Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Leo Skepi apology, Sarah Joy exposed as fake Amish & Dbrand tweets racist remark to customer

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MINI SCROLL: Leo Skepi apology, Sarah Joy exposed as fake Amish & Dbrand tweets racist remark to customer · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday, I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  All right, Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  I have three big stories for you guys today.
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  Today is a day filled with tea, so let's get right into it.
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  The first story is that Leo Skeppi has apologized for making
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  fat phobic remarks after a wave of backlash.
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  So Leo is a TikTok creator and a podcast host who makes lifestyle
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  advice content. He also provides mentoring
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  services and his platform is really based on this kind of
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  manosphere, growth mindset, red flag.
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  The most common criticism against Leo is that he seems to
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  have a real penchant for violence, and this was
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  particularly highlighted when he went quite viral back in October
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  when he revealed on his podcast that he actually had a murder
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  suicide plan against quote every single person who has ever
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  fucking hurt me. When he was at rock bottom in
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  his life, people felt quite conflicted about him sharing
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  something like this. Because on one hand, talking
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  about men's mental health is really, really important, but on
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  the other hand, you know, mass shootings are so frequent and
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  prevalent in the US, so it was a very divisive thing for him to
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  say. But the controversy around Leo
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  has really come to a head this week.
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  So on Monday, he posted a video arguing that people should not
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  be upset if brands don't carry their size clothing.
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  He said, quote, brands are allowed to want a certain image
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  and look with their product. They are allowed to make things
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  for people they want to make them for.
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  Now, a big part of Leo's content is sharing how he went from
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  overweight to really in shape. And he seemed, I guess in this
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  case, to think that that gave him the authority to speak on
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  this. Now, I was actually introduced
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  to this situation via Drew Afwalo.
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  So a video by her addressing the situation came up on my For You
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  page. But she didn't name Leo
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  specifically and she didn't really say what the video was
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  about that she was referring to. So I kind of just scrolled past
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  and I was like, OK, this sounds like it could be something, but
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  I'm kind of confused about what's going on here.
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  Basically, the backlash against Leo was getting really intense
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  and Drew was being tagged a lot in his comments, basically
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  asking her to call him out. And this is for a few reasons.
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  Obviously the first reason is that Drew calls problematic men
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  out all the time on her platform.
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  That is a huge part of what she does on Tiktok.
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  And also she has spoken very openly about fat phobia and body
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  inclusivity. And the final reason is that
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  Drew has actually had Leo on her podcast before.
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  So Drew did respond. She made a video and basically
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  said, you know my stance on fat phobia and body inclusivity.
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  So stop asking me my opinion on Leo's video.
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  Obviously I don't support what he said.
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  Like I said, she didn't name him, but that's basically what
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  she said. I'll link her video down below,
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  but the real reason why I wanted to mention Drew in this
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  particular instance is because I think we really need to stop
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  asking women to hold men accountable for their own
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  actions and their own words. Obviously, Drew has discussed
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  Fat Phobia numerous times online, so she's not going to be
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  OK with Leo's comments just because she had him on her
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  podcast once. And then other creators who
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  spoke out about Leo and who were consistently being tagged in
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  this video were Tess Holiday, Finita Leggett, and Trisha
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  Paytas. So Fenita also responded because
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  prior to Leo's video, she made her own video talking about how
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  a lot of brands make ugly plus size clothes that people don't
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  want to buy. She said this enforces the
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  belief that plus size clothes don't sell as well as other
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  sizes, and therefore that often informs a brand's decision about
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  their size range. So based on what I could find on
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  Reddit, it seems that Leo and Fenita used to be friends, but
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  they seemingly had some sort of falling out.
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  So a lot of people thought that, you know, Leo's the video was
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  kind of like a shady response to Finita's video.
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  So she was tagged in this video lot and she made her own
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  response. And she addressed what I just
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  mentioned here, which is, you know, people are asking her and
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  Drew to like pay for Leo's sins, pay for Leo's words by asking
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  them to speak up and condemn what he said as if they don't
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  already speak out about those topics.
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  And we, as the audience, wouldn't already know where they
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  stand on that. So Leo has removed his original
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  video, and yesterday he posted an apology to TikTok.
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  He said. I've got some shit to own up to.
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  I deleted the video because it did the opposite of what I
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  wanted it to do. It made a lot of people feel
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  unsafe and that's the last thing I wanted, he says.
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  He recognizes how the comments he made could be interpreted as
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  hurtful quote instead of saying sorry because those are just
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  words and they don't do anything for anybody.
