16 and pregnant to 36 and powerful

One of Australia's biggest influencers is dedicated to using her social media empire to raise awareness of coercive control.

One of Australia's biggest influencers is dedicated to using her social media empire to raise awareness of coercive control.

Influencer Kat Clark was just a teenager when her boyfriend started hitting her, she says.

The then-17 year old had fallen pregnant and fled her “very religious” family home in Brisbane to have the baby with her partner on tiny Thursday Island in Cape York.

“There are about 3000 people on Thursday Island and I was one of them. It’s humid, it’s isolating, it’s terrible,” she told The Oz. 

“When he started getting abusive I felt like I couldn’t go back home because of the way I had left my family to be with him. So I just stayed there and it got worse and worse and worse.”

The now mother-of-two now has an empire of 2 million followers on TikTok and 136,000 followers on Instagram, was trapped, scared and completely alone. 

@katclark86

My Gemini Twin ❤️ #mumanddaughter #bestfriends #teenmum #mum

♬ sometimes there is no why. - mitch

It wasn’t until she and her partner moved to Cairns for work opportunities that she realised she didn't have to live like that..

Clark, now aged 37, saved up $1 a day for 50 days to secretly purchase a burner phone, reconnect with her friends and family in Brisbane, and attempt an escape from her partner.

“I started saving money for a phone because by that stage he was controlling my finances, he wasn’t letting me see anyone and he was controlling what I was wearing,” she said. 

“Once I had saved up enough, I bought one of those little burner phones from the Telstra shop, and hid it in my daughter’s tiny wardrobe under a stack of clothes.

“I reconnected with my old friends and after six months I started to build up the confidence to leave. I ended up jumping on a train with my daughter. Once I got to Townsville I sent him one last text telling him I would never see him again. 

“Then, I threw my phone in the bin, jumped back on the train and went all the way to Brisbane.” 

@katclark86

Replying to @aqsamohammmmed come unpack with me #storytime #domesticviolenceawareness #youngmum #unpacking

♬ Get You The Moon - Kina

It’s a harrowing story felt deeply by Australian women everywhere.

Over the past 12 months, the country has undergone a reckoning about coercive control and domestic violence, with peak bodies rallying to raise awareness of terrifying and dangerous situations. 

The NSW government has created a draft bill to incarcerate coercive control perpetrators for up to seven years. Hannah Clarke’s death in a car fire has catalysed calls for action in Queensland. South Australia’s Attorney-General has committed to criminalising coercive control in his state. 

But for Clark it’s about using her social media empire to connect with other women who have experienced a similar situation to her and then helping them get back on their feet. 

“There was a time when I was probably getting consistently around 50 to 100,000 views on every single video that I posted,” she said, speaking of the moment she realised she could make an impact.

“And I remember I went to the State of Origin game, and they had on the sign saying there were 45,000 people in the stadium. I looked around, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, the amount of people that are here right now actually watching me.’ It was just mind blowing for me at that moment."

Clark lives in a waterfront home on the Gold Coast with her two daughters, Latisha and Deja and her husband Jonathan. She posts content about raising her two bi-racial daughters, and features quick and healthy recipes from when she was a clean-eating cafe owner.

Her highly engaged audience, huge reach and genuine content are the reasons she features on The Oz's Influence Index, set to launch this Thursday.

READ MORE ABOUT OUR WORLD-FIRST INDEX HERE