaker 1: in the chair and they'd do Q & As about
19:21
Speaker 1: the experience. And there was this fear that by normalizing
19:24
Speaker 1: a procedure like lip injections, it would create unrealistic beauty
19:29
Speaker 1: standards and cause people to develop an obsession with perceived flaws. Well,
19:34
Speaker 1: on the other hand, there were others who believed that
19:37
Speaker 1: the openness helped break down stigma and also empowered women
19:40
Speaker 1: to make decisions about their body without judgment. And unsurprisingly,
19:45
Speaker 1: shiny was incredibly open about her lip filler journey she
19:49
Speaker 1: wasn't new to the world of cosmetic work because she
19:52
Speaker 1: previously had created a series of youtube videos about getting
19:56
Speaker 1: veneers and she was just so open about her life
19:59
Speaker 1: so this wasn't something that she was going to try
20:02
Speaker 1: and conceal and hide I also think that she was
20:05
Speaker 1: so open about it because as we say at the time,
20:08
Speaker 1: because of Kylie Jenner, there was so much interest in
20:10
Speaker 1: the procedure. And I think she probably knew it was
20:13
Speaker 1: a clever way to get extra views and engagement on
20:16
Speaker 1: her videos. So she did do a sit down Q &
20:18
Speaker 1: A answering followers questions and many were intrigued to find
20:22
Speaker 1: out if the procedure was painful and how much it
20:25
Speaker 1: cost and whether she was happy with the results. She
20:29
Speaker 1: was also asked if she was motivated by Kylie Jenner
20:32
Speaker 1: to get it done. Here's what she said.
20:34
Speaker 2: I would never change the look of my face or
20:37
Speaker 2: body or anything just to fit into a trend. I
20:39
Speaker 2: don't necessarily follow trends. I just do what makes me happy.
20:42
Speaker 2: I know that's so cliche to say, but basically one
20:45
Speaker 2: side of my lip was really big and the other
20:47
Speaker 2: side was really thin. So I just wanted to even
20:49
Speaker 2: it out, give them a natural plump and make them
20:51
Speaker 2: look naturally juicy.
20:54
Speaker 1: I feel for Shani because after watching a lot of
20:56
Speaker 1: her early vlogs back, it's clear that she received a
20:59
Speaker 1: lot of hate comments about the size of her lips.
21:02
Speaker 1: And it would be really hard not to be impacted
21:04
Speaker 1: by those comments and feel like you had to change yourself,
21:08
Speaker 1: particularly when you're being built up as this it girl
21:11
Speaker 1: of YouTube. And you have to live up to these
21:14
Speaker 1: very high beauty standards that are coming out because it
21:16
Speaker 1: was the it thing to have full lips.
21:19
Speaker 4: Yeah.
21:19
Speaker 1: And that's the funny thing that there'll be all these
21:21
Speaker 1: people online that will hate on an influencer for the
21:24
Speaker 1: way that they look. And then when they go and
21:26
Speaker 1: change something about themselves, it'll be like, oh my God,
21:29
Speaker 1: they used to look so much better before. They really
21:31
Speaker 1: can't win sometimes. Well, a couple of other burning questions
21:34
Speaker 1: that she received were about whether it felt different for
21:37
Speaker 1: her to kiss and what Jonathan thought of them. And
21:41
Speaker 1: she tactfully explained that Jonathan didn't really have an opinion
21:44
Speaker 1: because he didn't know what to expect. But she did
21:47
Speaker 1: admit that when she got home and she was all
21:49
Speaker 1: swollen from the procedure, she His first reaction was, holy shit,
21:53
Speaker 1: what have you done? But she prefaced that he really
21:56
Speaker 1: likes them now. It's really interesting to watch the Q &
21:59
Speaker 1: A back with hindsight because at the time she was
22:03
Speaker 1: quite adamant that she wanted to keep her lips looking
22:05
Speaker 1: very natural and she talked glowingly about her injector. However,
22:10
Speaker 1: as the years went on, Shani suffered quite badly with
22:14
Speaker 1: filler migration and she ended up having to get them
22:16
Speaker 1: dissolved and subsequently filled again by a new injector who
22:20
Speaker 1: she trusted. So she explained that in her teenage years,
22:24
Speaker 1: she would visit random injectors, which she regretted and advised
22:27
Speaker 1: others not to do. Now, shortly after going public with
22:31
Speaker 1: her lip filler, Sharni was rocked by her first controversy.