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  I'm going to give you my word that I'm going to do any work
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  necessary to make sure that you always know and feel that I'm
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  looking out for you and I'm here to protect you.
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  OK, sure. The next story that I have for
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  you guys is such a bizarre one. This one has been happening over
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  the last few weeks and it's really kind of come to a
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  conclusion now. I only just got introduced to it
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  yesterday, so I've put together a timeline.
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  I've done some digging, but it is a fairly recent story.
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  So TikTok creator Sarah Joy has allegedly been faking being
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  Amish to gain a TikTok following.
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  So Sarah Joy is a creator with over 600,000 followers who
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  documents her life as an Amish woman.
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  Her handle is at that plane. Girl Like PLAIN So Plane is a
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  term to describe people from the Amish, Mennonite, and other
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  communities in that same sphere. Sarah launched her TikTok
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  account in 2023, where she documented her experience
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  working at a plane store. So a plane store is like a
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  general store that is owned by Mennonite or Amish community,
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  and in her early videos she said that she converted to Amish in
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  2018. She would also post about how
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  she wasn't supposed to be on TikTok and she sometimes
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  referenced I guess the problematic sides of being Amish
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  and kind of would occasionally talk about how she didn't like
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  being Amish or she struggled with being Amish.
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  On March 26th, Sarah uploaded a video saying it would be her
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  last video that she would make while part of the community.
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  Her body language in this video was really tense and her voice
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  was quite shaky and she almost sounded like she was about to
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  cry. So people are very concerned
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  about her to the point that some mainstream outlets actually
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  covered this particular video and the fact that people were
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  calling on like the wider community to a Wellness check on
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  her. People essentially thought that
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  someone had snitched on her to the Amish community, that she
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  was making this Tiktok content and you know she was kind of in
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  danger because the community found out.
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  A day later, a user named Kenzie Wren stitched Sarah's kind of
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  bizarre video and said she grew up with Sarah and claimed that
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  Sarah was lying about being Amish on TikTok.
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  Kenzie said that she met Sarah and her sister Anna at church
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  and they were kind of weird because they were homeschooled.
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  She said that Sarah has a lot of mental health issues and Kenzie
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  has seen Sarah go through many different phases in her life.
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  And one of the blatant lies that Kenzie called out in this video
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  was that on Sarah's TikTok. She claims that Anna is her
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  friend, but Kenzie was like, no, Anna is Sarah's sister.
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  After this, Internet users began digging up tons of evidence that
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  proved that Sarah was not Amish, and they also found posts from
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  her sister Anna saying that she doesn't want to be involved in
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  whatever Sarah is doing on Tiktok.
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  So after this video, Sarah removed most of her posts from
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  Tiktok, and then she posted a response to Hannah.
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  Sarah claimed that the last time she saw Hannah, she had already
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  become part of the Amish community, and Hannah knew that
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  she doubled down, that she converted and was not born
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  Amish. So obviously the content that
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  people are digging up and the stuff that Hannah was posting
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  about her before 2018, like she wasn't Amish back then.
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  So yeah, she was wearing makeup and she was wearing regular
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  clothes and kind of doing her regular things.
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  She also insisted she is not in danger, but that she needs to
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  stay off TikTok to keep her place in the community.
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  The next day, Sarah's account was deleted.
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  So you know, people kind of thought, OK, maybe this is the
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  end. However, then Sarah's first
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  TikTok account that had tons of videos from 2022, so years after
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  she allegedly converted, was discovered where she was posting
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  in regular clothing, she was wearing makeup and she was
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  posting with her boyfriend again.
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  She said she converted in 2018, and since then more recent
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  photos and evidence have been dug up by Internet sleuths just
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  proving that Sarah has been, you know, living essentially a
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  regular life since 2018. So again, her sister Anna has
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  been liking comments on TikTok saying like, don't get involved.
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  She's posted some comments here and there that have led people
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  to believe she doesn't really support what Sarah's doing on
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  TikTok. And then on April 7th, she
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  uploaded an Instagram story, You know those stories where they
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  have like a sticker and it's like post your March highlights
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  or whatever and there's like a million posts that everybody's
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  doing it. So she did that trend where she
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  posted like a photo dump of March, like the best parts of
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  March. And in it, you can see Sarah at
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  the mall with her and regular clothing wearing makeup from
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  March. So the Rolling Stone then went
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  to investigate the situation and they interviewed two people who
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  grew up with Sarah, who confirmed that as far as they
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  knew, she had not converted. One told Rolling Stone that
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  Sarah has a history of fabrication, and when she was
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  younger she would claim to have Tourette's Syndrome despite not
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  actually having it. However, what Rolling Stone also
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  found out is that Sarah actually does work at a plane store.
