THE DARKER SIDE OF FAME
Paxton Fielies has chosen to focus on the support she’s getting and not the online abuse.
SHE captured viewers’ hearts with her big voice and plucky attitude. When at the tender age of 17 Paxton Fielies became the youngest contestant ever to win Idols SA, fans couldn’t get enough of her.
As she basked in the adoration, the teenager looked forward to sharing her talent with the world. But now, a year on, she wishes someone had warned her how nasty people can be.
It recently got to a point where she was scared to go on social media because she knew there’d be someone making insulting comments about her. For some reason trolls decided she was fair game and they’ve been having a field day creating hurtful memes poking fun at her looks, her hair and her background growing up in Bishop Lavis, one of Cape Town’s poorer areas.
“If I were Paxton I wouldn’t act so kwaai, especially when we know your roots,” wrote one troll in a meme that was accompanied by a photo of her as a schoolgirl with short hair.
There were others – even a few mock- ing her mom, Chrystal (45). “It really upset me,” she tells us. But the trolls chose the wrong person to mess with. Instead of allowing the taunts and insults to bring her down Paxton is storming up the pop charts with her new album.
And she’s got an army of loyal admirers who’ve rallied to her aid. Voice SA finalist Robin Pieters, singer and actor Keeno Lee Hector and actress and presenter Nicole Bessick were so horrified by the abuse being hurled at the teen they threw their weight behind a #handsoffpaxton campaign on social media.
Paxton says it was this show of support that helped her put the dark chapter behind her.
“It made me realise I have more support than the hate,” she says.
THE T-shirt she wears to our interview at a Cape Town hotel speaks volumes. “Be Yourself ” it proclaims in big bold letters. Since winning Idols SA, Paxton has had to grow up fast. In the weeks following her win she was on the receiving end of death threats from disgruntled Idols fans who didn’t think she deserved to take first place.
But she handled the matter so well it led to the Western Cape government picking her to be one of the faces of its anti-bullying campaign.
“It’s traumatic to be bullied,” she says, adding that just because someone is a celeb it doesn’t make it okay to pick on them.
“You don’t know what that person’s battles are or what they’re going through in their personal life.”
But she’s found the best way to handle it is just to carry on with her life. At 18 she’s one of the most successful Idols SA winners, with her debut album, This Is Me, doing well on several charts. On its release day the album debuted at No 2 on the Google Play chart.
Although Paxton loves interacting with fans her experience of being bullied has made her wary of social media.
“It’s not really for me. If I can, I stay off it. I’ll only post about work when I have to.”
She was a Grade 11 pupil at Belhar High School when she entered Idols SA last year. In November she returned to Bishop Lavis from Johannesburg a winner. Thanks to the prize money, she was