Backlash
When she made the post, Alicia McCarvell only wanted to participate in a social media challenge with her beloved husband.
She had no idea what her post would lead to. The next day she woke up to tens of thousands of hurtful comments under her video. Why did everyone hate the post so much? What was going on?
Alicia McCarvell
Alicia McCarvell is a self-love advocate with a massive following on social media due to her eye-opening and educational posts. Her activity had garnered her millions of followers.
But not every post was met with positive reactions. One such post was from when Alicia decided to share a short video with her husband. It didn't go at all as she expected.
Struggling To Fit In
Ever since she was little, Alicia struggled to fit in because she was overweight. This followed her throughout her high school years as well, and she found it challenging to find people who valued her for who she was and not her looks.
Until one day, when a high school student would do what no one else had the courage to do.
High School Sweethearts
The person who was lucky enough to discover how kind and amazing Alicia was, was none other than her future husband.
The couple fell in love during high school, and their marriage is still going strong after 16 years. The secret to their relationship was mutual understanding, patience, cherishing a person for who they really are, and lots and lots of love, of course.
Fit Husband
Throughout the years, her husband became a fit man while Alicia remained overweight. That didn't mean anything at all to them, but there were people who kept asking them uncomfortable questions.
This caused a lot of weird situations, and people were more than impolite at times. This made Alicia take some measures that would surprise everyone.
Tired Of Being Quiet
Alicia was tired of being quiet. She was getting more and more upset with the people who couldn't mind their own business and always questioned her relationship with her husband.
That would lead her to go online and speak up about her struggle, which was not something she wanted to deal with anymore. Something had to be done.
Growing A Following
Alicia decided to start making videos for fun. Her first two flew under the radar, but her third video, which was part of the "My boyfriend is 10 times hotter than me check" trend, blew up. She was like, 'If you want to see a couple that, by beauty standards, shouldn't be together, I'll show you that,' explaining that the video featured photos of herself and her super-fit husband, Scott McCarvell.
Less than two days later, the video had amassed roughly two million views, and Alicia had more than 50,000 new followers who were eager to see what she'd post next. But it wouldn't take long before the haters showed up as well. Now she has over 5 million followers on TikTok.
Her Husband Was Targeted
After she went viral, Alicia had to experience something terrible. An unnamed woman slid into Scott's DMs and told him that he should be with someone who looked like her — thin.
Alicia believed that telling herself for most of their relationship that she was not worthy of his love because of her body was the same thing as this thin woman telling him that she was worthy of him because of her body.
Social Media Challenge
For the TikTok challenge, the high school sweethearts shared an endearing video where they showed off their wedding guest attire by transitioning from towels to their evening glamorous clothes.
It's a common video style found throughout TikTok. Still, Alicia's clip was treated differently than the other famous ones on the platform, and the reason was heartbreaking.
Hurtful Messages
After she posted the video of her and her husband "transforming" from bath wear to glamorous wear, Alicia didn't expect this kind of feedback.
It only took one night. Alicia woke up to a lot of comments that were far from what she was expecting from this kind of post. She was overwhelmed by the backlash. But she also devised the perfect comeback for these people.
Going Viral
Alicia's post, which garnered over 40.3 million views, was met with an onslaught of hateful comments centering around her and her husband's bodies.
All she wanted to do was post a cute transition of her and her husband and show it to the world. She never thought she would have to face so many angry people.
70,000 Comments
Nearly 70,000 people have weighed in on the couple's clip. In the comments, many people were far too concerned about another person's relationship or body, and others offered words of support for the pair and praised their stunning outfits.
After two days of back and forths, Alicia shared another video responding to offensive comments. After all, she had a reputation for standing up for herself and others in her situation.
Beauty Standards
Alicia started by saying that she simply posted a simple transition video of her and her husband going from towels to dressed-up together.
This is not unlike what all kinds of different couples do on this app. And her video went viral, and Alicia said she had a pretty good idea why. It was because, by today's beauty standards, they didn't make sense.
Trying To Explain It
Alicia shared in a follow-up video that the world looks at them and immediately values Scott more than her. Since they don't 'add up,' people try to add things to her side of the equation to explain it by saying things like, 'Oh, she must not have been fat when they met' or 'She's got to be rich.'
Or sometimes people try to decrease Scott's side of the equation by saying things like, 'He must be gay' or 'He has a thing for fat women.' None of these things were actually true, though.
Praise
Among the haters, there were also a lot of supportive people who showered the couple with compliments.
Of the 40 million people who viewed Alicia's follow-up, most issued a round of applause when listening to her eloquent breakdown of the damage beauty standards have caused everyone. And how couples like hers exist and are as real as any other.