Concerned parents started messaging me about a week ago regarding my daughter Evelyn’s TikTok videos. The parents were apparently furious, explaining how their own children had seriously injured themselves or nearly died copying her behavior. Both confusion and horror drove me to click the links to her account, though I wish more than anything that I hadn’t.
I let out a horrified gasp as I watched Evelyn, caked in makeup and wearing a far-too-revealing outfit perform “challenges” that other girls her age (and younger apparently) had been copying. She’d smile her perfect teeth through cherry red lipstick, and bop left and right to some popular song as she enacted these trends she was apparently starting.
The first one chilled my blood. Evelyn bobbed her head back and forth while plugging a phone charger into an outlet in an overly dramatic manner. My heart sped as I watched her continue to film herself from inside what appeared to be a bathroom. The image of her face suddenly warped and shifted, and I realized then that the camera was filming from within the water of a bathtub. On the bottom of the image was the hashtag #liquidselfie.
My heart pounded as I clicked other links that had been directed my way as if I was somehow to blame. The next was even more disturbing. Evelyn performed a sultry dance of sorts in a crop top before placing the phone down on a surface. She then danced back from the camera, revealing a short skirt and fishnet stockings. I watched in horror as she then dragged into frame a wooden chair with a large kitchen knife heavily duct-taped to the front edge, blade up.
I swallowed the lump that grew in my throat as I watched Evelyn hold her hands over her head, before arching backward into a backbend over the knife. The blade’s tip was mere centimeters from her spine, and she nearly slipped before laughing into the camera, finishing with a handstand and clearing the dangerous obstacle. 1.2M was on the bottom right of the screen under a heart icon, and I felt sweat trickle down my forehead when I realized what that meant. 1.2 million likes. 59.5k shares. At the bottom of this particular clip was the hashtag #bladedbackbend.
I clicked on the profile icon of my dolled-up, smiling daughter and my jaw dropped open. There were almost a dozen different “trends” she apparently had been proliferating throughout the internet in the past week and a half. In every one, she was scantily clad and smiling as she performed each terribly dangerous feat. I made the mistake of clicking the comments section of one.
There were hundreds of messages from people who were all clearly impressed and inspired; adoring Evelyn and the dangerous actions performed in her videos. Many replies were videos of other users who’d copied the “challenges” and mimicked her routines. I didn’t have the heart to click on those. The girls that seemed to all be inspired by her and copying her actions looked young and naive. It broke my heart.
I glanced through a few more, clenching my jaw at the sight of each of the shocking and extremely dangerous “challenges” Evelyn was broadcasting to the world. In one short video, she’d propped up the phone on the edge of a rooftop, and danced her way backward until her entire body—dressed in a low-cut romper—was in view. I could tell she was a few stories high; the city’s skyscrapers visible in the background. I felt a queasiness in my stomach as I watched my daughter walk backward five paces, then proceed to do a series of cartwheels towards the camera; less than an inch from the edge.
510K likes, 21.8K shares. My mind jumped to all those young, influential girls who looked to Evelyn as some sort of role model. Evelyn all dressed up, smiling and dancing as she flirted with disaster in a series of deadly performances that seemed to be spreading across the internet like wildfire. Eventually, I closed the app and deleted it from my phone. I’d seen enough.
I will not share her username for others to discover her account. I want those posts to get as little exposure as possible, though it seems too late as her followers are in the hundreds of thousands. There are extremely dangerous trends making the rounds on TikTok, and if you have a child, I’d strongly advise monitoring their activity. I’ve tried contacting their customer support to take down her account, but have had no luck so far. Aside from that, there’s nothing we can do.
I trembled with pain and sadness when I learned about these dangerous and impossible posts. The threat to the safety of others is horrific, to say the least, but not as horrific as the reality of the situation I’m now witnessing. My wife and I have already been devastated with grief, so it’s almost too much to bear. The fact of the matter is Evelyn died in a car accident back in April. These disturbing posts on her account began just a week and a half ago. Nearly two months after her death.