Grace Brumfield, a teen in the small town of Daphne, Alabama is speaking out after a slew of adults shamed her on Facebook for the dress she chose to wear to her school's homecoming dance.
The furor erupted when Brumfield's mother posted snaps of seventeen-year-old Grace in her short, tight dress to her Facebook profile following a photo shoot that Brumfield did with her boyfriend and homecoming date.
A torrent of invective ensued in the comments, mostly from older women. Brumfield posted some of the comments in a TikTok video, seen below.
@mgracebrumfield Visit TikTok to discover videos!
Brumfield, a 17-year-old high school junior, chose her black dress because of its similarity to Princess Diana's so-called "revenge dress" from 1994, one of the late Princess's most iconic looks. And, much like the dress that inspired it, Brumfield's look was an immediate hit at her school's very special post-lockdown return to homecoming festivities.
As Brumfield told BuzzFeed:
"Homecoming was AMAZING! I had so many compliments on my dress, and it was our first homecoming since COVID, so they made it really nice and very special for all of the students!"
The location of her and her boyfriend Zach's photos had special significance too:
"We took our homecoming pictures in a sunflower field that was planted in memorial for a fellow peer named Dalton Defilipi, who passed away last year."
But the positivity quickly evaporated when her mother posted some of the photos to a Facebook group called Sunflowers and Daisies, where they quickly went viral--and a wave of angry criticism ensued.
As Brumfield's TikTok shows, the negative comments, nearly all of them from women, called her "trashy," a "tramp," and made jokes insinuating she was an escort.
But one comment in particularly, from a woman named Rhonda Flesner, took things to a level that left many people shocked. Flesner suggested Grace, who is a survivor of sexual assault, was asking to be raped.
Brumfield clapped back at her comment in a follow-up TikTok.
@mgracebrumfield Visit TikTok to discover videos!
Brumfield told BuzzFeed she was disturbed by the comments, comparing the words these grown adults to the bullying she has endured throughout her childhood.
"My heart kind of immediately sank because I felt so confident about my appearance and attire that night, and I didn't want that confidence I had to be in a way stolen from me."
"I have been picked on my entire life — my freshman year, I moved schools because it got so bad."
Grace's fellow TikTokers were similarly appalled by the comments she received.
@shoona825/TikTok
@thatwildsunflowerxoxo/TikTok
@hannahbelleclout/TikTok
@kimberlyjharris/TikTok
@mikaylanogueira/TikTok
@ieatdilfz/TikTok
@coreythebagel/TikTok
@couponwithkayla/TikTok
@hannahjohnson927/TikTok
@alyssamckayyy/TikTok
Thankfully, Grace's parents, her boyfriend Zach, and Zach's parents have all been on her side and defending her amidst the furor.
And for all the drama, Grace isn't letting the comments get to her. She told BuzzFeed she considers her body a "work of art" and has a message for the Facebook haters: "older men and women need to be taught to control themselves." Hear, hear.
