'Internet meme ruined my career' BBC News

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Published 2015-11-07

Model Heidi Yeh says an internet meme ruined her career and had a damaging effect of her family. Social media is a part of most people lives. We share photos and videos, laugh together at cute cat videos and memes. But how would you feel if you were the unwitting victim of a meme? That's what one model - Heidi Yeh - says happened to her when she became the focus of jokes and internet memes claiming that she'd had plastic surgery. She says it has had a huge effect on her career and family.

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All Comments (21)

@CivylSwivyl 4 years ago

for anyone wondering, she has an active facebook account and she's doing well now - she has a son and seems to be handling quarantine well. i'm glad this story had a happy ending
@tangchangrvhs 4 years ago

I couldn't hear her clearly under the voiceover, but she actually talked about depression and suicidal thoughts which the translation omitted. Too dark for BBC I suppose.
@Cornholio8787 6 months ago

wow 8 years ago but i still see this meme from time to time. the internet is a terrible place sometimes.... a lot of times
@penguinpie5056 8 months ago

i find it a bit concerning people actually believe an ad is real life. but then that speaks to the average human intelligence these days.
@trashtaste1741 3 years ago

She talked about cyberbullying leading to suicide, please don't ignore that.
@dhanehlayeh6924 3 years ago

Imagine being so beautiful that people start believing that you had plastic surgery. It’s so sad that it ended this way.
@amanchaudhary3340 10 months ago

Life can be so tragic sometimes. More power to this woman for speaking out and continue living bravely.
@pprkut 10 months ago

I really hope she is okay now. So sad to see a life go out of control because of something you can't control.
@chasingthethunder2936 5 years ago

I was one of those fools who actually believed that. I'm really sorry. You're beautiful indeed.
@Agrarius24 4 years ago

She’s literally saying things about suicide but they didn’t translate it
@乂 6 months ago

I laugh at memes, but I would not laugh if I was a meme
@ArtemKonstantinovich 10 months ago

It’s a lesson. Don’t believe anything you see on the Internet 100%. Anything.
@kingaragornii9940 3 years ago

BBC didn't even translate her whole monologue... She was talking about suicide, but BBC did not even include it...
@jennieaf6319 3 years ago

please translate it correctly, she was talking about how bullying leads to suicide and you completely switched up the words,
@shellyh8739 6 months ago

I remember seeing this video years ago and finally stumbled upon this video. Whoever started this evil rumor online about her deserves to go to jail for ruining this lady's life and career.
@myuan819 10 months ago

poor girl - knew of the meme, not of the story...thanks for sharing and hopefully she has found success/peace again by now!
@CherryBlossomKid 4 years ago

She was literally struggling with suicide and the translation yeeted all of that.
@petergreen1994 7 years ago

She mentioned something about internet bullying and commit suicide, and why they didn't translate that?
@irvinetustin 3 months ago

Many years ago, I remember that internet story about the woman in Asia who had cosmetic surgery but didn't tell her husband, and the children didn't look like her. I thought it was a true story, only now I see I was wrong. The moral of the story is: Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
@davidx.1504 1 month ago

I definitely forgot this meme years ago. I might have heard about this meme being fake. But I never knew this actress's career and life got wrecked because of it. Hopefully after 8 years she's doing better, she didn't do anything to deserve this.