Wren and Jacquelyn Exploitation Controversy

Overview

The Wren and Jacquelyn Exploitation Controversy is a controversy surrounding the mother-daughter TikTok account @wren.eleanor with Wren and Jacquelyn. Many believed that the mother Jacquelyn was exploiting her daughter Wren by posting sexually suggestive content in which Wren was shown engaging with phallic objects or wearing suggestive clothing. In 2022, TikTokers began to call out the large number of saves and favorites that videos of Wren received on the platform, as well as the alarming number of sexually suggestive comments left under Wren's videos, assuming the videos are being saved by child predators. Viewers also began to accuse Jacquelyn of knowingly contributing to the situation by allegedly posting "sexualizable" content of her daughter. The controversy gained widespread media coverage and inspired Jacquelyn to turn off her comments, also inspiring a mother-led movement on social media urging moms to delete videos of their kids. The backlash later resurfaced in early 2024.

Background

TikToker^[1] @wren.eleanor, an account run by a mother named Jacquelyn, began posting videos of her daughter Wren on July 23rd, 2019. In the earliest videos, Wren is a recently born baby. Jacquelyn consistently posted videos of Wren to TikTok, many gaining between hundreds of thousands and millions of views. By July 2022, @wren.eleanor boasted over 17 million followers.

Some of @wren.eleanor's most viewed videos on TikTok^[2][3][4] show Wren in different outfits and eating food, including a video from February 3rd, 2021, showing Wren in a bikini with over 22 million views. A video from March 14th, 2021, with over 6 million views, shows Wren eating a hotdog. A video posted on February 3rd, 2022, shows Wren in a bathing suit giving a "hair routine" tutorial in the bathtub with over 18.2 million views in five months.

Developments

On April 8th, 2022, a subreddit called /r/WrenEleanor^[16] was created. As stated by the mods in the subreddit's biography, "This is not a fan sub. A place to discuss the child exploitation of Wren Eleanor from tiktok." Predominantly in May 2022, many Redditors exchanged discourse in the subreddit that accused Jacquelyn of exploiting Wren and lending her to child predators. For instance, on May 21st, 2022, Redditor^[17] shared "Scary comments from wren’s Instagram" gaining over 60 upvotes in two years (shown below).

Around May 2022, TikTokers began posting videos expressing concern over Wren, pointing out the large number of favorites and saves that certain videos of Wren have, as well as the suggestive comments that some users leave on @wren.eleanor's videos. On May 21st, 2022, TikToker^[5] @annareportsnews posted a video about the account, finding a particular issue with the "scandalous" outfits Jacquelyn puts Wren in and the comments, gaining over 6.3 million views in two months (since deleted).

The TikToker^[6][7] posted two follow-up videos about Wren that day. In the second video, she talks about how some of the most popular videos show Wren in a bathtub. In the third video, she claims Jacquelyn deletes or ignores comments expressing concern for Wren (since deleted).

Screenshots from TikTok were posted to Reddit^[18] during the same timeframe (shown below).

Critical videos about @wren.eleanor increased in the following months as TikTokers pointed out specific videos and evidence of people sexualizing Wren and Jacquelyn ignoring the critics. On June 13th, TikToker^[8] @haleyfrancesca_ posted a video showing sexualizing comments under Wren's videos as proof that Jacquelyn ignores the comments and is aware of the issue, gaining over 8.3 million views in a month (shown below, left).

On July 13th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @replyhazy posted a video showing how a bath video of Wren had over 48,000 shares, gaining over 5 million views in two weeks (shown below, right).

As the controversy surrounding @wren.eleanor increased, the account disabled all comments on an unknown date.

On July 21st, 2022, YouTuber^[15] ann oop posted a video discussing the situation, breaking down the controversy and highlighting some of the more popular and troubling videos, such as a video where Wren "shows viewers how to use a tampon." The video largely focuses on Jacquelyn seemingly being aware of the controversy and ignoring it (shown below).

Response From Mothers / Child-Content Deletion Movement



In July 2022, some mothers on TikTok^[10][11] and other social media platforms posted videos claiming they would delete all the videos of their children off social media in response to the Wren situation (example shown below).

Media Attention

The situation inspired widespread media coverage as more and more videos were uploaded calling Jacquelyn out. On July 20th, 2022, Rolling Stone^[12] published an article on the situation. On July 26th, Fox News^[13] and Yahoo!^[14] also posted videos on the situation.

Jacquelyn's Response Video

On August 5th, 2022, Jacquelyn posted a TikTok^[19] in which she responded to the accusations. Jacquelyn claimed that no law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, had found any proof that Wren's likeness appeared on inappropriate websites. Jacquelyn reiterated that she was distressed and labeled the accusations false rumors and a conspiracy theory. Over two years, the video received roughly 13.5 million plays and 735,200 likes (shown below).

2024 Resurgence

In March 2024, the backlash against Jacquelyn saw a resurgence en masse following a video posted by TikToker^[20] @reyahthelastdragon on March 4th, 2024, which resurfaced old discourse, gaining over 4.8 million plays and 78,500 likes in nine days (shown below, left).

More videos that were critical of Jacquelyn surfaced in March 2024, like one shared by TikToker^[21] @victoriaguillem on March 7th, gaining over 2.9 million plays and 378,400 likes in six days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References