Even after being “exposed” by multiple media outlets, including our own, nine-year-old social media star Lil Tay continues to make headlines. Recently she appeared in a segment on Good Morning America where her mother and brother helped Tay tell her side of the story and maintain her persona as the “youngest flexer” on social media.
“People think it’s funny, I guess, cause I’m nine years old and I’ve accomplished so much,” Tay told GMA. “I’m the youngest flexer. I can do anything I like. If they don’t believe me, I don’t care.”
In a video for Complex, DJ Akademiks claimed that Tay is not the mastermind behind the facade, but a hostage of her older brother and mother, who are allegedly exploiting and coaching her appropriated behavior. But in her interview with GMA, Tay pushed back on those kinds of sentiments. "No one is forcing me to do this," Tay said, stating "it's not true" that her mother Angela Tian "wants to make money" off her and is running her social accounts. "I run my own Instagram,” Tay later added.
A video that circulated the internet earlier this week shows Tay filming one of her Instagram videos with a voice in the background coaching her to speak “more ignorant.” The voice is allegedly that of her 16-year-old older brother, who Snoop Dogg also accused of coaching Tay. Others, including Bow Wow, Jake Paul, and Chief Keef have defended or worked with nine-year-old. “A lot of people are going to say this and that, we just keep going,” Tay’s brother told GMA.
In the segment, Tian describes Tay as "well-mannered," "a great kid," with a "passion" and a "dream.” While Tay slipped up after claiming she dropped out of Harvard (she couldn’t remember which city the college is in), the nine-year-old and her family maintained the act throughout the interview, telling haters to stay mad. "All the haters, they want to get attention from her," Tian said of her daughter. "Because right now, she's famous."
Watch the full segment above.
