For Millennials. By Millennials.
Usually, when influencers and content creators online face serious controversies, their careers are hard to revive. But despite the major scandal she’s facing, Zoe LaVerne is still trying to come back from it. Recently, a video was circulated online where she was kissing an underage fan, Connor Joyce. Later, Zoe LaVerne admitted to her ‘mistake’ and said that she and Connor had ‘caught feelings for each other’. Now, she’s trying to explain herself more.
The Zoe LaVerne Apology
Before we get into the problem of her apology, let’s first know about it completely. Right when the drama erupted initially, Zoe LaVerne simply posted an Instagram apology from a backup account.
In this apology, she admitted that what she did was wrong and that Connor realized it too. Despite their mutual feelings for each other, they both did not want to do anything about it because of their age difference.
After saying she’ll come on Instagram Live to explain everything, she did, and here was her apology:
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#zoelaverne talks about her kissing Connor. Says she was aware he was a little kid and the kiss just “happened” because they were in a dark place 👀
I didn’t groom Connor, I wouldn’t do that. He’s a kid and I’m aware of that. And it just happened. We both were in a dark place when we first like became friends. And we both just ended up catching feelings for each other. And friends do that. They catch feelings for each other. That’s not a bad thing. Yes, the age is a bad thing. And Yes, it’s wrong. Yes, it’s not good. And we both realized that. And we stopped. Because we didn’t want to get this out of proportion, we didn’t want this to happen.
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#zoelaverne apologizes
Then Zoe LaVerne also talks about the fact that she would never do anything to Connor Joyce without his consent:
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Zoe says she wouldn’t do anything to connor without “consent”
I wouldn’t do anything to Connor ever without consent. Connor and I both consented to kissing. That was how it went. We both liked each other and then we realized that the ages were too different. Nothing happened between us besides kissing.
She also talked about how she researched it and that she could not go to jail for kissing someone underage, because that’s what many people were talking about online.
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#zoelaverne says she has done her research and talked to police and says you can’t go to jail for kissing a minor
Problem with Zoe LaVerne’s Apology
This is something that almost all of the people online are rightfully pointing out. Zoe LaVerne keeps saying that she didn’t do anything to Connor without his consent. But the fact of the matter is that Connor was just 13 years of age at the time. He cannot legally give his consent to Zoe LaVerne, who was 19 at the time. The legal age of consent in Indiana is 16.
Even if they were developing feelings for each other, she should have realized that what she was feeling was wrong. And if she could not control herself around her underage friend, then she should have distanced herself from him right from the start.
Connor Joyce is still taking Zoe’s side and is repeating what Zoe is saying. But the main point to focus on here is that Connor is still underage and he’s not able to actually understand that he was manipulated by Zoe LaVerne.
Zoe LaVerne is simply desperate to revive her career that she is trying to get out of the backlash as soon as she can without taking full accountability for her actions. That is pretty evident in her Instagram Story below:
People aren’t mad because the situation wasn’t worse. People are mad because the situation is worse as it possibly can be.
She and Connor Joyce have gone their separate ways and are not going to be in contact anymore. But that doesn’t change the way that she did manipulate Connor to a point where he thought it was okay for them to kiss. They both realized it was wrong, and they stopped but that doesn’t mean Connor Joyce was not wronged.
Plus, add to the fact that Zoe LaVerne is laughing off this scandal as if it’s just a joke:
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posted by #zoelaverne 😬😬
Zoe LaVerne is reacting to someone who made a TikTok of her and Connor’s scandal along with Larray’s diss track ‘Canceled’.
Meanwhile, Connor Joyce is probably going to realize what actually happened and how wrong it was when he grows up. There is a possibility that he would suffer from mental health issues from just this one incident.
Zoe and Connor both state that it was just one “consensual” kiss. It can’t be consensual because Connor is underage. Zoe made Connor think it was okay for them to still be friends with each other and be close with one another despite them having feelings for each other.
LaVerne keeps saying there’s nothing wrong with friends kissing one another. Well, it is when you don’t have their consent or when someone is not legally capable of giving you their consent.
Another popular YouTuber Vereena Sayed rightfully called out the problematic points in LaVerne’s “apology”
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[SWIPE] #vereenasayed has a message to #zoelaverne
Vereena Sayed explained that Zoe LaVerne was wrong when she kept using phrases and words like ‘we are sorry’. This was not Connor’s fault, it was all Zoe’s fault because as an adult she should have made better decisions.
She should not have realized it until their kiss which she also happened to record. Along with that, Vereena also highlighted how Zoe LaVerne wasn’t actually apologetic. The apology didn’t seem sincere. Not just to her but the whole of the internet.
Vereena actually suggested better ways for Zoe LaVerne to take accountability and fix the mistakes that she made. One of the ways was to block Connor on all social media platforms, log off from all her social media accounts and take some time off to right her wrongs.
