A Woman's Viral Rant About 'Boring' N.Y.C. Influencers Is Sparking a Huge Debate Online

Yahoo

18-03-2025

TikTok is locked in a debate about which online creators are worth watching, and shade is clouding around New York City in particular.
One user started it all when she took to the app to let out some frustration over the types of influencers she's encountered on her own feed. The original rant — posted by @MartiniFeeny — singled out those based in the concrete jungle, calling them "carbon copies of one another" and referencing their similar jewelry and clothing choices as evidence.
Bridgette Pheloung, the creator known as Acquired Style, posted — then soon deleted — a video implying that the rant was directed at her, which ultimately made the original post go viral and opened a discourse about its validity.
Over a week later, social media is still abuzz with questions of who should be considered a "boring" N.Y.C. influencer — and is it fair to call them out for creating such similar content?
Here's what to know about the TikTok drama brewing online.
It all started with a TikTok by user @MartiniFeeny, whose real name is Bridget, per a recent interview with Vulture. On March 7, she uploaded a rant explaining her frustrations with some of the most popular New Yorkers on social media. "Im SOOO bored by all these influencers lol," she captioned the video.
"All right, guys, I'm just gonna say it, I hate all of the New York influencers, I think they're all boring as f--- and they're all carbon copies of one another. They all wear the same exact f------ bracelet. They all have the same exact f------ hand chain that someone else influenced them to get," she said in the video.
Though she added a disclaimer of "no hate," Bridget proceeded to call out the influencers for being "basic" and buying clothes from the same places. "I feel like they should be the influencees, not the influencers," she added.
"I don't know, not even the New York ones. Just like all … these girls. They all get panic attacks. They all shop at Revolve," the clip concluded. "Yeah, boring. Let me know if anyone agrees."
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Though Bridget's rant didn't single out any specific influencers by name, the N.Y.C. ilk apparently took offense, and some even responded directly.
Seemingly implying that she took the jabs personally, Bridgette Pheloung stitched the rant in a since-deleted video that saw her silently mocking the original. The 27-year-old creator runs the account Acquired Style, which has over 1.5 million followers on TikTok and upwards of 798,000 Instagram followers.
Bridgette is also known for having an identical twin Danielle, who quit her position at Goldman Sachs to pursue social media full-time as well. Though they can't help their genetic resemblance, both sisters post a similar mix of day-in-the-life videos and style-centered content.
Related: Identical Twins Brigette and Danielle Pheloung Defend Why They 'Share Underwear' and 'Only Have One Bra' Between Them
The Pheloungs also made headlines when they revealed that their shared life runs a layer lower than their fashionable 'fits — literally. In September, they admitted they share underwear and only have one bra between the two of them.
Beyond their family, Bridgette and Danielle have been spotted out and about at events and on brand trips with other influencers in their "niche," which can be distilled to diary-style vlogging. Halley Kate, 24, styles her hair in the same bouncy, blonde way as the Pheloungs and also offers glimpses into her day-to-day living in N.Y.C. (On the not-so-glamorous side, Halley went viral last year when she was randomly punched by a stranger on the street, one of several such cases.)
The TikTok community has also added The Bachelor alumna Kit Keenan — the daughter of esteemed fashion designer Cynthia Rowley — to the New York City influencer category. Like the others, she's known online for posting about her workout routines, hair care and favorite recipes, as well as the classic "get ready with me" video before an exclusive event.
Speaking to Vulture, Bridget claimed she didn't think her video would rock the boat considering she only had "like 90 followers." (She now has a TikTok following of over 3,800, and the original video boasts 2.2 million views.) However, her comments section is now brimming with users agreeing, disagreeing and even naming their own least favorite N.Y.C. influencers.
Sarah Torkornoo, who posts with the username @SarahFromNewYork, posted her input, feeling compelled to contribute "as a native New Yorker." She started by plainly stating her opinion that these types of influencers are boring.
"This is primarily because none of the mainstream N.Y.C. influencers are native New Yorkers. It's very rare that I meet a boring native New Yorker. I'm biased, but it's true," she said in her TikTok posted on March 12.
Torkornoo continued, "And with peace and love ... what do you expect when you consistently platform a bunch of upper middle class and wealthy suburban white women?"
More TikTokers followed Bridget's lead, taking the opportunity to enter their own hot takes into the conversation. Some N.Y.C. creators differentiated themselves from the narrative by noting what sets them apart, while others debated who bullied who — Bridget or Bridgette?
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New York-based creator Olivia Joan, who has around 292,000 followers, put her "two cents" into the discourse, as she captioned her video recounting a horror story encounter with an unnamed influencer. She began by admitting, "I kind of like the conversation that's being had about influencers, especially the New York City influencers, and how people are kind of waking up and realizing that they're kind of all frauds."
According to the TikTok-famous photographer, she once met "a very famous New York City influencer that you guys all know and love" at a brand dinner. Instead of engaging in friendly conversation, she said the creator didn't bother asking her name and demanded to know what earned Olivia a seat at that table.
After hearing about her content and fashion-focused backstory, the unspecified influencer looked up Olivia on Instagram and TikTok.
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"She looks me dead in my eyes and was like, 'That can't be true. You don't have enough followers for that,'" Olivia claimed in her recent post. "I remember after that, I went to the bathroom [and] cried to my best friend ... At that moment, I wanted to quit, and I was like, 'I don't ever want to be in these spaces again with these type of people.'"
She continued, "When you see them online, they are the kindest and sweetest people in the world, and maybe they're nice to people that follow them, but to the smaller creators like myself, they are awful."
Olivia added that it wasn't even "the first time that that's happened," and she claims the unnamed influencer now pretends that they've never met, despite attending the same events and having multiple interactions with each other.
Read the original article on People