Olympia Anley has been showing up all over my TikTok FYP this past week. The 20-year-old TikTok influencer recently posted a video that reached 1.7 million views. Anley, however, is not trending for the right reasons. Instead, the influencer faces backlash and accusations of being tone-deaf to the cost of living crisis.
Who is Olympia Anley
The Bristol University student has 300,000 followers and shares videos showcasing her privileged lifestyle. Her videos are exactly what you would expect: luxurious ski trips, extravagant holidays, and a mansion big enough to home the whole of Bristol University.
If you’ve seen any of her videos, you’ve also seen her mansion. If you’ve seen her Easter dinner TikTok, you’ve also seen her kitchen, which is about the size of my whole Uni house. Her privileged background is not doubted between this and the endless number of trips and holidays.
Her account focuses on lifestyle. Her content revolves around what TikTok calls being ‘That Girl.’ If you’re not familiar, ‘That Girl’ is the one who has her life together, eats healthily, exercises regularly, and does everything for the ‘aesthetic.’
Her usual videos, while a little on the ‘braggy’ side, are nothing unusual. This changed recently when she released a video commenting on someone else’s food shop.
What is she being canceled for?
Anley faces massive criticism across the platform for her tone-deaf commentary on a stranger’s food shop. In a one-minute, 21-second video, Anley criticizes a food shop while sipping her lemon ice water.
Despite beginning her video with the declaration that “I don’t want to offend anyone with this video,” she goes on to offend a lot of offensive things.
Anley explains that something which she’s “quite snobby about and which I’m not proud of our people’s food shops.” Anley makes an insightful remark, “We live in a society that has normalized and encourages treating the symptom and not the cause.” This insightfulness, however, is quickly diminished.
Commenting on this person’s food shop, Anley tells us it had “all of this junk food: white bread, crisps, Pot Noodles – all that kind of stuff.” I personally am not seeing the problem here…
According to Anley, this food shop was also piled high with painkillers which really spoke to Anley about “how we don’t pay attention to what we’re putting in our bodies enough, and then we numb it with drugs so we can’t feel what’s going on inside.”
The video reached 1.7 million views, with many viewers condemning her in the comments as ‘out of touch.’ It has since been removed.
Why has Anley’s TikTok upset so many people?
Anley has faced massive backlash over the video, with users like @katsaves telling Trill Mag that Anley was “extremely out of touch.”
Many TikTok creators are stitching the video either with parodies or outraged commentaries.
According to user @ffiffikitt, Anley is “very ignorant.” She does not understand what lower-income families go through. @ffiffikitt told us that Anley is “unaware of her privilege that’s allowed her always to eat what is best for her, and not what’s affordable.”
@rebxtat created a video in reply to a comment by Olympia Anley stating that she “never commented on poverty; I think it sad that there are financial barriers to nutrition.” In their video, Reb McComb explained why so many people are calling Anley “tone deaf.”
McComb explains, “You are privileged to eat in a way that can nourish your body. Most people don’t have the money to be able to look at a food label and be like, ‘Hmm is this going to give me all the micronutrients that I need?’. Most people are picking up what they can, thinking, ‘Oh god, I hope this is enough food to last me.’”
For McComb, “The whole situation screams ‘I have never suffered financial misfortune in my life.’”
There is nothing unreasonable about encouraging a healthy lifestyle. But Anley’s comments come simultaneously as a quarter of students being forced to skip meals to save money because of the cost of living crisis. While Anley may not have intended to offend, there is no denying she has. The ignorance with which Anley addressed the whole situation is what most people find most hurtful.
Has Anley apologized?
Anley is yet to address the video or apologize. A screenshot on TikTok shows Anley replying to a fan who asked if she would apologize. Anley supposedly replies, saying she is working on it but hasn’t ‘had time yet.’
@kyriahlouisex posted this screenshot five days ago, and there is no apology video.
Instead of taking accountability, Anley has deleted her whole account. Hopefully, when she returns, we will see an influencer who has born accountability for her actions and has educated herself on other people’s lives. Maybe she could even volunteer at a food bank!