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  So it seems like when she started her TikTok account
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  documenting herself working there, it took off and she
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  probably started to lean into the idea that she was Amish or
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  Mennonite because she was getting a lot of followers and a
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  lot of views. Now more friends of Sarah's have
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  made videos saying that Sarah is not part of the Amish community.
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  One of them posted a series of photos with her on TikTok and
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  wrote Sarah Joy was my best friend for years and I'm only
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  saying this for her safety. She is not part of the
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  community. She grew up in a strict
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  Christian home, lives normal life with people and work, and
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  chooses when she wants to act like she is Amish or Mennonite.
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  She is in no danger and there's no need to worry she is safe.
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  So we haven't heard from Sarah since all of this happened.
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  It all happened like at the beginning, basically end of
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  March, beginning of April. That's the last of it.
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  I think this is a really wild story, but there should have
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  been a million red flags from the start.
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  Like, you literally cannot have. I don't even think you can have
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  a cell phone. Like you can't even drive in a
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  car if you're Amish or Mennonite.
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  The fact that she would joke around like, oh, I'm not
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  supposed to be on TikTok, well, I don't even think you're
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  supposed to have technology. I don't know.
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  I could be wrong, but yeah, I think there was a lot of red
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  flags from the start. And what it seems like has upset
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  people the most is a lot of people have said like, oh, you
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  know, I kind of figured she wasn't really Amish or Mennonite
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  or whatever. But the fact that she then
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  pretended she was in danger and then tried to go back on it when
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  people genuinely were calling for Wellness checks on her, you
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  know, that was what was kind of unforgivable for most people.
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  So yes, that is the story of Sarah Joy, the woman who was
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  faking being Amish on TikTok. All right.
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  And the last story I have for you guys is a little like
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  unhinged brand news. OK, so D Brand has offered a
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  consumer $10,000 after tweeting a racist comment about their
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  last name tech accessories brand.
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  D Brand is known for its snarky and sarcastic brand tone on
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  social media. However, the brand took it way
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  too far this week when they made a racist remark about their
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  customer's last name on Twitter. A customer on Twitter named Buan
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  Chit Ranch. I'm sorry, I absolutely
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  butchered that, tweeted AD Brand regarding their MacBook skin
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  showing dirt after a couple months of use.
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  D Brand's automated bot customer service replied and offered a
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  very real response about how to keep it clean.
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  But then just 7 minutes later, whoever runs their social media
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  quote tweeted the complaint and wrote Your last name is
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  basically shit rash. Be serious.
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  The brand obviously received a ton of backlash in the comments,
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  but they continued to double down and defend their quote, UN
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  quote joke about his last name. They even referenced a time in
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  2020 when they sent a customer shit in the mail like an actual
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  bag of poop and compared it to Twitter's response about this
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  now. Basically insinuating that
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  people are more upset now about the racist remark that they made
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  against this person's last name than they were in 2020 when the
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  company actually sent somebody literal shit.
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  And 24 hours later now the brand has, quote, UN quote,
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  apologized. So they tweeted.
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  Well that escalated quickly. One yes, we made fun of a guy's
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  name. It was a huge fumble. 2 We
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  apologized to him directly and offered him $10,000 as a gesture
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  of goodwill. And three, we've been poking fun
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  at customers on social media for over a decade now.
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  We're not going to stop, but maybe next time you'll be the
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  one who gets $10,000. What?
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  OK, this is such a non apology. And nowhere in that apology or
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  tweet do they mention like they're like, yeah, it was a
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  fumble, a huge fumble that we made fun of his last name.
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  I mean it was literally like a a racist.
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  I don't even know if it could be considered a microaggression,
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  like it was a racist comment. It was a racist quote, UN quote
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  joke that you were trying to make.
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  This is just another nail in the coffin for me with brands trying
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  to have personalities. Just stop it.
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  We're past that. We have seen so many of these
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  instances now where it goes way too far, having a brand identity
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  that is tied to being snarky or funny or personified.
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  It never ends well for anyone involved.
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  And it's also so dated. Like, we're past this.
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  We are past this. This is so millennial and now
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  it's veering into like seriously problematic territory.
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  This has happened too much. Let's get rid of it.
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  We're done. But anyways, guys, that is it
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  for Mini Scroll for the week. Thank you guys so much for
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  listening. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. It helps me so much.
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  I love you guys. I will be back tomorrow with a
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  deep dive for the Friday deep dive and then I will talk to you
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  guys on Mini Scroll next week. Bye.