Whilst Zara McDermott was soaking up the sun in the Love Island villa in 2018, the 21-year-old was making headlines for other reasons after naked snaps she had sent to an ex were leaked online and viewed by millions.
After learning about the incident once she arrived home, Zara was reminded of a similar situation when she was 14, when she gave in to pressure from a popular boy at school and sent him a nude picture after he told her, “It will make me like you more.”
By the next day, the selfie had been shared around the school and beyond, sending her into a spiral of self-loathing and depression. Shockingly the school in Essex chose to suspend her whilst the boy involved went unpunished.
Speaking to The Sun about the experience, Zara, now 24, admitted, “It’s been ten years of pain. It still affects me to this day, and I don’t think it will ever go away. I was so scarred from that experience.”
She continued, “My drama teacher saw it and said, ‘I didn’t think she was that kind of girl.’ That still hurts. I could barely look her in the eye for the following four years. You want people who are older and more experienced, like teachers, to be compassionate. There was no compassion for me. They were so embarrassed by my behaviour that they didn’t want me in the school. Do you know what that does to a young girl?”
As well as being shunned at school, Zara also revealed that strangers would hurl abuse at her in the street, calling her a “slag” and “disgusting”.
After Zara learned about her nudes being leaked again at the age of 21, her reaction was very different from how it had been as a teenager.
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She said, “The first time I went through depression, anxiety and grief over that loss of innocence. This time I was just so angry. I’d just been on this huge show, an amazing opportunity. What gave him the right to share images that I sent in confidence? What gave him the right over my body, my intimacy and my privacy? This is not OK.”
Zara is now in a happy relationship with Made in Chelsea's Sam Thompson who she calls "her rock" and hopes that her new BBC3 documentary Zara Mcdermott: Revenge Porn will be shown in schools to help educate people about victim blaming and the consequences of shaming young people.