‘I’ve been a victim of revenge porn twice – anger fuelled me to speak out’
As her new documentary airs, Love Island’s Zara Mcdermott talks trolling, filters and why she’s warning young women against sending nude selfies
THE PAST 12 MONTHS have put the spotlight on Love Island contest ants turned-influencers, most notoriously when a number jetted off to Dubai during lockdown. But ex-islander and Made In Chelsea star Zara Mcdermott, 24, is one influencer set on using her huge platform of 1.5m Instagram followers for good. She’s been working on a BBC documentary about revenge porn, which seeks to warn about the dangers of sending nude pictures.
Sadly, it’s a topic Zara is all too familiar with. At 14, during a period of being badly bullied at school, a boy repeatedly pestered her to send him a naked picture. In an attempt to fit in, she sent him a photo of herself in the bath. The next day it had gone viral in local schools, and she was known as ‘the slag’ for the rest of her time at school. Later, aged 21 – the day she left the Love Island villa in 2018 – she learned she’d become a victim of revenge porn again.
Before going on the show, Zara had shared intimate pictures with a man she was seeing. He dumped her before she appeared on TV and shared the images with friends, without her consent. Soon, they’d gone global. ‘It completely dampened an otherwise huge experience for me,’ she says. ‘I just wanted to be able to live in the moment and enjoy my new life for a bit and instead was reminded of how awful the world can be sometimes.’
She says the experience, coupled with the trolling many people in the public eye receive, ‘can break a person. It really can.’
While Zara didn’t pursue legal action in either case, the fact she has been a victim of revenge porn twice goes to show just how pressing the need is to address this type of crime. She now advises anyone against sending nude images or videos, comparing experiencing revenge porn to going through a process of grieving.
‘I felt so many emotions the first time; the second time I still felt some of those emotions, but the anger came through. That anger definitely fuelled me wanting to make this documentary,’ she says.
Revenge porn – disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress – has been illegal since 2015, but campaigners say the problem has been exacerbated by lockdown. Zara has been inundated with messages from women sharing their experiences of it with her – it can be as many as 10 to 15 a day. ‘I can’t even begin to tell you how many, it’s actually quite frightening. I know sometimes it is easier to open up to a stranger than it is to your family or friends, but it really does highlight the idea of shame to me,’ she says – acknowledging shame is something she still feels herself.
Because of the pandemic, Zara adds, ‘The energy online has shifted,’ with trolling ‘a lot worse. It’s nasty messages about my appearance,’ she says. ‘I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry at least probably three times a week from the nasty comments.’
Another tricky area to navigate online is using filters. This month the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that influencers shouldn’t use beauty filters when they create sponsored posts to sell skincare or cosmetics products. ‘I think for like a year I couldn’t put an Instagram story up of my face without a filter on. Because you get in the habit and you think, “Oh God, I look so much nicer.”’ Now, she says, she’s trying to stop using them.
Which feels appropriate – her documentary shows an unfiltered and stripped-back version of Zara, as she opens up about her trauma to help others. ‘One thing I say [to other revenge porn victims] is that it does get better. Even though you might feel like you’re in the darkest place ever, it does get better.’
‘Zara Mcdermott: Revenge Porn’ will be on BBC Three on iplayer from 23 February