The Internet is a great tool where we can stay connected with friends and family. If we aren’t careful, however, we may also become the victims of online bullying. One person who knows this very well is Camille Lescai.
Camille was a bride and she wanted to make a real statement for her wedding. That ceremony took place in November 2022, and she didn’t want anyone to see her bridal gown before the big day. The only thing she asked was that everyone wore white.
When people saw her walking down the aisle in her dress which cost around $4400, they realized that it was just right for her personality. She looked great and her guests were blown away by her decision.
A few days after the wedding, she shared a picture of the wedding on TikTok. She only had about 300 people following her, most of whom were family and friends. Imagine how surprised she was when she woke up and found out she had gone viral.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t going well because with many people viewing and commenting, she became the target of online bullying.
“I was bewildered by the comments because I simply didn’t expect it to go viral. I’m not an influencer, and didn’t understand why so many people cared about what dress I wore or why they thought it was so controversial.”
She says that when she read through the comments and found out people were calling her dress dated and ugly or even trashy, it really hurt her feelings. There were some who were questioning her motives and it seems as if people just kept getting uglier and uglier.
Some people even went so far as to compare her dress to toilet paper and said it was a “big no” in her book.
Camille could have backed down but she decided to respond to the comments of people who were hiding their true identity buckling fake usernames. She thought that they were using that an amenity to have the courage to tear her down so she exposed them.
“People might think that I should expect negative comments after posting anything online, but the flip argument [is] if you make nasty comments online, you should expect to be held to account. This was my way of taking the power back.”
After responding to the haters and being thankful for the positive comments, her story became an encouragement. Many in the online community were there to support her and to tell her how they were inspired by her videos. They were also thankful that she taught those bullies a lesson.
There were even many who had removed their negative comments after she started responding to the online hate. It’s just a good example of how people use that fake courage but when you call them out, they back down quickly.
