WHEN haters compared Rachel Spicer to a movie monster and mocked her double chin, they didn’t expect her to make money from the insults.
But that’s exactly what the influencer, from Falkirk, did.
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Rachel rose to fame on the social media app by showing off her two “dancing” chins and now boasts 2.3 million followers (@rachelspicer_).
The 25-year-old – a size 18 – also aims to help boost her followers’ self-confidence with her body positive content.
And while trolls have tried to tear her down with jibes about her weight and her figure, Rachel’s career as a content creator is going from strength to strength.
Her green alter ego ‘Denise’ was even born from the trolling and elevates her hilarious videos.
Speaking to Katy J on the Young Scot Aye Feel podcast, Rachel said: “As my following started to grow, I remember getting all these comments comparing me to the green goblin out of Hotel Transylvania, which is this like green jelly monster, because of my double chins.
“I ended up finding green paint that I already had at home and I painted myself green that night thinking it would be a one-time thing.
“Now I’m green like once or twice a month, which is a lot of admin by the way, especially in the shower.”
She added: “I feel like I’m trying to turn the negative into a positive.
“Denise would never be a thing if it wasn’t for negative comments comparing me, trying to hurt me, comparing me to this green monster.
“And that’s when Denise started and thank goodness I did because I love her. She’s part of me. She’s my confident alter ego.”
Rachel started her TikTok account “out of boredom” during lockdown, after moving back home from London to Scotland where she was pursuing acting.
With the support of her parents, she then turned her page into a full time job.
“I would say I’m like an accidental influencer”, she joked.
“I never thought that this would be a full time job or I would even get to earn in any sort of money on social media.
“I’ve got very supportive parents, and my dad at the time was like, look, you’ve started to make a bit of money on social media, you’re still living at home, you don’t have a mortgage and kids, your time to try would be now.
“They gave me the support to say go and try which is so great.
“I’m just so lucky that it ended up actually working out great because I’ve now been full time for a year and a half.”
And as well as giving the inspiration for Denise, Rachel joked that haters also contribute to the general success of her social media channels.
She said: “I feel like a lot of trolls online don’t understand that by commenting and by liking, like that is gaining traction to the video, which makes it do better in the end as well.
“So it’s just silly that they even comment the things that they do.”
Giving advice to anyone struggling with hate messages or judgement on social media, she added: “Ignore it. Talk about it to like your friends, your family, your boyfriend.
“Don’t talk about it in your comments because there’s been so many times when it first started happening to me that it’s just banging your head against the brick wall.
“”These people don’t know you, you don’t know them, so you’re not going to make them see any different.
That’s their opinion on you and that’s none of your business. That’s their business.
“Then I have to remind myself, I don’t know you personally. I’m not going to take it personally.”
You can listen to Rachel’s full interview with Young Scots Aye Feel podcast here.