Thread by @littlemissjacob

After reading both Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni’s lawsuits, here’s my honest take—and why this hits close to home.

When I managed a house of TikTok stars, my job was to enforce the rules: no jumping off the roof into the pool, no stealing, everyone makes the content agreed to. Basic stuff, right?

When I read Baldoni’s lawsuit, it hit close to home.

I’ve been there: labeled a villain in my own story by people I trusted to help build something great.

Here’s what happened:
I built The Kids Next Door, a TikTok house that thrived during the pandemic. My job? Simple. Enforce the rules, make sure everyone created the content they agreed to, and handle the contracts that ensured we all got paid.

But success comes with a target on your back. The influencers didn’t want rules. They didn’t want accountability. They wanted to do the bare minimum, rake in the money, and never honor their agreements.
They wanted to spray paint "Ari is a bitch" all over the walls. Then came the fake victimhood.

At first, they grumbled about me behind closed doors. Then, when the New York Times came to write about our success, it became open war.

The biggest TikTokers in the house started scheming. Their plan? Destroy my reputation. If they made me look like a villain, they wouldn’t have to pay what they owed.

And it worked—for a while. They played up the “Kids” angle, even though most of them were over 21. They sold the idea that I was some evil, power-hungry boss exploiting young creators.

Then Taylor Lorenz got involved. She didn’t care about the truth. She cared about the headline. She cozied up to the influencers, wrote a glowing puff piece to gain their trust, and used it as a springboard to tear me down in the New York Times.

The result? I was painted as the bad guy. But here’s the kicker: while they burned down what we built, they didn’t realize they were torching themselves, too. The TikTokers? Their careers fizzled. Lorenz? She's done.

The influencers sided with NYT and Taylor Lorenz and with the 2 powerful influencers in the house. Once the whispers started, the rest of the influencers didn’t stand a chance. They heard the lies so many times, they started to believe them. And suddenly, anything I did—enforcing rules, asking for what I was owed—became “proof” that I was the villain.

It reminds me of what Baldoni’s going through. Not everyone from This Is Us is lying or bad, but when you hear enough rumors from powerful voices, it’s easy to see how they might think, “Maybe Lively’s right. Maybe Baldoni’s the problem.” People I did so much for unfollowed me too.

When I see Baldoni fighting back, I get it. People don’t realize how easy it is to twist the truth and destroy someone just because they were in charge.

The media? They love to create villains. But what about the protections for people like us? The ones who take risks, build something real, and end up paying the price when others can’t handle it?

Here’s the hard truth: people don’t need proof to believe a story. They just need someone loud enough to tell it.

And sometimes, the person telling it has a bigger motive.

In my case, the influencers didn’t just want me out of the picture—they wanted what I built. They wanted control of the house, the deals, the narrative. They wanted everything I had created without having to work for it.

So they set out to end me.

Is that what’s happening between Lively and Baldoni? Maybe, maybe not. But the timing and intensity of this story make you wonder: does she want something he has?

I hope that’s not the case. And to be fair, there’s no solid proof to suggest that’s what’s happening here—yet.

But it’s a reminder to keep an open mind. Narratives are powerful, and they’re rarely black and white. In situations like these, the loudest voice doesn’t always tell the whole truth.

To clarify: I wasn’t accused of sexual harassment. My situation was different. The accusations against me were about control, contracts, and money. But the pattern is eerily similar: the person in charge—whether it’s Baldoni or me—gets painted as the villain because that’s the story people want to believe.

And as someone who’s sortof been in Baldoni’s shoes, I can tell you this: the truth takes time, but it always comes out. / END