TikToker Zoe LaVerne
(Picture: (Instagram/Zoe LaVerne Day))A popular TikToker revealed that she sold “exclusive” photos of her newborn daughter for $15 to fans in order to pay for her hospital bills.
20-year-old Zoe Laverne, faced immediate backlash after she shared a link online for people to purchase the images of her baby earlier this month. Laverne announced on her Instagram that she had an emergency caesarean section and almost died during childbirth. Now, the TikTok star, who has more than 21 million followers on the social media platform, is saying the reason she did so was to get money to pay off the hospital experience.
"I knew that when Emersyn came early, I was going to be in the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] for a while," Laverne told Insider. "Which means my income from socials was going to be put on hold for a little bit."
She shared that she saw selling her baby’s photos as a "way to make money to pay for her extended stay in the hospital and spend more time and focus on her.”
The 20-year old has built a following since she was a teenager. Since she announced that she was expecting a child with Dawson Day, many have kept up with updates on her pregnancy and her relationship.
Laverne has since issued an apology on TikTok for selling the photos and further explained her rationale.
“So first of all, this is my first time being a mom, and during my pregnancy, I had a bunch of death threats and people saying they were gonna kill her and people saying that they hope she dies and all this stuff,” she explained during the video.
She continued: “So me and my team decided, well maybe if I made a link and people had to pay $15 to see her, that the haters—the people that wished death threats on her, or whatever—wouldn't care enough to pay to see her and only my supporters that actually support me and love me would pay to see her.”
Though she admitted that her actions look “super, super bad” she told Insider that as a social media influencer, her source of income relies on making money online.
"Many celebrities post photos of their children and make a living being 100% available to the public all the time," she said. "I still have to work to make sure I can pay for my child while also going to the ICU every single day."
A few days after giving birth, Laverne married Day while her baby was still in the hospital.
"We wanted to get married just so Emersyn could come home to a mom and dad who are married," she told media.
