INTERVIEW: Paige sits down with Liz Krueger to discuss the real and raw struggles people face when placing their lives on the forefront of social media, being a stomping ground to bullying while being vulnerable to thousands.
Liz Krueger is a social media influencer who shares her life to thousands on instagram. With sharing her life, Liz has realized she has had to be very open and vulnerable with her followers. This was not something new to Liz, as she has always been an open and vulnerable person, but being vulnerable to thousands of people was a big jump. With online bullies and people being mean to her through the screen she wondered if being vulnerable was something she could continue to do, or if it was a mentally good place. She quickly realized that this was something she could not invite onto her page, she realized she too is human and not every human is perfect in any sense. Sharing her real and raw life is what she wanted to do instead of sharing a staged and fake life, and if she got hate while doing that, she did not care.
Liz further opened up about an instance that occurred to her at a wedding. At a friend's wedding, she opted to wear a bodycon dress that she felt comfortable in. As she was on the dance floor, a woman approached her and slapped her butt, saying that "she was asking for this to occur wearing an outfit like that". Liz did not see this as fun or a game at all, but instead felt as if she was assaulted by this woman. She later took to a radio station to share her story that day at the wedding, however this did not go over well. As people were giving her threats, bullying her, calling her slurs, and much more; saying she was inviting this to happen by wearing a dress like that. Instead of attacking the woman's actions, they attacked her. This really rocked Liz’s world as people from across the world caught onto this story and attacked her, but she took control of this and did not let it affect her mental health. She says, just because people don’t agree with your feelings doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t real. As a result of this, Liz began a kindness campaign that helped others who were bullied. She took control of the situation and made it into something that meant something.
We cannot always let big things bring us down, instead we have to take control of the situations that are put in front of us. Life can be difficult with the societal norms that are placed all around us and social media, however our mental health must always be a priority. Your struggle is no less than the person beside you, they are just struggling differently.
We also talk about…
Liz’s Resources:
It's Hard Resources: