University of Arizona influencer Avery Kroll recently announced her breakup from her long-term boyfriend on her TikTok page, and the conversation that followed was a little concerning. What began as a simple update to explain her absence from social media quickly turned into a public dissection of her personal life, with many followers speculating about the reasons behind the breakup. This reaction has raised a bigger question about the boundaries between influencers and their audience, particularly when it comes to sharing intimate life details about things like relationships.
THE SITUATION
For those who are unfamiliar, Avery Kroll is an influencer from Florida with over 690 thousand followers on TikTok. She is best known for her “get ready with me” videos, sorority content, and relatable college-experience posts. Until recently, she was in a long-term relationship with a University of Central Florida baseball player who occasionally appeared in her content.
In the weeks leading up to Avery’s confirmation of the breakup, some of her followers noticed a decline in her social media activity and began speculating that she and her boyfriend had split. This is concerning, especially since she had never indicated in her content that there were any issues between them. However, her followers seemed to feel entitled to make these speculations because she had previously included her boyfriend in her posts, leading them to believe that, as consumers of her content, they had a right to know what had happened.
Once she announced the breakup, other TikTok users started putting out content where they shared their opinions and analyses of the situation. Some videos claimed her boyfriend “didn’t put enough effort in” or “wasn’t appreciative of her,” based solely on how they perceived him in the brief clips she had included in a small fraction of her content.Â
Imagine: people who don’t know you personally, and only see curated glimpses of your life, feel entitled to characterize your relationship in specific ways simply because you’re a public figure. This raises an important question: Is self-disclosure between influencers and their audience going too far? Especially when it fosters a sense of entitlement among the audience to speculate on and discuss the influencer’s personal relationships.
DISCLOSURE BETWEEN INFLUENCERS AND FOLLOWERS
Let me start by saying—I’m not at all against celebrity gossip. As someone who has followed Avery Kroll for over a year, when I saw that she was going through a breakup, I naturally wondered what had happened, especially since she had basically documented the entire experience of getting into this relationship on her page. However, I know that social media doesn’t always reflect real life, and since I don’t know her or her ex-boyfriend personally, I am simply not in a position to make any assumptions.
What bothers me, though, is how modern influencers’ openness with their followers creates a sense of entitlement among their audience, making them feel they have a right to be constantly “in the know” about every aspect of the influencer’s life. Avery Kroll’s content about the breakup has primarily focused on her journey of healing, featuring clips of her cleaning her space and preparing for workout classes. While this content aligns with the “day-in-the-life” style she typically posts, it no longer seems to satisfy her followers in light of the breakup. Commenters openly speculate about what happened, some even asking her to make a video explaining what happened.
This dynamic may pressure influencers like Avery to share deeply personal details—such as the specifics of a breakup—just to quiet speculation and stop the spread of rumors. Don’t get me wrong—I totally support influencers sharing whatever content they choose and being as open on social media as they feel comfortable. However, it seems this level of self-disclosure may be going too far. When is it better to say nothing at all, to avoid fueling discourse about your personal life from strangers?
REDDIT SNARKING
A trend that has gained significant traction in a niche corner of the internet, fueled by the rise of social media influencers, is “snarking” on Reddit. These forums often feature location-based pages—such as LA and NYC—where users freely discuss and share toxic opinions about the actions and content of local influencers.Â
A post on r/LAinfluencersnark was uploaded six days ago with the title, “Avery Kroll and her man broke up and looking at it now I feel like it was going to happen eventually.” The original poster, along with commenters, filled the thread with speculations about how poorly he treated her, the reason for the breakup (one user claiming he “must have had a mental health break or never really cared for her”), and even dismissive comments about Avery herself. One user went as far as to call her overdramatic, saying, “She’s a baby, she’ll be fine.”
Having platforms like these, beyond social media, seems inherently toxic. Reddit forums like r/LAinfluencersnark provide an anonymous space for users to criticize and dissect the lives of influencers without having to attach their personal identities to the discourse. What’s even more troubling is how these forums encourage the dehumanization of real people. By reducing influencers to subjects for entertainment or criticism, young women like Avery Kroll become a canvas for projections and assumptions—simply because they share their lives online.
The discussions in these forums often spiral into speculative gossip that spreads misinformation. In Avery’s case, users speculated about everything from her ex’s mental health to her personal response to the breakup—all based on a fraction of their understanding of her life. What makes this even more disturbing is that it happens on a platform separate from hers, one where she has no control over the narrative. On social media, at least she can choose what to share and manage the flow of information. But in these Reddit spaces, there’s no such filter, and the conversation happens entirely on the terms of others.Â
The relationship between influencers and followers, I think, can sometimes go too far. The behavior displayed during Avery Kroll’s breakup perpetuates the idea that influencers owe their audiences complete transparency and that any lack of disclosure is fair game for public critique. Â
It’s important to remember that when using social media, no matter how “close” you feel to an influencer, you do not know them personally, and therefore are not entitled to speculate about their lives. They choose to share parts of their lives with their followers, but they are not obligated to disclose anything they don’t want to. Ultimately, influencers are people, and just like anyone else, they have a right to privacy and boundaries—something that should be respected, regardless of their public status.