Society says moms are supposed to stick together.
It's said to take a village, after all.
But we learned this week that, when it comes to social media, Clemmie Hooper said "anything goes" when it comes to raking in success.
Clemmie Hooper, a popular mommy blogger and "momfluencer" on Instagram, has more than 700-thousand followers.
Her popular account, @mother_of_daughters, is filled with positive messages of childhood interactions, self-care and mom friends.
Not to mention her children and husband.
But earlier in the year, a wrench was thrown in the gears after someone appeared in an online chat and wrote scandalous things about Hooper's family.
Hooper shared:
"Earlier this year, I became aware of a website that had thousands of comments about my family and I. Reading them made me feel extremely paranoid and affected me much more than I knew at the time."
So much so, Hooper made the decision to create a fake online account, where she could slip into these communities undetected—sort of as a fly on the wall.
The problem came, however, when Hooper didn't just use this account to check the general community vibe after sharing an important post. She didn't just stop in every once in a while to make sure her family's safety was intact.
Instead, she allowed the fake account to become a presence in her life. She claims she became addicted to this other persona.
As "AliceinWanderlust," Hooper developed a presence on the public forum, Tattle Life. On this forum, she proceeded to verbally attack her fellow online mom influencers, who she claimed in real life to be her friends.
Of one fellow mommy blogger, she claimed her fellow influencer was "desperate" to break into the social circle, hinting that she would do anything to acquire the same success.
Of another, she stated the mommy blogger frequently used "race as a weapon" to get the things and impact she wanted, while encouraging others who didn't want to get mixed up in a racial debate to stay out of her way.
She even went so far as to criticize her husband.
Of him, she posted:
"Her husband, on the other hand, is a class a t---. I can't believe she puts up with his nonsense."
These comments, of course, didn't go by unnoticed—nor did the posts' location.
It was soon pointed out the account frequently posted from the same location as Hooper's popular account. Since Hooper's alias was often seen supporting herself on Tattle Life, it didn't take much more work for the internet detectives to begin putting two and two together.
One of these internet detectives was none other than Laura Rutherford of @That_Mummy_Smile, one of the mommy bloggers Hooper had focused on in her months of mean-girl-style gossiping.
At the beginning of November, Rutherford posted a photo of the iconic rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, with the caption:
"People Who Don't Think Shouldn't Talk."
In the Instagram post, Rutherford wrote:
"Dear Alice, I don't owe it to you to remain silent. You've goaded and encouraged trolls to tear my reputation apart fr the last 8mths. Mine and a handful of other influencers - and for what gain?"
Rutherford also challenged Hooper to speak out:
"You yourself have been at the hands of trolls and you know exactly what that does to you. This is your time to come forward and start doing the right thing by everyone that is affected."
This spurred Clemmie Hooper to publicly apologize the next day—but with two caveats.
The first, Hooper posted her apology to her Instagram stories, not a standard post on her Instagram account. For those who may not know the difference, a standard post appears as an image in your Instagram "grid" on your personal profile page. An Instagram story, however, only remains public for 24 hours before it disappears.
Though her apology may have appeared to some, many Instagram viewers may have missed the post. Also, it gives Hooper the opportunity to keep the positive vibe her account otherwise always possessed.
Second, Hooper admitted to creating and using the fake account, and the reasons for doing so, but this explanation hardly passes as a genuine apology in many viewers' eyes.
Hooper wrote:
"I know there are some rumors circulating about me and I want to take the opportunity to explain."
"Earlier this year, I became aware of a website that had thousands of comments about my family and I. Reading them made me feel extremely paranoid and affected me much more than I knew at the time."
"I decided without telling anyone else that I would make an anonymous account so that this group of people would believe I was one of them, so that I could maybe change their opinions from the inside to defend my family and I."
"It became all-consuming and it grew bigger than I knew how to handle. When the users started to suspect it was me, I made the mistake of commenting about others. I regret it all and am deeply sorry—I know this has caused a lot of pain."
Though she explained herself, many didn't feel Hooper's apology was sincere and felt too much damage was done.
Many returned to comment on Rutherford's post, encouraging others to unfollow Hooper's account effective immediately. Others were mortified that Hooper is in the very public, vulnerable position of being a midwife after bringing fellow mothers down in this way.
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
@that_mummy_smile / Instagram
Whether it was for damage control or a genuine apology, Hooper clearly has a lot of work to do to earn the trust back from her fellow moms.
@coyleray/Instagram