Where is Ashley of BestDressed?

The Kardashians a modern day phenomenon in which “every day” people share their lives with the world (and get a lot o hate for it) were, so to speak along with all “reality” TV stars, a precursor to today’s influencers who also share their lives online. And for any influencer that gets big enough they too are going to have to deal with the haters. Condemnation of the well known is is nothing new. People who live their lives in the spotlight have been dealing with this for hundreds of years—in those days it was generally royalty. One well known example of this is the infamous “Let them eat cake” uttering Marie Antonette—who never actually said this, but was hated by the French people due to how her persona was perceived by the public.

However, what is new is the ability to share that hate and have it go viral to millions across the globe. I am guessing not always the most fun of experiences. The Kardashians just seem to roll with the punches—raking in a lot of the Benjamins makes it easier to tolerate the hate I guess. It should come as no surprise then, that influencers are not immune to the haters and trolls, so a few months ago when a video popped up on my YouTube cue with the title “The Most Problematic Influencer” or something to that affect I was not particularly surprised. What did surprise me was the person they were speaking about—Ashley of BestDressed.

She spoken openly about her personal life, sex, school, burn out, as well as fashion, design, and day to day activities.

I have been following Ashley for a number of years now, and even though I am not in her age group I thoroughly enjoyed her content, after all I had been in her age group so I could relate. Ashely was fun, approachable and very frank. She spoken openly about her personal life, sex, school, burn out, as well as fashion, design, and day to day activities. Fashion was defiantly  a passion for her so much of her content revolved around this topic. She made videos on what she wore, her stye, and how she shopped. She spoke often about wanting to be sustainable, how to thrift, and how to have  a fun wardrobe on a student budget. Ashley was also a film student and it showed.

Her videos were not just fun to watch because of her funny, quirky, out going personality, but also for how they were edited and presented. Truly a joy to watch. So I was quite dismayed when all the hate to got her and she went dark. As in %100 dark. She is not posting anywhere: not YouTube where she started, not Instagram and not TikTok.

Now, lets’ talk about why exactly she is getting all this hate. Like I said when I saw the video was about Ashley I was genuinely shocked. I expect this kind of hate with the more monied influencers, not that I agree with it, I don’t. But it is not surprising. But this surprised me. Though maybe I shouldn’t be, the mindset today of glorified self righteousness and rampant pious outrage is on another level. SO what did Ashley do to garner so much hate? Well, she is apparently a hypocrite and a bad influence on young people. Or so her haters claim. 

…I am sure many of the people calling her out have a closet filled with fast fashion…

Much of the anger revolves around the fact that after years of speaking about sustainable fashion and affordable budgets she did a 180 so to speak, and did campaigns with non sustainable brands such as Amazon, and started to wear high end designer clothing. OK, I get it, there is a bit of hypocrisy there. But the reality is almost NO ONE wears %100 sustainable clothing or leads a %100 sustainable lifestyle. I am sure many of the people calling her out have a closet filled with fast fashion. Yes, promoting it is a bit different then just owning it, but really no one can throw stones if they don’t  walk the walk. In my opinion the hate is misguided and disguised. Much of this kind of hate is just that—hate. It is the desire to make one self feel superior, righteous and thusly morally better than someone else. That is really what this kind of thing is all about.

After getting so much hate on YouTube Ashley focused more on Instagram so I started to follow her there. And much like when I was watching her on YouTube, one day I noticed I was not seeing any of her posts so I decided to go to her profile to see what was up—and the reason I was not seeing any of her posts was because she was not posting. Apparently she posted a lifestyle video of a typical date night for her and it featured her smoking in the subway. Although when I say “featured” that would be a gross over statement—the clip was just few second long, if you blinked you missed it.

When I read that this video offended a lot of people I was surprised, personally I thought it was cute, clever, fun to watch and well done. Then I read why…and was not surprised or least not shocked by the reactions. 

OK, yes agreed, showing oneself smoking on their social platform is not the best look. And yes, she does have young fans that watch her so yes, this was certainly not a good idea. It was a bad judgment call for sure. The video would have been just as cute and effective if she was putting on lipstick with a compact instead of smoking. 

Of course it was not her intention to offend. It was like I said a bad judgment call. But let’s cut her some slack, she is after all one twenty something year old woman. I mean we all remember the Balenciaga fiascoIf an entire team of seasoned professionals can sign off on a campaign that featured children holding teddy bears in bondage without it crossing their minds that there would be major backlash—I think we can cut Ashely a little slack.

I really hope she returns, I am truly sad she is no longer posting anywhere, I believe she also had a stalker which I am sure did not help. One of her fans said that she would probably have a great career in film or marketing, I could see that. Though I think she should shrug off the hate, and come back, we all know it never stopped the Kardashians. Let that haters hate. So I will wait, and I will cross my fingers, and I wish her all the luck she needs in life. I may also do a video on this story, stay tuned…

XO ALLIE