- TikTok star Drew Afualo — who has amassed more than 8 million followers with his snarky claps — announced he was taking a break from the platform in an emotional post on Dec. 9
- The author and podcaster, 29, said it’s not because of “vitriol” but because “I feel like I’ll never be enough” and it’s affecting her mental and physical health
- Afualo has promised to return and hopes the time away will help her understand the good she is doing on the platform
Immensely popular TikTok star Drew Afualo announced that she is taking a break from the platform in an emotional post on December 9, where she shared that she is “violently sick” as she struggles with her mental health.
“I decided to specifically take a break from TikTok,” 29-year-old Afualo began her post, which has been viewed 3 million times. “I don’t want it to be more dramatic than that. I won’t disappear forever. I’m not deleting my account. I just need a break and since I love you all so much, I want to explain why.”
Afualo — who parlayed her clever viral stunts into misogynist creators into a media empire with a hit podcast, Comment Section and best-selling book, LOUD: Don’t accept anything less than the life you deservehe said that “my build on TikTok was very difficult and sometimes very violent, for my particular niche.”
Drew Afualo published her best-selling memoir 2024.
Adam Simmons; AUWA books
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But Afualo, who has 8.2 million followers on TikTok and was named one of PEOPLE’s Top 10 Creators of the Year, was quick to point out that her termination was not “due to vitriol and I want to make that very clear. It’s not because of the hate I get from bigots or misogynists or the many, many people who don’t like me on the app because of what I do, which is obviously trying to fight for other marginalized groups.”
She shared that she originally started posting on TikTok after she got fired — something she said “really derailed me because it felt like it proved to me that I wasn’t enough.” But through her work in therapy, she realized that she needed validation not from her achievements, but from herself. And in the past year, she said she lost sight of that.
“My confirmation is no longer coming from me. I feel like I’m constantly asking people who love me or care about me or are in groups that I feel so moved to protect. And that is again an unhealthy and unsustainable way of looking at yourself. Because now I feel like I’m constantly trying to fit into everyone’s idea of perfection.”
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“People on this app see me in a lot of different roles,” she continued. “The perfect content creator, the perfect influencer, the perfect ally, the perfect activist, the perfect feminist. The list goes on and the feeling is suffocating.”
“I constantly feel inadequate for the groups that I feel so driven to protect and it’s become really unbearable to exist on this app, with that knowledge because I care so much about so many different people on this app… it’s gotten to the point where I now feel like I will never be enough. And it’s starting to affect my mental health so severely that I’m violently ill. I’m physically very bad.”
She told how she “almost had to be hospitalized” last year, but “I just couldn’t.” [take a break] because I never want anyone to feel like I’ve abandoned them.”
But now, Afualo says, “I have to protect myself because I’m important too.” She compared her status on TikTok to “a building on fire.”
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Drew Afualo in West Hollywood, California, 2024.
Leon Bennett/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
“I found a way out. I opened the door and I will keep it open,” she explained. “It is an honor and a privilege to hold that door. But at the same time, I also get burned on both sides and something has to give in the end. So this is me doing it. I hope you all can understand and respect that. I’m forever grateful for this platform and the community we’ve built together, and I promise to be back.”
She said she hopes her time away from the app will help her realize she’s a good person, because “there are content creators who don’t deserve the influence and reach they have… They’re bad people who don’t care about others.”
I know I’m not one of those people, she said. “And I think my time away from this app will give me a chance to remind myself of that and remind myself that I’m a good person and that I know that I’m a good person so that I can fully show myself for all of you.”
She ended the video with a plea to fans: “Please take care of each other, okay? I love you.”
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the text crisis line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education