Jaclyn Hill Critics Say Her Latest Instagram Post Is a Calculated Ploy for Attention
With 6.3 million followers on Instagram alone, Jaclyn Hill has no shortage of fans. The 29-year-old influencer rose to Internet fame when she began making beauty tutorials on YouTube. Since then, she has partnered with big named brands like Morphe and launched her own cosmetics line, Jaclyn Cosmetics. But, with increased fame comes increased scrutiny and criticism and Hill certainly has received her fair share of the latter.
A quick recap of the lipstick drama
Hill had always had plenty of critics, but things really hit the fan back in 2019 when she launched her brand. Her first launch ended up being a PR nightmare with reports of animal hair, glass, and plastic shards embedded in them. Things escalated when Hill first denied claims and then went silent before finally deciding to refund everyone who purchased her lipsticks. Eventually, the lipstick drama blew over, despite Hill’s refusal to recall the products, but Hill gained a lot more critics in the process.
Jaclyn Hill eats a burger in a recent Instagram post
Now said critics believe that Hill is being calculating in her latest Instagram post in order to gain media attention. On April 12, 2020, Hill took to her Instagram to post two pictures of herself eating a burger in bed. “I miss the days when I chose to leave events early and isolate myself. ❤️🍔 Also, for all the people making comments about my weight & me eating a burger…go find yourself a life,” the 29-year-old shared.
This isn’t the first time that Hill has spoken out against body shaming. Starting in August of 2019, Hill began talking openly about how her body has shifted and hitting back at those who tried to shame her for the fluctuation. Because Hill has been more vocal, many news outlets have picked up the stories and championed Hill for speaking out against body shamers.
News outlets picked up the story
Naturally, the same thing happened with Hill’s most recent Instagram post. E! Online, Cosmopolitan, and People all reported that Hill clapped back at trolls who deigned to body shame her for eating a burger. However, Hill’s critics found serious flaws with her Instagram post. They noted that the part about the burger was always included in her caption, thus she had to have “clapped back at body-shamers” before anyone even said anything potentially hateful to her.
“E! missed the irony of #jaclynhill posting that caption before the pic went up, so literally not one person made a weight comment. Jaclyn Hill is the one pushing the weight narrative-perhaps to divert from nondisclosure of affiliate links? Shady ethics? You got played, @enews” one person wrote on Twitter after E! picked up the story about Hill’s Instagram post.
Critics on Twitter call Hill’s Instagram post a calculated PR move
“I appreciate that they just push out celebrity ‘news’… but it’s pretty shocking that they just blatantly regurgitate the spin from publicists with absolutely no regard for the truth. #jaclynhill #enews #smh,” another person chimed in about the latest story regarding Hill.
Other critics shared that Hill was simply capitalizing off of the body positivity movement to get good publicity and further her own narrative. “Body shaming/fat shaming are very hot topics right now and get a lot of clicks. It’s also a topic that’s easy to get people behind someone with problematic behaviour/ethics. Her PR machine is pushing ‘Jaclyn being fat-shamed/bullied’ for a very specific agenda. #jaclynhill,” another person added about Hill’s latest Instagram post.
Is this all just a PR game?
It’s hard to know if Hill is simply playing a PR game or if she really edited her Instagram post to reflect the body-shaming she’s receiving. Personally, we didn’t see any negative comments about her eating a burger in her comments on Instagram. On the contrary, we saw lots of Hill’s fans praising her for eating burgers and her body love. That said, with over 5,000 comments on the post, our research was by no means exhaustive.