22:35
Speaker 1: So before heading to a festival, Sharni uploaded a Snapchat
22:38
Speaker 1: story of her brother and an acquaintance playing with Nerf guns,
22:42
Speaker 1: which sounds pretty innocent. The only catch was in the
22:46
Speaker 1: background of the shot was a Nazi flag hanging on
22:49
Speaker 1: the wall. Now, the backlash was swift with followers accusing
22:54
Speaker 1: Sharni of being racist and calling for her to be cancelled. Now,
22:58
Speaker 1: I don't think the word cancelled was actually used at
23:02
Speaker 1: the time, but this post did deeply affect a section
23:06
Speaker 1: of Sharni's followers and there was a lot of anger
23:09
Speaker 1: and feeling like she shouldn't be able to continue sharing
23:12
Speaker 1: YouTube videos. She was on the front foot though. She
23:15
Speaker 1: released a YouTube video entitled, the truth behind the rumors
23:19
Speaker 1: so she could explain her side of the story. So
23:22
Speaker 1: she started the video saying this.
23:24
Speaker 2: So firstly, I just want to say I would never
23:27
Speaker 2: support or have any sort of association with any group
23:30
Speaker 2: like the Nazi. I am not racist in any way,
23:33
Speaker 2: shape or form. I do not discriminate against any nationality
23:36
Speaker 2: or race. I'm not that kind of person.
23:40
Speaker 1: She went on to explain that she was at a
23:42
Speaker 1: friend of a friend's apartment and they went there to
23:45
Speaker 1: hang out before the festival. She confirmed that she was
23:48
Speaker 1: only there for 10 minutes, and in that time, Snapchatted
23:51
Speaker 1: her brother and friend playing with the Nerf guns. She
23:54
Speaker 1: explained that when she uses Snapchat, she doesn't look back
23:56
Speaker 1: at the videos, she just posts in real time. Anyway,
24:01
Speaker 1: Shani says that they then ended up leaving the apartment
24:04
Speaker 1: to go to the festival, and two hours later, her
24:06
Speaker 1: brother texts her saying, there's a Nazi flag in your background.
24:11
Speaker 1: Shani immediately removed the post and explained that she never
24:14
Speaker 1: intentionally posted the flag. In fact, she had no idea
24:17
Speaker 1: it was even in the background. And it was quite
24:20
Speaker 1: clear listening to the video that Sharni didn't have much
24:23
Speaker 1: knowledge of the flag's meaning.
24:26
Speaker 3: At the point, I.
24:27
Speaker 2: Didn't 100% know the meaning of this flag. I did
24:29
Speaker 2: know that it was not a good flag, obviously, but
24:32
Speaker 2: I do know the meaning now. But I still feel
24:34
Speaker 2: like that the fact that I didn't know the true 100%
24:38
Speaker 2: meaning behind this flag isn't really necessary to the reason
24:41
Speaker 2: why it was up. I just genuinely did not see
24:42
Speaker 2: the flag.
24:44
Speaker 1: She confirmed that she had since educated herself on its
24:47
Speaker 1: meaning and was very apologetic to the followers she had upset.
24:50
Speaker 1: She also reiterated that she had nothing to do with
24:53
Speaker 1: the person who hung the flag and had no idea
24:56
Speaker 1: why it was up in the person's house and that
24:59
Speaker 1: she's not friends with this particular person. Shani got really
25:02
Speaker 1: teary in this video and it was clear that she
25:04
Speaker 1: was very apologetic. She sounded very genuine. And to me,
25:09
Speaker 1: this is a teenage girl who made a mistake. I
25:12
Speaker 1: believe what she said in this video. I think that
25:14
Speaker 1: she had no idea the flag was there and clearly
25:17
Speaker 1: wasn't aware of the flag's history. It is interesting to
25:21
Speaker 1: take a look at this video from a PR perspective
25:24
Speaker 1: because in 2024, we're so used to seeing influencer apology videos,
25:29
Speaker 1: but this was one of the first of its kind
25:31
Speaker 1: in 2015. I think she handled herself really well because
25:35
Speaker 1: she didn't try and shy away from the controversy. She
25:38
Speaker 1: tackled it head on and She acknowledged where she went
25:41
Speaker 1: wrong and that she'd educated herself and apologised. And this
25:45
Speaker 1: is why this incident really didn't affect her sponsorship deals
25:48
Speaker 1: going forward, because it was clearly a case of her
25:51
Speaker 1: being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now,
25:54
Speaker 1: Sharni's newfound fame led to a lot of jealousy within
25:58
Speaker 1: her school friendship group. And this bubbled over on a
26:01
Speaker 1: trip to Splendour when she discovered she was being mocked
26:04
Speaker 1: on Snapchat.
