The seven-second video, which centers on the petite brunette sitting in her car smiling as she shared the cheeky caption, “Guess why I’m the favourite mum amongst the school dads”, expected little more than casual engagement from her audience.
“The video wasn’t meant to be serious; I’m simply a content creator aiming for views. It’s astonishing how a simple caption can elicit thousands of comments. Even The Sun picked up the story to point out people’s reactions,” said Banks.
“Coincidentally, when the comments started flooding in, I was unexpectedly hospitalized for an unrelated matter. It was an incredibly distressing experience to be in the hospital, trying to communicate with my family while simultaneously viewing a constant stream of notifications filled with hurtful messages questioning my character.”
To Banks’ surprise, the video gained significant traction, reaching an audience primarily composed of women between the ages of 25 and 54, unlike her usual male-dominated following. The video’s massive popularity came with a downside, as Bonds was bombarded with nearly 3,000 detestable comments, many of which targeted her appearance and parenting abilities and spilled over into her other content, creating a distressing environment whenever she opened the TikTok app.
Unbowed, Banks plans to continue creating content that resonates with her audience while promoting positivity, self-empowerment and resilience. “This incident highlights the pervasive issue of online bullying and the detrimental impact it can have on people’s mental well-being. But, as the saying goes, their bitter behavior says more about them than it does about me.”