It’s a scene that plays out in homes across the world — a parent punishes a child by preventing TikTok access. Child sobs, thinking their life as they know it is over.
That’s essentially what happened, on a much larger scale, to California-based influencer Natalie Reynolds, whose public meltdown outside the company’s Los Angeles headquarters was captured on video and shared on X, where it has received more than 11 million views. A teary-eyed Reynolds is seen screaming and pleading to be let inside.
“They won’t let me in,” Reynolds says to someone on the phone before yelling through the door. “Please! I just want my account unbanned!”
Reynolds’ account with TikTok was recently banned, she says in another tear-soaked video, because another popular creator was jealous of her. But reports indicate the real reason she was dropped by the social media behemoth was a tasteless prank she played last June in which she allegedly convinced a homeless woman who couldn’t swim to jump into Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, for $20.
The woman takes the plunge, thinking Reynolds was going to jump in with her as part of a scavenger hunt.
Reynolds stays on a dock, essentially taunting the homeless woman.
“You said you wanted to swim,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t tell you to jump in.”
The woman is heard, moments later, yelling, “I can’t swim. I can only float.”
Two people are seen escorting Reynolds and her team off the dock, while her friends can be overheard discussing how the aesthetics look “bad.”
“Stop, seriously, you’re actually freaking me out,” Reynolds tells them. “I’m going to f—ing kill myself. She says she’s drowning. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
The Austin Fire Department confirmed a woman had to be pulled that same day from the lake, which had banned swimming in 1964. Fortunately, the woman didn’t drown, but Reynolds’ career as an influencer is taking on water, fast.
The backlash was intense.
“She is trash,” wrote one woman on X, and she didn’t get much argument.
“Not only she ran away,” remarked one commenter. “Her whole f*****g crew of morons too… they’re total trash.”
Many called for her to be banned. Some even said she deserved jail time for putting a marginalized woman’s life at risk for the sake of clicks.
For others, the 26-year-old Reynolds exemplifies all that’s wrong with Gen Z.
“Bananas. Pathetic. That generation is doomed,” one woman wrote on X.
Reynolds’ team includes her boyfriend, Zachary Huelsman, who often appears in her videos bantering about their relationship and collaborating on prank skits. She first went viral on TikTok in 2022 with lip-sync and dance videos, and the couple became regulars on TikTok’s popular “For You” page.
Reynolds’ footprint remains large, with more than 5.5 million YouTube subscribers, 133,000 Instagram followers and another 33,0000 followers on the streaming service Kick.