26:06
Speaker 3: So basically what happened is.
26:08
Speaker 2: Something really bad, made me feel like shit, so I
26:10
Speaker 2: ended up going home really early, um, so someone that
26:14
Speaker 2: I was really, really, really close friends with, um, put
26:17
Speaker 2: up Snapchats of her friend, um, mocking me, so like,
26:20
Speaker 2: hey guys, welcome back to my channel, like, I'm YouTube famous, um,
26:24
Speaker 2: here's my coupon code for the bus, because I'm getting
26:26
Speaker 2: a bus to Splendor, and just being the biggest arsehole,
26:29
Speaker 2: and this person that I was really close friends with was, like,
26:31
Speaker 2: laughing at her and everything, um, like, condoning her, like,
26:34
Speaker 2: putting it on her own Snapchat, and it made me
26:36
Speaker 2: so angry, because I don't think you should be friends
26:39
Speaker 2: with people that make you feel like shit about yourself
26:41
Speaker 2: or about what you do. I was just like so
26:44
Speaker 2: shocked and like, I know I just couldn't get my
26:47
Speaker 2: mood back up again, but that's done.
26:50
Speaker 3: I don't have time for that in my life anymore.
26:53
Speaker 1: It's clear that this reaction stemmed from jealousy. Shani was
26:57
Speaker 1: being offered so many amazing opportunities and also being gifted
27:01
Speaker 1: free products. And this whole influencing thing was a completely
27:04
Speaker 1: new phenomenon. So I can kind of see both sides.
27:08
Speaker 1: I can see why her friends probably had their noses
27:10
Speaker 1: out of joint. And I can see also why it
27:12
Speaker 1: would have been incredibly difficult for Shani to navigate this
27:15
Speaker 1: newfound fame on her own. Well, at that stage as well,
27:18
Speaker 1: it was probably seen as being a bit embarrassing talking
27:21
Speaker 1: to a camera in public. I mean, I still think
27:23
Speaker 1: that there is a lot of judgment. It depends where
27:25
Speaker 1: you are in the world. Like if you're in the
27:27
Speaker 1: US filming, I think, or even in Sydney, no one
27:30
Speaker 1: really cares what you're doing. But if you were to
27:31
Speaker 1: walk down the street in Adelaide, I feel like you'd
27:34
Speaker 1: get a similar reaction. Yeah, it is no surprise that
27:38
Speaker 1: at 19, Sharni started befriending fellow YouTubers who were going
27:42
Speaker 1: through the same experiences as her because clearly her friends
27:46
Speaker 1: weren't able to relate to what was going on. This
27:49
Speaker 1: is where Michael Finch entered the scene. So Sharni and Michael,
27:53
Speaker 1: they were such an unbeatable duo. They instantly had this
27:57
Speaker 1: chemistry when they'd filmed together. So they sparked up a
28:01
Speaker 1: friendship online. And it's pretty cute because they both used
28:04
Speaker 1: to watch each other's YouTube videos and they started messaging
28:08
Speaker 1: each other from there. And at the time, Michael was
28:11
Speaker 1: living in regional Victoria and Sharni was in Brisbane. And
28:15
Speaker 1: they met in person for the first time when Sharni
28:17
Speaker 1: was visiting Melbourne. So Michael ended up doing her makeup
28:21
Speaker 1: and they ended up going out clubbing together and really
28:24
Speaker 1: hit it off. Funnily enough, this is also the night
28:27
Speaker 1: that Sharni and Michael met Lily Brown. So shortly after,
28:31
Speaker 1: Michael visited Sharni in Brisbane for a sleepover. And a
28:34
Speaker 1: bit of a fun fact, the first video of Sharni
28:37
Speaker 1: on Michael's channel is from this sleepover. And it was
28:40
Speaker 1: only the second time they had met. And you couldn't
28:43
Speaker 1: tell because they had this instant chemistry on camera. And
28:47
Speaker 1: it was like they'd known each other their whole lives.
