This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Kelly Xiong. Find her on Instagram at @k.3lly. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
Many TikTok users have expressed their concern online about the safety and wellbeing of Wren Eleanor. In case you didn’t know, Wren Elenor is a little girl, around 5 years old, on TikTok with 17 million followers. Her mom runs the TikTok account and posts videos of Wren doing anything and everything that a toddler would do. At first glance, this seems very innocent and wholesome, a mother sharing the cute things her toddler does online. However, there is a darker side to this Wren Elenor story. So what happened with Wren Eleanor?
Some of the videos Jacquelyn, Wren’s mom, has posted of her daughter appears to be very suggestive, almost like a sexual innuendo. Many have began to notice this as well as a pattern of the number of saves on these suggestive, innuendo type videos. On some of these videos, there would be around 20k, 50k and even 70k saves. There was even a video with over 300k saves, and the TikTok was just Wren making very toddler-like faces at the camera being cute. It really makes you wonder, what kinds of people are saving these kinds of videos? Well, a lot of other people also had this same thought.
Many users have tried to alert Jacquelyn of the disturbing pattern of behavior they’ve noticed under some of Wren’s TikTok videos, from a concerningly high number of saves to gross comments. The comments on Wren’s TikTok have since been turned off, but I remember hearing about her a few months back. Back when the comments were not turned off, and many of the top liked were very disturbing. A lot of these comments were talking about how “attractive” Wren was, how they thought what she was doing in the video was “sexy” or just overall weird and disgusting comments to make about a toddler.
Wren’s mom has gotten a lot concerns and criticisms about her continuing to post content of Wren knowing that there are child predators online looking at videos of her daughter. Some are even blaming Jacquelyn saying that she knows what she’s doing — exploiting her daughter — and providing content for these child predators online. Some mothers are also speaking out on the Wren situation and giving their takes as a mother of a daughter, criticizing Jacquelyn’s actions. One TikTok creator by the name of Anna Gantt even said Jacquelyn knows what she’s doing “because of the thumbnails and because of the content she continues to push out… knowing people are doing certain things with the videos,” and continues on to say, “as a mom, I don’t know how she’s sleeping at night.” Another TikTok user by the name of Bekah Day said, “There are so many creepy people on the internet,” and Jacquelyn is “posting her daughter in ways that might really entice certain kinds of people.”
Jacquelyn has also come out with an explanation video addressing all the comments and criticisms about her choice to continue posting Wren. Here she talks about how Wren is her number one priority and that the law enforcement officers she’s conferred with have said that there is no proof that Wren’s likeness appears on any inappropriate websites. She also calls all the comments and concerns about Wren catering to child predators and pedophiles online “rumors that are 100% false.” This video came out around 2022, and since then, Jacquelyn has not stopped posting about Wren. Despite Wren gaining more attention on TikTok and people only getting more and more worried about her safety and well-being, Jacquelyn has continued posting her daughter —- now with comments turned off — acting as if nothing’s wrong, or at the very least, not facing the problematic-ness of her behavior.
The concern for Wren only grows bigger by the day as more and more speculate that she is being exploited by her mother. We all know the internet, while it can be fun, is also a dangerous place with dangerous people. When you post something online, anyone and everyone can see it, especially an account like Wren’s with over 17 million followers, and the fact that she’s unable to consent to what’s being posted of her online is also what many are calling out. There are many petitions online calling for her account to be taken down, for content involving children to be demonitized, and for laws to be implemented to protect children’s online privacy.
What do you think of what happened with Wren Eleanor? Do you think the posts will ever stop? Let us know in the comments.
Leave a Reply