Influencer Kirsten Titus reveals she got hateful messages from men after posting makeup photo

Influencer Kirsten Titus has revealed how she received some rude messages from men about her looks on Instagram, after posting a photo of her face while wearing only wearing colourful eye makeup.

In a video posted to her TikTok account last month, Titus shared screenshots of some direct messages that she received from different men, in response to one of photos.

To her Instagram Story, Titus posted a picture of herself with a funny smile and colourful glitter eyeshadow on her face, as one eye had pink and yellow eyeshadow on it while the other had blue and silver. It appears that she doesn’t have any other makeup on her face and that she posted this photo to make her followers laugh, as the caption reads: “Makeup guru.”

However, within three hours of posting the picture, she said that “it really set off the Y chromosome” and began to read some of the message she “received from the male specimen”.

Some of the first few messages include men telling Titus that they “didn’t know [she] had bad skin” and that they didn’t know “if [the photo] was a joke or not,” and even if it was, it was “not a good one”.

According to the screenshots, other men commented on the fact that she didn’t have a “filter” on, which Titus believed was in reference to her not wearing makeup.

“This is my first time seeing you without a filter on,” one message reads. “You’re funny so I still think you’re cute but you really should stop using the filter because it’s deceiving low[key].”

She also acknowledged that some messages were “so extra that it was actually funny.” More specifically, she addressed one that told her to “get [her] life together” and called her “embarrassing” for wearing “glitter” at her age.

The 19-year-old TikToker then showed how some Instagram users told her she wasn’t good at makeup, one of whom said: “I know this selfie is a joke but you have a lot of videos of you doing your makeup that’s not a joke and everytime it looks bad, so just stop.”

While a few people told Titus that she was “mad pretty,” they also claimed that she needed to “wear more makeup” for the sake of growing her “audience”.

“You were my TikTok crush until I [saw] these last three stories of you,” one man wrote. “This might come off weird but I think you can grow your audience if you wear more makeup, just a suggestion though, you don’t gotta follow.”

As of 29 April, the video has more than 3.9m views, with viewers in the comments disagreeing with the messages and praising Titus’ skin.

“YOUR SKIN IS LITERALLY CLEAR??? Do they not know what clear skin looks like,” one wrote. “I’m so confused.”

“But you literally have perfect skin,” another wrote.

Many viewers emphasised how appalled they were by these men’s behaviours and encouraged Titus to share their Instagram usernames.

“Who gave them the audACITY,” one wrote, while another wrote: “Why are they so mad?”

A third person said: “Girl why [are] you blocking their names. Go ahead and share with the class.”

In response, Titus wrote: “For legal purposes, I was told I can’t show but also idk but also I don’t wanna get sued.”

The Independent has reached out to Titus for comment.