28:49
Speaker 1: They razzed each other up and they were playfully rude
28:52
Speaker 1: to one another. Yeah, Michael literally at one stage burped
28:55
Speaker 1: in Sharni's face and he also dropped that Sharni had
28:57
Speaker 1: been farting around him for the entire stay. So it's
29:01
Speaker 1: clear that they were comfortable around each other from day dot.
29:05
Speaker 1: And it wasn't long before Michael moved to Brisbane to
29:08
Speaker 1: be closer to Sharni and his other YouTube friends. And
29:11
Speaker 1: by this stage, they had formed a formidable influencer clique.
29:15
Speaker 1: teenagers were absolutely obsessed with this friendship group, which consisted
29:19
Speaker 1: of Lily Brown, Rani Bransby, Sky Wheatley, and of course,
29:23
Speaker 1: Michael and Sharni. And at the time, Sharni and Michael's
29:27
Speaker 1: growth was enormous. So people saw it as almost opportunistic
29:31
Speaker 1: for Lily, Sky, and Rani to be in their videos.
29:35
Speaker 1: It kind of grew their following instantaneously. And it was
29:40
Speaker 1: at a time when beauty influencers could really make or
29:42
Speaker 1: break brands and brands were paying out enormous paychecks for
29:47
Speaker 1: their endorsements. It's crazy to think that the biggest brands
29:50
Speaker 1: at the time were Anastasia Beverly Hills and Morphe. It
29:54
Speaker 1: was the days when everyone was using Tarte shaped tape
29:57
Speaker 1: and Becca highlighter. And Because there was so much money
30:01
Speaker 1: to be made, some followers did speculate on the genuineness
30:05
Speaker 1: of this friendship and whether these three girls were in
30:08
Speaker 1: fact using Michael and Sharni to grow their careers. Now,
30:11
Speaker 1: earlier in this episode, we touched on Sharni's catchphrase, Bindi,
30:15
Speaker 1: and it really was Michael who made the catchphrase what
30:19
Speaker 1: it was. He was obsessed with Sharni's little dog. Let's
30:23
Speaker 1: throw to some of their most iconic catchphrases.
30:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:27
Speaker 3: Get in there, Bindi.
30:28
Speaker 5: Way back in the butler, you know what I'm saying?
30:31
Speaker 3: Are you fucking serious?
30:33
Speaker 2: That's a problem that cannot be fixed, you know?
30:35
Speaker 3: Like, I can't stop.
30:38
Speaker 1: These catchphrases were so big, the beginning boutique jumped on
30:42
Speaker 1: the opportunity and they offered Sharni and Michael a collaboration,
30:46
Speaker 1: which would see their catchphrases emblazoned on merchandise. So there
30:50
Speaker 1: were shirts that said, thank you, not a problem, and
30:53
Speaker 1: see ya, And Shani originally had her own label, SG
30:57
Speaker 1: the Label, but she then rebranded when she and Michael
31:00
Speaker 1: started making their joint merchandise. I actually have a pair
31:04
Speaker 1: of socks. I don't actually think they were from Beginning Boutique.
31:07
Speaker 1: I think Michael also released his own merch just by
31:10
Speaker 1: himself that say Q. What if they'd be worth anything now?
31:13
Speaker 1: I doubt it. But one thing that I really loved
31:17
Speaker 1: about Shani and Michael was that they had such a
31:19
Speaker 1: wholesome friendship. They traveled quite a lot together and it
31:23
Speaker 1: wasn't just for brand trips. They actually genuinely enjoyed traveling
31:27
Speaker 1: the world together. And one of my ultimate favorite YouTube
31:30
Speaker 1: videos to this day is Shani and Michael in Bali.
