Scar Girl (TikTok)

About

Scar Girl is a nickname given to TikToker Annie Bonelli (@wtmab) who, in 2021, appeared on video for the first time with a scar on her face that never faded, remaining on her face into 2023. Bonelli posted several videos claiming she applies something to her face to help it fade but it doesn't help. As the scar refused to fade and seemingly got worse, TikTokers began accusing her of faking the scar and drawing it on, becoming an increasing topic of controversy in January 2023.

Online History

On March 18th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @wtmab posted her first video to show a scar on her face, lip dubbing to a song, garnering over 1.4 million views in two years (shown below).

The TikToker continued to post videos over the following months and the scar remained visible, not seeming to fade at all (example shown below, left). Commenters started to hypothesize that the scar was fake, sometimes saying it looks darker in later videos rather than lighter and that the angle is different video-to-video. On August 8th, @wtmab posted a video to TikTok^[2] addressing commenters, saying she puts "stuff" on the scar to help it fade and claims it's "a lot better now than it used to be." She directly addresses people who say the scar should be white, saying her body might just "heal weird" and then showing another scar on her arm that is dark. She ends the video by saying she doesn't want to cover it with foundation because it might make it heal slower. The video (shown below, right) gained over 1.6 million views in two years.

January 2023

On January 1st, 2023, @wtmab posted a video to TikTok^[3] where she addresses her hate comments, accusing her of faking the scar, directly. In the video, she says she has a second scar on top of the original from a topical burn sustained during her last attempt to treat it. She addresses that the scar looks flat because of her beauty filter. She then wipes her face with a baby wipe to show that the scar doesn't rub off. The video (shown below) gained over 5 million views in a week.

Following the video, numerous TikTokers posted videos attempting to expose @wtmab for faking her scar. For example, on January 9th, TikToker^[4] @tonguehockeyqueen posted a video with a fake scar drawn in the same place claiming she used to stan scar girl but doesn't anymore, garnering over 2.5 million views in three days (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[5] @shelbytweten posted a video showing numerous images of scars and claiming the look of her scar doesn't make sense, garnering over 2.4 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Some users also defended scar girl, including TikToker^[6] @user..surejxjchc on January 9th, garnering over 3.3 million views in three days.

On January 11th, TikToker^[7] @wtmab posted another video trying to wipe off her scar using another solution, seemingly unable to wipe it off, garnering over 3.6 million views in under 24 hours (shown below). The video's description claims she got the scar in March 2020, before the first date the scar is shown on her TikTok page, although this could be a typo or she could have been covering the scar up at first. In the description, she writes, "I had a poor reaction to the first topical I tried in an attempt to fade it. I was sloppy applying it as well and this led to a longer injury."

On the same day, TikToker^[8] @annettejohnstonaesthetic posted a video zooming into the recent post by @wtmab, alleging that you actually can see some of the scar come off when she wipes it, garnering over 366,000 views in under 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References