Your TikTok video went viral, and has been watched by over 1.5 million people to date. What's it been like going viral? And have you had positive responses?
It was overwhelming. But in the best, the best way. Because when the show first came out, I tried telling people what it was like, and back then nobody wanted to hear it. They wanted to believe that everything they saw on the show was real.
And so they would be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay." And so, all of that pain that I experienced was dismissed back then. And so it was just something I carried with me. And, I didn't use my last name on social media, and a big part of that was because I wanted to distance myself from that. I didn't want people knowing that I was that girl on the show, and because I felt so humiliated and ashamed of the way that they portrayed me and my family.
And so when I shared the story and it went viral, I was very shocked because I did not expect it. And then reading the positive responses, and the people saying, "Thank you for sharing your story. That was wrong." It felt very, almost healing. Because it was something that I have always, since it filmed in 2009 and it aired in 2010. Since then, it has just been this shameful thing that happened to me that I couldn't talk about, and I couldn't share. And sharing it and hearing people say, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. That never should have happened." It just felt so good, and yeah, healing is the best way that I can put it.
What were some of the strangest questions you got asked?
Oh, okay. This one is my personal favorite is, "Were you the mom on the show?" "No." That was a weird one. I did have some people, just a couple of them, be like ... It wasn't so much a question, it was just like, "Nobody cares about you. Shut up." And I was like, "Okay, well I'm not going to sit down and shut up anymore. But, okay." So I think the mom on the show was one, and questions along that line. A lot of people asked, it's not a strange question, but most people just ask what episode it was. I think that's pretty much it. It's pretty much the same questions they ask. Like, "Are you close to the other family?" Which no, but it's just because it was a really horrible experience. And it's hard to stay in touch with someone that just reminds you of everything that you guys endured. So yeah. I think just the weirdest one was, "Were you the mom?" ... They didn't connect the dots there.
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