31:34
Speaker 1: And it was the first time that Michael had ever
31:37
Speaker 1: traveled overseas. And you can tell he is just so
31:40
Speaker 1: young in this video because he knew nothing about Bali
31:44
Speaker 1: or the rest of the world. And Shani kept quizzing
31:47
Speaker 1: him on what Bali belly was. And he was very confused.
31:50
Speaker 1: about whether you could get barley belly from the water
31:54
Speaker 1: from the tap or whether it was the water in
31:56
Speaker 1: the pool or the water in the ocean. We need
31:58
Speaker 1: to remember that Michael Finch was a boy from country
32:01
Speaker 1: Victoria as well. And he also dropped out of school
32:04
Speaker 1: very early. Now, Shani really highlighted Michael's lack of understanding
32:08
Speaker 1: when it came to geography in this clip.
32:11
Speaker 5: Michael literally just asked the best question you know how
32:14
Speaker 5: he's like really good with geography and all of that
32:16
Speaker 5: good stuff he's like don't film this but can I
32:18
Speaker 5: ask you a question he said are we like still
32:21
Speaker 5: in the world like that little blue ball are we
32:25
Speaker 5: like there and I'm like well yeah Bali is in
32:31
Speaker 5: earth so there you go you learn something new every
32:35
Speaker 5: day don't you.
32:37
Speaker 2: I just thought, no, honest to God, I honestly thought, like,
32:40
Speaker 2: it was just another island.
32:41
Speaker 3: Well, we are on another island, but still... Yeah, but, like,
32:43
Speaker 3: did we leave the blue ball?
32:46
Speaker 4: Obviously not.
32:47
Speaker 3: No, because only humans live on Earth. They don't live
32:50
Speaker 3: in any other planets.
32:52
Speaker 2: Maybe, like, aliens.
32:53
Speaker 4: This is why I don't fly anywhere, because it just
32:54
Speaker 4: confuses me, and I literally.
32:56
Speaker 3: Still don't... No, but this is how you learn. You fly.
32:58
Speaker 4: I still don't know where I am.
33:00
Speaker 2: We're in a country near Australia. But we're on an island. Well,
33:05
Speaker 2: same thing.
33:09
Speaker 1: This is iconic. I love this so much. Like, it
33:12
Speaker 1: never gets old. He comes across as someone that you
33:15
Speaker 1: would just love to travel with. I mean, maybe someone
33:17
Speaker 1: that you would have to kind of help along the way, though. Yeah,
33:20
Speaker 1: I feel like you'd want him in a group situation. Like,
33:22
Speaker 1: you definitely want to travel with him, Sharni, and maybe
33:25
Speaker 1: another person. Maybe not Sky. Oh, as in that US
33:29
Speaker 1: trip they went on looked pretty horrendous because they were
33:32
Speaker 1: all competing to be heard. Now, while Sharni's friendships were flourishing...
33:37
Speaker 1: The same couldn't be said about her relationship with Jonathan.
33:41
Speaker 1: And while they look like the definition of couple goals online,
33:44
Speaker 1: behind closed doors, it was a very different story. So
33:48
Speaker 1: Sharni broke the internet in 2018 when she posted a
33:51
Speaker 1: YouTube video entitled, We Broke Up. This is where we'll
33:55
Speaker 1: leave you for today's episode. In next week's final installment,
33:59
Speaker 1: we explore the chaos that erupted when Sharni pulled the
34:02
Speaker 1: pin on her three-year relationship with Jonathan Sauer. We also
34:06
Speaker 1: discussed the demise of the hottest influencer, Click, Sharni's move
34:10
Speaker 1: to Melbourne for footballer Tommy Bug, and her entrance into
34:14
Speaker 1: the business world. If you did enjoy today's episode, we
34:17
Speaker 1: would love if you could leave us a five-star review
34:20
Speaker 1: as it really does help the podcast out. Also, if
34:23
Speaker 1: you'd like to follow Outspoken on Instagram and TikTok, we're
34:26
Speaker 1: at Outspoken underscore the underscore podcast. You can also follow Kate,
34:30
Speaker 1: Sophie and I on Instagram. This episode was recorded on
34:34
Speaker 1: the traditional land of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains.
34:37
Speaker 1: We pay respect to elders past and present.