Influencers Behaving Badly & The Lydia Elise Millen Controversy

Recently the influencer Lydia Elise Millen has come under some scrutiny for behaving badly, or for basically being a Karen. This is not the first time she has faced criticism, there have also been some controversies around some of her products. I have been following Lydia’s YouTube channel for a few years now, I do enjoy watching it, but I do not follow it super closely or everything that goes on in her life. I generally watch these types of channels for inspiration and entertainment. However, it did come to my attention that she was being called out for how she treated her stylist Nicky Lazou, whose home she went to, to have her hair colored. The event actually took place in the summer of 2020 but recently resurfaced in February 2021 when Lydia posted a video speaking about the last nine months of her life, in which she also addressed what happened at Nicky’s home.

Nicky had been relatively quiet on the matter until Lydia posted this video. Apparently, it has been alleged that Lydia was yelling and screaming and was being accused of over reacting and basically being a bit out of control. While at the home Lydia called her assistant to come to the home because she said she felt “vulnerable”, and the stylist Nicky called her sister to come to the home to help to deescalate the situation. None of this was caught on camera so it is hard to know specifically what happened. Ultimately Lydia left the home, but a few days later Lydia messaged Nicky demanding an apology, which the stylist refused to do.

I personally have not seen this WhatsApp group so this is hearsay for me, but this the crux of the controversy

Apparently Lydia then formed a WhatsApp group with some other influencers where she accused Nicky of doing a bad job, and seemingly tried to disparage the stylist, bulling her as well. I personally have not seen this WhatsApp group so this is hearsay for me, but this the crux of the controversy—the fact that she formed this group in an effort to bully and disparage the stylist’s business. I believe this is what prompted Nicky Lazou to finally to speak out about what happened. 

This controversy has caused Lydia to loose a lot of followers, in addition to many people leaving negative comments calling her out. Though some have complained that she redecorates her house too many times, which is a bit ridiculous—it is her house, she has the right to redecorate as much as she wants. I don’t have a problem with this. I have not unsubscribed from her channel and I continue to watch her videos on and off. I feel like everyone is entitled to have a bad day—however forming a WhatsApp group does take it to the next level. Like I said I do watch her channel, but as with most channels I do not watch every day and kind of pop in and out, so I really had no idea about any of this. Interestingly though, I did watch one her husbands Ali’s videos a while back, where she was not the focus so she was not “on” but she did appear briefly in the video and I was surprised and a little taken aback at how she spoke to her husband, and thought to myself—“hmm that is a different side to her”. But it was just one video and I continued to watch her videos on and off. And I continued to enjoy her content.

But, in this day and age of social media and cameras on everyone’s phone, we are all under public scrutiny, so it is best to keep this in mind and always be on our best behavior.

In the video posted in February of 2021, Lydia spoke of the difficulties she was having in her life, with the failure of the tanning product launch, what happened at Nicky’s home, and she even came clean with how she treats her husband and stated she had feared that he may leave her. It was a bit of an eye opening video. No one is perfect, let’s hope that she has come to terms with some of the issues she has been dealing with, and let’s hope she has had the foresight to look inward and address those aspects of her personality that are less then stellar. For the time being I will continue to follow her channel as I do enjoy her content. I love her branding and her blog in addition to her YouTube channel. But, in this day and age of social media and cameras on everyone’s phone, we are all under public scrutiny, so it is best to keep this in mind and always be on our best behavior.