Even ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Star Lexi Rabe, 7, Couldn’t Escape the Worst Part of Celebrity Life
Seven-year-old Lexi Rabe won the hearts of Avengers: Endgame fans when she lisped, “I love you 3,000.”
The saying was how her character, Morgan, and her father, Tony Stark, expressed their love to each other. But while most people thought she was adorable, not everyone seemed to feel the same way about the tiny actress.
Even at her young age, Rabe has been the subject of online bullying — and she’s not even the youngest person to be a target.
A fan was offended
According to Deadline, the trouble started for Rabe when a fan approached her and her family at a mall in Los Angeles. When he wasn’t allowed to talk to her, he got angry, so he took his complaints to social media.
Apparently his attack on the child wasn’t the first one she’d experienced, because Rabe’s mom Jessica decided she’d had enough. She posted a plea on Instagram, asking bullies to back off.
The post had a video from the little star, talking about the fact that she’s just a kid and that her parents. Her mom added a caption, outlining her feelings about the situation, saying:
“Yet again Lexi’s getting bullied. And this kind of thing makes it celebrities never want to leave the house never want to meet people. Please keep your opinions to yourself so Lexi can grow up in the free world. She’s a normal human being and she’s a child.”
When you look at other young stars’ experiences on social media, clearly Rabe isn’t the only target of online abuse.
Other famous kids who have been attacked
Anonymous online “trolls” are famous for being brutal. While adults understand that this is a part of life online, especially if you’re famous, children are more vulnerable to their cruelty. Many young stars have deleted their social media accounts to get away from the abuse.
One such actress is Millie Bobbie Brown, who became famous for her role as El on the Netflix hit Stranger Things. Brown was only 12 when the series began, but that didn’t stop people from attacking her. People made cruel memes, labeling pictures of her with homophobic slurs. They even went so far as to create a hashtag, #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown.
She deleted her Twitter account for a while, so she could escape the bullying.
Just a few of the other actresses who have endured this kind of cyberbullying as children are: Ariel Winter, Emma Watson, and Selena Gomez. And while Rabe’s experience of being a target at age 7 might seem like the most extreme example, she isn’t even the youngest child to go through this.
Death threats for a newborn
When singer Adele gave birth to her son in 2012, the response from most people was joyful congratulations. But for others, it was an opportunity to be cruel. Adele’s Twitter was inundated with death threats directed at her newborn, according to Yahoo. It got so bad that she quit Twitter for some time.
When strangers behave that badly, it can leave people feeling as though there are monsters all around. But according to Psychology Today experts, most online bullies would never behave that way in person.
Social media makes it too easy for people to hide who they are and connect with people who reinforce bad behavior. This is particularly true when bullies attack celebrities, who may not seem like “real” people.
Hopefully, online communities will become less tolerant of bullying behavior, no matter who it’s directed at. Especially for children, it should be unacceptable for strangers to be cruel. As Rabe said in her video, “Please don’t bully my family. Or me.”
