Charli D’Amelio hits back at claims of “shading” other TikTokers

Charli D’Amelio may be the TikTok queen, but that certainly doesn’t prevent the star from criticism — and some viewers are accusing her of throwing shade at other popular creators on the app.

Charli D’Amelio is TikTok’s most-followed account, boasting a massive 85 million followers due to her catchy dance videos and humorous collaborations with other top influencers.

However, the 16-year-old star has faced a huge amount of criticism in spite of her largely wholesome persona, from serious threats to her personal safety to over-the-top bodyshaming.

Now, critics are accusing the star of throwing shade at other successful women on the platform, after she liked a video montage of female creators (which included Charli) to a voice clip that read, “You know what that looks like? Success!”

For some reason, a few viewers interpreted the video as claiming that the other women were not as “successful” as Charli, and when word got out that she’d liked the clip, resulted in a slew of hate thrown her way.

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Rather than letting the situation get out of hand, Charli addressed the matter with a lengthy Instagram comment, clarifying that she hadn’t meant her “like” to be negative in any way.

“After sitting and watching the edit, it doesn’t look like a ‘plot twist’ edit that is bringing down someone else,” she explained. “It looks like a group edit for a bunch of women who are very successful, which is why it makes sense for why they used a song with the word ‘success’ in it.”

“All of the girls in the video have been nothing but sweet to me every time I have talked to them,” she continued. “I’m truly sorry if I upset anyone, but please know I never thought of it as a mean-spirited edit or would ever want to bring down any other creators.”

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This is far from the first time Charli has received backlash over a seemingly innocent action: the star also came under fire for allegedly making fun of cosplayers in another TikTok, which she quickly apologized for and claimed that was not the case.

No matter the issue, D’Amelio is still the queen of TikTok — and it doesn’t look like her success is stopping anytime soon.