Taylor Swift look-alike Ashley Leechin is dealing with some unhealthy blood from on-line haters after receiving backlash for posing as the singer in public.
“It was a prank,” Leechin, 30, told her followers via TikTok on Monday, August 21, after making a video with YouTuber Vic the Game in which Leechin dressed as Swift, 33, and took footage with enthusiasts. “I collaborated with a YouTuber. The social experiment used to be to are living an afternoon in the life of a celeb.”
Leechin is a TikToker with over 1.6 million fans, who has became heads for years after being mistaken for the “Exile” singer on a couple of instance. The lady’s placing resemblance it sounds as if made it easy for Leechin to trick some fans whilst out and about at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California, and different Los Angeles hotspots on Sunday, August 20.
The prank, on the other hand, didn’t take a seat smartly with Swift’s on-line neighborhood, with one TikTok consumer commenting, “Taylor is not a personality, she’s a real individual. That’s tremendous creepy.” (Swift was in New Jersey celebrating pal Jack Antonoff‘s wedding to Margaret Qualley as the stunt used to be unfolding at the West Coast.)
Leechin explained on Monday that she had a “very positive revel in” wearing Swift’s signature crimson lipstick and pretending to be the pop star regardless of being swarmed by way of crowds.
“Online you get an entire other beast,” she confessed, noting, “This video was now not to be malicious. This used to be now not to mock anyone.”
Leechin additional pointed out that she feels like “inside of this fandom there’s a possessiveness over Taylor,” which the social media megastar described as “unhealthy.” Leechin mentioned that through impersonating Swift she noticed how intense probably the most enthusiasts may change into.
In her TikTok caption, Leechin insisted that “everyone is blowing this out of share” and if she’d dressed up as “any individual else, it could have had a completely different end result.” She proceeded to thank the “type and sweet” fans she met during the funny story day trip, maximum of whom she claimed had been utterly OK that it used to be her and now not the true Swift.
“Just a pleasant reminder, please do not bully any of my buddies. You can bully me as a result of it sort of feels to be an okay thing to do in the ‘swiftie’ fandom however please do not bully my pals as a result of they had been fantastic to paintings with,” Leechin added.
Leechin shared a follow-up explainer via Instagram on Tuesday, August 22, telling her fans that she is “an actor” who places on a “gown [and] make-up” to act as if she’s Swift.
“You have this concept in your head that I'm going out every day with purple lipstick and lip sync to Taylor’s track 24/7. This is not the case. I'm a full-time mother who has a existence outdoor of social media,” she wrote. “You can create whatever narrative you need about me but your words do not impact me. In the previous I've attempted my toughest to have compatibility in with this fandom … so much that I even tried calling myself a ‘swiftie’ & joining in on the Easter egg hunts. That was until I spotted what it meant to have to be ‘permitted.’”
Leechin revealed that she “can improve Taylor while not having any group to outline that” and showed that she's going to “continue to display [her] love and support for Taylor and her tune” with or without the Swiftie stamp of approval.
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“I am not going to make you prefer me & I'm under no circumstances going to make you realize me … I am just going to continue to reside my lifestyles just as I have been doing and I'm hoping you'll be able to too. 🖤,” she concluded.
Vic in the Game has no longer publicly addressed the backlash, but the YouTuber has a history of making prank movies in which individuals pose as celebrities in public.
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