Internet Trolls Accuse Influencer Tiffany Mitchell Of Staging Her Motorcycle Accident For Photos
People (wrongly) think she staged or sponsored her accident.
Instagram Tiffany Mitchel is a Nashville-based blogger who drives a motorcycle. On July 31st, she misjudged a curve and slid off the road. Since it happened while she, Lindsey Grace Whiddon, and Martyn Mazz were riding down Liepers Fork to explore and take photos, it’s not hard to imagine that they just kept photographing — maybe for the fun of it, or maybe for insurance purposes. Critics see it differently. They think she turned a dangerous accident into an impromptu photoshoot.
Who is Tiffany Mitchell?
1. She was born and raised in northeastern New Jersey.
In an interview with Free People, she shared her thoughts on what northeasterners in 2014 used to affectionately refer to as “the armpit of America.” She said: “I think my favorite part about that area is its proximity to just about everything imaginable. I was 10 minutes from Manhattan, an hour from the beach, an hour from the slopes, an hour from the country…oh and in Lodi, my hometown, there was fresh pizza and bagels on every corner. That’s fairly typical of New Jersey though.”
2. In 2015, she moved to Lexington, Kentucky.
She told Free People, “Growing up in the NY metro area bubble had me somewhat clueless about what the rest of the country had to offer — but my husband and I took a road trip out to Kentucky a few years ago and fell in love with it instantly. We figured, we’re young, let’s adventure. Within a month we had relocated!” She spends most of her days photographing, editing, styling, cooking, or illustrating.
3. Before launching her current website, she used to run a blog called Offbeat + Inspired.
The original blog was conceived of during a Kentucky cabin weekend with a childhood friend of hers. They figured they should start documenting all their fun little side projects. They figured, best-case scenario, they inspire other people, and worst-case scenario, they have a place to dump all their ideas and keep up with each other. Now it’s her profession, so I guess it all worked out!
4. All her tattoos are about healing.
In a Q&A on Instagram, she gave an elaborate answer about the meaning of her tattoos, which include three trees on her left forearm, a branch on her right forearm, and some wildflowers on her left shoulder. The trees “represent the redwoods.” She got them when she was still afraid of flying “as a commitment to overcome that fear and fly to Cali to see those trees close up,” which she actually did do three months later. The branch is from the Ohia tree in Hawaii, which grows out of volcanic rock. She got it after her partner Kappel passed away as a symbol of healing. The wildflowers are reminiscent of when she took a solo trip across the country. These flowers kept her company “through so many hours of laughing, sobbing, screaming singing and silence.”
5. Comments on her post about the motorcycle accident were mixed.
Despite her requests for Buzzfeed not to cover the story lest it “draw negative attention,” Buzzfeed did so anyway and reported that “people were taken aback by the optics of taking, and then sharing, professional-grade photos of her actual accident.” One user in particular commented, “Huh? You had a serious accident but people were there to take *~stunning~* photos? This is an insult to people to get into accidents. Put a helmet on.” Geez, @pecenittogether. Sorry she has a nicer camera than you do. Plus, Mitchell said in follow-up Instagram stories, "I absolutely had my helmet on. I would never ride my bike without a helmet, pants and boots as well."
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6. Mitchell denies that any part of her post was sponsored.
“People seemed concerned about the motives,” she said in an Instagram story a few days ago. “Nothing about it was staged, nothing about it was sponsored.” She claims there was no brand work at all. In the story, she also clarified that"no photos were taken until everyone knew I was okay." Even a spokesperson for Smartwater told ELLE.com that the company does not "have a paid relationship with Tiffany."
7. She lost a partner in a motorcycle accident three years ago.
“The reason this accident was so intense and important to me,” she wrote on Instagram, “and why I’m so grateful that my friend captured photos (which I didn’t find out about until later that evening) is because three years ago my partner Kappel passed away in a motorcycle accident, and anyone who has followed me on Instagram since then knows that I spent the majority of the 2017 walking through intense grief and sharing that journey with people.”
She said in the aforementioned Q&A about moving on from the loss of a significant other, “Opening up your heart to love again after loss feels so scary (even debilitating) sometimes, but once you’ve walked through that kind of loss, you can actually tap into a deeper well of love because you understand how precious the person next to you is, and having walked through the reality that they could be gone tomorrow keeps you from taking them from granted.” She feels that choosing to love can help “transform you into a safer and stronger human, regardless of whether the relationship lasts.”
Leah Scher is an ENFP and recent graduate of Brandeis University. She's an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She's passionate about Judaism, poetry, film, satire, astrology, spirituality, and sexual health.