Influencer slammed for 'tone deaf' video while driving through poverty-filled neighbourhood in Tesla
Featured Image Credit: @mikaelatesta/TikTok
People have called out TikToker Mikaela Testa after she shared a video driving through Skid Row in a Tesla.
The Australian influencer has been travelling around America with her friends, documenting her journey and shopping trips as she goes in a bid to escape the break-up blues after her and fellow TikTok influencer Atis Paul called it quits.
However, a recent trip to Los Angeles, California, has ended in the 22-year-old getting slated online.
In the video, Testa complains about how she wanted to rent a Lamborghini but discovered you have to be over the age of 30, so decided to settle for a Tesla instead.
The influencer then shows her and her friends buying three salads amounting to a whopping total of 130 Australian dollars before they cruise round the neighbourhood of Skid Row.
Skid Row has the largest stable populations of homelessness in the US and is also home to the Cecil Hotel which houses 10,000 people and is the setting of the chilling true-crime docuseries which investigated the vanishing and death of a woman named Elisa Lam.
In the 'day in the life' video, Testa notes how 'obsessed' she is with the hotel but how driving through the streets was so 'heartbreaking' that she 'could not stop crying' and 'didn't even make it through'.
"I was not going to get out of the car so I missed out," she said.
While driving in the poverty-stricken area, Testa then decides to compare two different notes, questioning whether the 'washable Australian money or the American money with blood stains on it' is better.
She chooses the American money because she loves the 'aesthetic'.
On the drive back from the Hollywood Hills, the influencer also buys two cups of lemonade from some children selling them on the side of the road. She paid a total of $20 for the drinks.
Testa has since been widely criticised online, with some having viewed the video as the influencer having distastefully flaunted her wealth.
"Mikaela testa is a prime example of how tone deaf influencers can be sksksks not her sitting in a tesla talking about how sad it is to see homeless people while driving through skid row," one Twitter user said.
Another wrote: "Tik tok is a warholian hellhole full of talentless fame chasers. I assume she pulled a Kardashian where they exploited a homeless person to make themselves look like white saviours. Then threw him back onto the streets when cameras left."
"The generation that takes pride in accomplishing nothing," a third resolved.
UNILAD has contacted Testa for comment.
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