Since her release from prison on Dec. 28 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has developed a large social media following. After serving seven years of the 10 she was sentenced to for second degree murder, Blanchard took to social media to share her story. The 32 year old now has over 8.3 million followers on Instagram and over 9.9 million followers on TikTok. Blanchard went from serving a sentence to serving fans a look at her influencer life — but should she be handed this platform?
According to Forbes, Blanchard was born July 17, 1991 to her mother Clauddine, “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Around the age of three months, her mother began making claims about her health which resulted in a series of extreme diagnoses and misplaced medical treatments. However, Blanchard wasn’t actually unwell and her mother had been continuously lying about her symptoms. As Blanchard grew older, her mother’s abuse began to escalate and Blanchard questioned if she was really as sick as her mom made her out to be. Her mother made many claims such as saying her daughter suffered from Leukemia. Other claims included visual impairments, asthma and digestive problems that resulted in the placement of a feeding tube. Additionally, prescribed medications led to the decay and removal of her teeth. Her mother’s behavior was later found to have stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy of her daughter. This psychological disorder is a condition where an individual intentionally produces symptoms of illness to themselves or a child and lies to medical professionals to gain attention or sympathy, according to MedlinePlus.
After Blanchard’s release from prison, she was seen as an influencer and her following increased significantly, but it is not necessarily deserved. Blanchard has publicly claimed that she is hoping to use this new platform to “create change,” yet the content she publishes on social media is far from it. Many of her posts criticize people who don’t support her relationship with her new husband, Ryan Scott Anderson. Calling out her so-called “haters” and showing off her new life of freedom and lavishness doesn’t accomplish her supposed goal of creating change, rather it incites hostility. Glorifying a crime and supporting a social media platform of a convicted felon should not be normalized.
Blanchard has gained a majority of her fame from her story being shared through movies and shows such as “The Act”which was produced about Blanchard’s life and published without her consent. She is now in the process of telling her story in her own words through a book that is in the works of completion. Using social media to further understand people’s experiences is extremely valuable and Blanchard has tried to use her platform to raise awareness about her experience as a victim of her mother’s Munchausen by proxy syndrome and to help other victims of child abuse. However, the glorification of her lifestyle and her content published on social media takes away the focus from the fact that she was deeply involved in a violent, brutal crime of assisting in the death of her mother.
