This popular YouTuber launched a campaign to help kids in Gaza and other conflict zones. Then came the angry comments
CNN
Rachel Griffin Accurso, better known to her 9 million YouTube followers as Ms Rachel, is a popular social media personality for kids. But when she launched a campaign to raise money for children in Gaza, she got angry comments that left her in tears.
In her videos, Ms Rachel’s whimsical voice is like a balm for many unyielding toddlers. “Hiiii, heeeello,” she chirps while waving cheerfully in social media clips that feature upbeat nursery rhymes, dances and language lessons for preschool children. But last week, her message to her more than 6.5 million combined followers on Instagram and TikTok was anything but. Instead of her usual smiling, clapping and cheering, the popular social media creator, whose full name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, was in tears. “The bullying is so bad. It’s so bad. But I can handle this,” she said in a video posted to her accounts last Thursday. It showed a closeup of an emotional Accurso in a dark room, wiping her eyes. “That is who I am. I love my neighbor. I love every child,” she added. “Imagining for one second what a mom is going through unable to feed her child or give her child clean water or keep her child safe.” The backlash had started four days earlier, after Accurso announced a campaign to raise money for children in several war-torn parts of the world, including Gaza. She began receiving angry comments on her posts, asking why she wasn’t also trying to help victims of Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel. “You should be for all children not just the children in gaza. Do you not care what hamas did to all the innocent jewish children october 7th???” one Instagram comment said.
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