Beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira responds to fury over ‘toxic’ video

A TikTok user has responded to backlash she received over a “tone-deaf” video in which she complained about the supposed difficulties of being an influencer.

A TikTok user with more than 13 million followers has responded to backlash she received over a “toxic, tone-deaf” 2021 video in which she complained about the supposed difficulties of being an influencer.

“I literally just finished work and it’s 5:19[pm],” Mikayla Nogueira, who’s known on the platform for her makeup videos, said in the now-deleted clip, which resurfaced last week, amassing more than six million views and inspiring an entire Reddit thread.

“Try being an influencer for a day. Try it. Because the people who say it’s easy are so far out of their minds. Try it for a day.”

Beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira has apologised for controversial comments she made about the hardships of her job. Picture: TikTok

The 24-year-old said words were taken ‘out of context’ and her ‘emotions were running high’ at the time. Picture: TikTok

Elsewhere in the video, which the 24-year-old made in response to a comment telling her to “get a real job, trying working a 9-to-5”, she detailed the “five to six hours filming video content that ranges from three to four videos and then I spend a few hours editing that video content”.

“Then I have to work on my other social media profiles, whatever it may be. It’s f**king marketing. Then I’m in meetings from 12 to 5,” Nogueira added.

“[Being an influencer] is not for everybody. In fact it’s for a very small handful of people who can actually do this job … You do not want to have this job. I’m just saying.”

Critics zeroed in on the sound bite of the Boston local telling people to “try being an influencer for a day”, with dozens of people labelling her comments “disappointing” and “out-of-touch”.

“I’d love to try being an influencer for a day, Mikayla,” one TikTok user wrote in a video.

“Because while you’re sitting in your $1 million house, lying to people about makeup, I work two jobs from 5am to 9pm just so I can afford rent and groceries. While you make what I make in a year in a week.”

Nogueira deleted the original clip, but it resurfaced online last week. Picture: TikTok

She was swiftly criticised for her ‘tone-deaf’ comments. Picture: TikTok

While fellow influencer Anayka She captioned her video: “The job is a lot, but babe you gotta be quiet.”

“Influencers complaining about their job is equivalent to white people complaining about being called a ‘cracker’. You’re never gonna win, I’m so sorry,” She, who is Black, said.

While She agreed that “being an influencer is a job like any other” and can be “draining” and “tedious”, “the problems that I have now – being an influencer – are problems that I wish I had two or three years ago when I was working a regular job”.

“So disappointing to see mikayla nogueira becoming an out of touch influencer just like the rest of them,” one woman wrote on Twitter.

“Complaining about how hard her job is when most of us are just making enough to get by, some people working 12+ hours and still can’t pay bills. Girl stfu”.

“it just feels very out of touch to be complaining to working class people about how being and (sic) influencer is hard … i have 0 sympathy for you???” another tweeted.

Nogueira has now responded to the vitriol she’s received over the nearly two-year-old clip, explaining in a nine-minute video that she “was having a sh*t day and I made a video that I absolutely should not make”.

@mikaylanogueira

♬ original sound - Mikayla Nogueira

“I regret making it. There’s a reason, a year and a half ago, I deleted that video and I apologised – because it was wrong of me,” she added, saying that at the time her “emotions were running high” and her words were “taken out of context”.

“It broke my f**king heart … that people made it seem like I think I work harder than everybody else. That’s an absolute f**king bullsh*t lie. Absolutely not.

“Do I think this job is taxing on me? Absolutely. But I’m f**king mentally ill, bro.

“This job comes with an extreme amount of f**king privilege and blessings. It’s a f**king sick ass job, I’m not going to lie.”

After expressing her gratitude for her job and “all the support” she’d received from fans, Nogueira announced she’s stepping away from content creation for the time being.

“I don’t want to lose myself completely, you know? So, I’m going to go away for a while. I’m gonna get treatment. I’m gonna get help because my depression is just not good,” she said, disclosing that the break is unrelated to the backlash.

“I just want to be the best Mikayla I can be and, right now, I’m not a very good version of myself.”