Wren and Jacquelyn

Submission 1,193

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

Wren and Jacquelyn, also known as wren.eleanor, are a mother and daughter duo on the TikTok account @wren.eleanor on which Jacquelyn posts videos of her young daughter Wren. The account started in 2019 and grew a following of over 17 million by 2024. Originally in 2022, Jacquelyn received backlash from users who believed that she was exploiting her daughter for monetary gain by enabling child predators via sexually suggestive thumbnails and videos featuring Wren. The controversial videos showed Wren with phallic objects or skimpy outfits. Many noticed the number of saves and favorites on the more controversial videos, as well as an alarming number of sexually suggestive comments left by men. The so-called Wren and Jacquelyn Exploitation Controversy inspired mass discourse and media coverage, eventually resurfacing in 2024.

Online History

On July 26th, 2019, Jacquelyn posted the first TikTok^[1] to the account @wren.eleanor, gaining over 388,000 plays and 38,100 likes in five years (shown below, left). The creator's first largely viral TikTok^[2] was shared a month later on October 7th, 2019, receiving over 6.5 million plays and 746,000 likes in five years (shown below, right).

Going into the 2020s, Jacquelyn's account received increased virality, predominantly manifesting in 2021 when the accounts' videos consistently earned more than a million plays,^[3] sometimes amassing over 100 million plays.^[4]

Controversy

On April 8th, 2022, a subreddit called /r/WrenEleanor^[5] was created. As stated by the mods in the subreddit's biography, "This is not a fan sub. A place to discuss the child exploitation of Wren Eleanor from tiktok." Predominantly in May 2022, many Redditors exchanged discourse in the subreddit that accused Jacquelyn of exploiting Wren and lending her to child predators. For instance, on May 21st, 2022, a since-deleted Redditor^[6] shared "Scary comments from wren’s Instagram" gaining over 60 upvotes in two years (shown below).

Also in May 2022, a TikToker^[7]^[8]^[9] named @annareportsnews posted multiple since-deleted videos that accused Jacquelyn of exploiting her daughter and knowingly enabling child predators. More TikTokers^[10]^[11] then levied similar accusations in their own viral videos (examples shown below).

A child-content deletion movement was also notably sparked from the backlash against Jacquelyn's content around this timeframe.

Jacquelyn's Response Video

On August 5th, 2022, Jacquelyn posted a TikTok^[12] in which she responded to the accusations. Jacquelyn claimed that no law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, had found any proof that Wren's likeness appeared on inappropriate websites. Jacquelyn reiterated that she was distressed and labeled the accusations false rumors and a conspiracy theory. Over two years, the video received roughly 13.5 million plays and 735,200 likes (shown below).

2024 Backlash

In March 2024, discourse and backlash about Jacquelyn allegedly exploiting Wren surfaced again en masse, evident in viral TikToks^[13]^[14] posted during the timeframe (examples shown below).

Following

By March 13th, 2024, Wren and Jacquelyn had amassed over 17 million followers on TikTok^[15] and over 194,000 followers on the private Instagram^[16] account @tiktokwren.