Erin Napier has a message for the trolls who made cruel comments about her 3-year-old daughter.
Last Thursday night, Napier, 35, took to Instagram to shut down troll after she posted a photo of her daughter Helen, 3.
“Your quarterly PSA about how to be a decent person on social media,” she began the caption.
“Because Ben and I have this job, it means we open ourselves up to the public in ways that are sometimes vulnerable and I think there’s value in that,” she wrote. “I think there is a fine line between privacy and helping others by being vulnerable about some aspects of your life when you’re in the spotlight.”
“But tonight, because of this job we have, after posting a photo of the back of my daughter’s head (why do we never show her face? for her privacy and because of vicious strangers who lurk and comment or could seek her out) there were cruel comments within moments,” she continued, addressing how people were making cruel comments on Helen’s hair, as well as making comments about the family’s treatment of the coronavirus pandemic.
“As if from a tiny vignette you can see the whole picture of precaution and how we wear ourselves out keeping our family safe every day, the endless testing, while trying not to sacrifice every last shred of normalcy, when it’s as safe as it can possibly be,” she said, addressing the COVID concerns.
While it was not clear what exactly was shown in the photo, it was swiftly deleted.
Previously, Erin shared how she believed how she, Helen along with her mother may have all had the virus early this year and have since recovered.
Erin ended the post by explaining that she “immediately” took the photo off of Instagram “to be a good steward of my baby’s image and protector of my heart,” but she didn’t stop there.
“Those comments and the people who make them are not welcome here. Full stop,” she wrote. “If you feel you may be a person capable of communicating this way, please see yourself away from my account or I’ll be glad to help you do that.”
This is not the first time the designer has spoke out regarding her relationship with social media.
Back in September, she informed fans she would be taking a break from Instagram for mental health reasons.
“The more I learn about social media, the more it frightens me,” she wrote at the time. “So I’m going to make an effort to spend less time here. People weren’t built to know the opinions of thousands or even hundreds of their ‘friends.’ The real world is a much nicer place, honestly.”
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And in July, Erin decided to turn off the comments on her Instagram posts. “Turning off comments till 2021 feels like a good move,” she wrote at the time. “It’s getting harder to shoulder every opinion from every direction at all times about everything when everyone is freaking out constantly. There’s too much noise.”
She requested her fans not worry about her choice and encouraged them to support her. “It’s nothing to freak out about. No need to shove. Have mercy. Show grace. Social media is for fun,” she wrote. And while she did turn off comments for a while, she quickly changed the settings to allow limited, approved comments, and then slowly turned comments back on.
Erin, who is a graphic designer, and Ben, a former church minister, were thrust into HGTV fame after a producer for the network spotted their renovation of the 1925 craftsman cottage they were fixing up for themselves in their hometown of Laurel, Miss.
Now the couple has their series Home Town (now in its fourth season), along with the spinoff Home Town Takeover coming in 2021, two retail stores, a book and a furniture line.
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