Internet personality Emma Chamberlain has shared her side of the story after rumors emerged that she was charging $10,000 for an Instagram DM.
Speculation about Chamberlain's pricey personal message began last month, when a Twitter user shared a screenshot said to be from the influencer's website and wrote: "Why is emma chamberlain charging 10K for an Instagram DM this is wild."
The offering was described as a 'personal thank you note from Emma in Instagram DM', and cost a whopping $10,000 (£8,800), or the cheaper offer of $902 (£726) per month if customers wanted to split their payments.
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After the image went viral Chamberlain told E! News that she got in touch with her merchandise company, Cozack, which changed to the site to say it was 'under construction' while they looked into the matter.
Cozack then released a statement to say the listing was 'false and inaccurate', adding: "There have been false and inaccurate claims that Emma Chamberlain was offering DM's in exchange for $10k. As background in 2018, Cozack (Emma's merch company) was testing a prospective reward program related to Emma's Merch without her knowledge.
"In testing they created an outrageous, never activated reward level that was not intended to be active or purchased. These reward ideas were never run by Emma since they were not meant to be available for sale or reward, but simply intended for internal testing purposes."
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Chamberlain has now spoken out about the situation and the impact it had on her life, telling Rolling Stone about how she's felt 'out of control of [her] identity' when things get 'twisted', as was the case with the DM listing.
“I’ve had multiple falling-outs of grace,” the 21-year-old said. "That’s really hard for me, because if I intended to do something that was wrong or hurtful, f**king go off, tell me what’s up.
"I’m not a perfect person. Have I f**ked up? Hell yes, I’ve f**ked up. But there were a lot of times when things that I did maybe got taken out of context, twisted into [their] own narrative.
"And you feel out of control of your identity. I’m being generous by saying this s**t has f**ked with me on a mental level in so many ways.”
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After rising to fame as an internet star, Chamberlain noted she's 'incredibly accessible to anyone at any given moment'.
While some wannabe influencers might think that sounds great, Chamberlain continued: "It’s dangerous. And everything is on a global scale, in a way.”
Emily Brown