Weather 
It might be only five days into the new year, but an influencer has already dished out a healthy serving of internet drama.
It’s all sparked by a halter neck top.
Tara Lynn turned to her five million followers, issuing a fashion plea ahead of New Year’s Eve celebration plans.
The 26-year-old had been on the hunt for a specific sold-out top in her size within her local region in Los Angeles.
“Really f**ked up”
After several followers offered to sell her the top at exorbitant mark-ups, she finally received a message from a follower who generously offered to lend her the top for free.
When the shirt failed to arrive, Lynn took to TikTok, hitting record views with a scathing public message.
“One of my haters did something really f**ked up to me today,” the influencer began.
“I consider like my audience my friends. I wouldn’t make TikToks if I didn’t consider ya’ll friends. But because I’m an influencer, people assume that I’m like the worst person in the world, I’m evil, I don’t deserve respect, and I don’t deserve kindness. All the things.”
Lynn explained the follower said she would arrange a courier to deliver the top, which didn’t arrive. Lynn said she then had to cancel plans to seek out a last-minute substitute at the mall.
“Didn’t go to the mall today, was completely relying on her, and she ghosted me. She was playing the long game. Like she was pretending she loved me so that I wouldn’t go to the mall and find a shirt, and she like ghosted me,” Lynn said.
“If I hated someone that much, I wouldn’t be able to pretend that I loved them for as long as she did. She f**ked me over real bad… hasn’t answered me in like three hours.”
“Shouldn’t have to explain myself”
But it wasn’t long before the accused “hater” was unmasked, offering her side of the story in the video’s comment section.
“Hi, everyone. It was me. I am so sorry. I am a nurse and there’s so many sicknesses going around and it was SO short staffed and I had to stay overtime, I just got off and it’s 3am.
“I have apologised to Tara. There were many patients in the emergency room tonight. I’m not a hater, I still do love her content,” the follower wrote.
Despite the reasonable excuse, Lynn wasn’t satisfied with the response, writing: “if you knew you were going to be working you couldve told me and we could have worked around that. as a girl, that was really messed up i was completely relying on you.”
The nurse posted screenshots of their conversation to prove she’d reached out to Lynn privately, along with a statement further explaining her version of events.
She’s opted not to show her face due to the risk of “getting harassed and bullied” as a result of Lynn’s accusations.
“I shouldn’t have to explain myself and it’s genuinely hurtful for ALL healthcare workers that people are completely constantly dismissing the fact we are faced with the worst situations and have to make the best out of it,” she wrote.
The nurse explained she’d notified Lynn of needing extra time to courier the top, but as she was clocking off her supervisor asked that she stay due to understaffing.
Upon finishing her shift she had still intended to send the top as planned, but instead opened TikTok to see a post calling her a “hater”.
The viral moment has led to widespread calls for influencers to check their entitlement, with people defending the nurse from the “out of touch” creator.
“‘One of my haters’, and it’s literally just a girl who’s an ER nurse who was at work,” one commenter wrote.
“Expecting an ER NURSE on NYE to prioritise you is wild,” another argued.
A third pointed out: “You’ll be alright. You have more shirts”.
“I’m so sick of influencers,” another simply added.
Others have gone as far as to make their own posts to add commentary. Australian emergency nurse, Ellie Peach, was among them.
“If a healthcare worker says they’re too busy to get back to you because they’re at work, it’s not like other jobs where they can just look at their phone,” she explained.
“There are healthcare workers who will go an entire shift without peeing, eating or drinking any water because it’s so busy… that is the reality of what happens in our jobs. Sometimes it is so busy you can’t do any of those things, let alone reply to a f**king text or a f**king message about a shirt.”
She claims that the attitude sends a poor message about emergency workers.
“If she was trying to ragebait, it worked… I think it ragebaited every single f**king healthcare worker there is,” she said.
Lynn, meanwhile, has made several follow up posts, with her most recent video questioning the legitimacy of the nurse who offered her the top.
“I’m only saying this right now, because I’ve seen a few people catching on and saying this, but I’ve been thinking this for days. There ain’t no way that girl is a nurse,” she said.
