Olivia Dunne has many feathers in her caps. Besides being one of the most famous college gymnasts, she is also a big social media influencer with a stellar following on Instagram. In an interview with NBC’s Stephanie Gosk, she revealed that her social media career gave her a turnover worth around ‘seven figures’.
However, she is not without her flaws and shady sides. She has been embroiled in controversies in the past, with some of them landing her in serious trouble. So what are those controversies? Let’s have a look.
She had once landed in controversy over photoshopping herself to look slimmer. The incident took place in 2023 when an Instagram user named John Dorsey picked out several videos of Dunne to point out that she had most likely manipulated her look to seem slimmer and smaller than she actually was.
This created an outcry, with several people saying that it was ‘irresponsible’ of her to do this since she served as a role model for millions of young women who followed her on social media and that she was a bad influence on them.
“You have millions of young women following you. It’s kind of your duty to not do this. These young women will want to look like you and you can’t even look like you without Photoshop. So where does that leave them?” asked Dorsey. The criticisms finally forced her to take off those photos.
Her second controversial moment came when she endorsed Caktus Artificial Intelligence, an AI Platform that offered to write full thesis papers for students. The backlash got so bad that Louisiana State University, the college that Dunne attends, was forced to put out a notice that read, “At LSU, our professors and students are empowered to use technology for learning and pursuing the highest standards of academic integrity. However, using AI to produce work that a student then represents as one’s own could result in a charge of academic misconduct, as outlined in the Code of Student Conduct.”
Another one of her tumultuous moments came when she took umbrage at a New York Times article that called out female athletes who ramp up their sex appeal. The article argued that athletes who overplay their sex appeal diminished the equitable treatment of women in sports. Dunne was not pleased, and even lashed out at the article, calling it a ‘hit piece’ on her in a Fox News interview.
