You might have seen a photo of Heidi Yeh on your Facebook or Twitter feed. It all began in 2012, when Yeh was featured in an ad campaign in Taiwan.
The photo was an ad for a cosmetic clinic only meant to appear in one print magazine. Yeh assumed people would know it was fake because it was an advertisement.
The photo showed Yeh and a man — cast as a married couple for the ad — and three children. Yeh and her "husband" were meant to be an attractive couple, and the children were edited to have "ugly faces." The caption of the photo read: "The only thing you'll ever have to worry about is how to explain it to the kids."
Suddenly, it spread around the world like wildfire. Reports said that Yeh had plastic surgery and her husband only realized it after she had "ugly children." Then her husband reportedly divorced her, then sued her and won.
The story was completely fake, yet it was everywhere around the web. Yeh has suffered the consequences. Friends, family, bullies, and coworkers have all accused her of having plastic surgery. Yeh insists that she hasn't. What's worse is that her career is ruined because of it. She can no longer get work as a model.
"Then I realized the whole world was spreading it and in different languages. People actually thought it was real. Even my then-boyfriend's friends would ask about it," Yeh told BBC. "People refused to believe that I had never had plastic surgery. Clients would ask me if I was the woman in the picture. After this, I only got small roles in advertisements."
Yeh says her boyfriend dumped her because of the rumors and that strangers gossiped about her in public. She came forward with her story to set the record straight and show how cyberbullying can spread vicious rumors about a person.
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