Joanne Larby has opened up about being embroiled in controversy in recent months.
The top fashion and beauty blogger was targeted by an Instagram account, which was created to “call out” Irish influencers for not being honest with their followers.
From editing her photos, to being called out for allegedly selling wrong sizes on Depop – Joanne has faced a lot of criticism, which led to her taking a break from social media to reassess her life.
In an interview with Independent.ie Style, Joanne said, “I can see both sides. I’m not naive to think it came across as a lack of transparency. Ireland is really crying out for a really raw, honest lifestyle – they’re sick of the overly polished.”
“As a consumer, what we digest is under our control as well. If it’s making us miserable and we are unsure, we can choose to unfollow it.
“We have a responsibility to be aware to unfollow something making you unhappy. Advertising will continue to exist in this way if we keep buying sexy things. Not by calling me out. I’m not the scapegoat to change the entire industry,” she said.
On how the backlash affected her, both personally and professionally, Joanne explained, “I did get a massive influx of negativity. I’ve been doing this five to six years, I’ve never experienced those kind of negative comments from individuals, mainly from that page, from people who perhaps didn’t follow me separately.
“It was without knowing the other side of people who followed me for a long time, know my content and what I’m about… but that’s what happens when something goes viral.”
“What came from that was that my mom got messages and her work was contacted, my brands that I was in ambassador roles for were urged to drop me. It resulted in financial losses and affected my livelihood.
“It was personal – they called me every name under the sun and I got letters urging me to kill myself,” she revealed.
“My mum is on Instagram, she’s a normal, supportive mum who is positive about what I’ve achieved and her page is private. If something happened, she would get follow requests for people trying to snoop. They were telling her she was a terrible mother, delusional, a post that involved my directly turned to slagging because I was employing her.
“She is now retired and I was taking her on for two days a week for personal reasons. To be able to be in the position to employ a family member is a positive and it was made into a negative. Her workplace was mentioned, HR called her in as a result because they were tagging her workplace and all of a sudden, it became really personal.”
One of the main posts about Joanne coming from these Instagram accounts were comparison images featuring photos of her that were taken at events, and airbrushed images taken from her Instagram feed.
In response to these ‘Instagram vs Reality’ posts, Joanne said, “Trying to catch someone at their worst angle isn’t particularly nice. It is a celebrity culture in a way, but it’s not like paparazzi.
“I’m in this weird realm realm where I’m not a celebrity and it’s not paps taking pictures, but I’m not a normal girl where no one will take a picture. I have no protection from it.
“They would contact my friends and family and make sure I saw what they were saying. I tried to find out what the goal was from that page – there’s no earning from it, it’s only really trying to remove me from this industry.
“That’s unpleasant. How could someone despise me that much they want me to lose work? You have to feel very sorry for that scenario. That is consumed another person’s life and they collated that much information over years to put it up, then it’s a mob mentality. I would feel really, really sad for that individual.”
The 29-year-old went on to explain that she’s always been a woman “of extremes”.
“I’ve always fluctuated in my weight, some saw me as a plus model to doing bikini competitions, now I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ll wear a size 8, 10, 12 and 14 today, I have all those sizes in my wardrobe. It’s easier to get a bad picture of me because I’m curvier. I’m tempted to edit because I’m curvier, but it’s naive to think it’s not happening with slim girls as well,” she said.
“I took the criticism on board. It [the break] wasn’t just a selfish break or showing a lack of strength. I wanted to quiet the noise, go back to my roots and utilise the comments made, dissecting the most impactful ones.
“My audience is incredibly important to me. It’s what I do. If my customer is not happy, you need to listen to that as a brand. I pride myself on never burning a bridge and being a real person.
“I have been a level weight, around a size 10, for about two years. I went slightly smaller in London and I’m slightly softer now because I’m not into training as heavily as I was. I feel comfortable in what size I am.”
“Three years ago, when I was bigger, I did genuinely feel a huge pressure to be a smaller size or to keep up what I had done. I wasn’t as big online, I wasn’t seeing people in person, there were no meet and greets or workshops, I was in this bubble wrapped universe that served its purpose – to be able to work with brands and create and aesthetic and professional feed,” Joanne admitted.
“As awful as it sounds, I looked around me and though there were so many smaller girls and a certain look that seems to be making it. I hate to say it but I was influenced by celebrity culture.”
When asked about the claims that she cut the tags off of size 16 clothing and claimed that they were smaller sizes to sell them on Depop, Joanne explained, “Genuinely, there was someone from 2012 who purchased shorts in a size 16 and she wanted a refund since this page surfaced.”
“Not to sound facetious, but it’s so beyond ludicrous. That’s like going into River Island with something from 2012 after seeing a massive media attack and asking for a refund.
“I have never in my life ripped off anyone through Depop. It has nothing to do with size or being embarrassing about my size. I cut tags off because they irritate me and it’s an OCD thing. I could count how many clothes I’ve sold on Depop, it’s not a secret business, I’ve sold maybe 30 dresses over the last three to four years. It started at the request of my followers.”
When asked why she’s targeted more than other bloggers and influencers out there, she said, “I think because I was a plus model, I was very relatable – a real girl. I don’t come from money, there’s no silver spoon; everything I’ve done, I’ve worked for myself. I launched my book and beauty brand without an agent. All my graft was by myself. I think I was admirable in a business sense and aesthetically, I looked like a normal girl.”
“Honestly, when I moved to London, I was going to to the gym a lot more and integrating more fitness and training, which created a disconnect with the original followers. Now there were ones who wanted to see a transformation and the OG ones who were unnerved by the change.
“I went from wearing a size 16 to an eight and I started seeing abs I never had in my life. It was a big change in myself. I 100% became obsessed with the gym, it was unhealthy for my mindset. My lifestyle in London was very different as I had more time, I was starting to build my business from the ground up there.”
On the brands that dropped her following the controversy, Joanne said, “A couple of brands that when everything was at its worst, two were mentioned, they pulled away not wanting to be part of negativity.”
“It was less to do with me, we left on good terms where they wanted to be away from that realm. It was very upsetting for everyone involved. It gave me the headspace to take the time offline and come back when I was ready.”
Now that she’s back on social media, Joanne is working on being more comfortable in her own skin.
“Now I’m much more raw and less polished. I’m much more like myself and how I have always been in real life. I am very comfortable in real life with no makeup, showing my flaws.
“Online, it seems like I’ve built up more of an insecure appearance over the years. Now, it’s much more clear that I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’ve been very candid about things like my hair loss to show people that I am strong, comfortable in who I am, and wanting to help other people,” she added.
