YouTuber Caroline Konstnar slammed for “faking” 13-week pregnancy to promote her Patreon

After a year away from the platform, YouTuber Caroline Konstnar faked a pregnancy for 13 weeks to promote her social media presence.

Earlier this April, YouTuber Caroline Konstnar announced she was pregnant. “Yup, the rumors are true. I am knocked up big time… very excited to exploit this child for views,” she wrote in a video along with her announcement.

During the viral video, Caroline wore a fake baby bump and told her viewers, “It’s very overwhelming to be 20 and pregnant.” She even went on a rant about the “fear and anxiety” she was experiencing. 

However, in a YouTube video posted on May 1, Caroline admitted to her 1M subscribers, “No, I am not pregnant,” after she sarcastically said she “lost the baby” and didn’t know where she “put it.”

Caroline then explained why she “joked” about being at least 13 weeks pregnant, as she wanted to test the lines between real and fake. “When you’re a content creator, the line between entertainment and reality is very blurred.”

She continued, ”Your audience will become very attached to an abstraction of yourself. This connection can become very personally meaningful to the viewers whilst not being personally meaningful to the creator itself.”

Unfortunately, her audience didn’t seem to react as positively, and many people took offense to her fake pregnancy.

“This is kind of disgusting imo. Clickbaiting a miscarriage is so disrespectful and regardless of whether it’s clear it’s a joke or not it’s distasteful,” penned one on Reddit.

Another person added that Caroline may have been “uncomfortable” with explaining why she hadn’t posted for a year, saying that her idea was to reel people in with something relatable.

Adding a twist to her explanation, Caroline said the stunt was to ultimately promote her Patreon. “We all come here to find this connection over and over again, and we don’t really find it… until now when you subscribe to my Patreon,” she said. 

Similar to YouTube, Patreon allows content creators to be paid by their subscribers. The platform has public posts, but there are also member-only posts, where viewers have to pay a fee to watch the content.

During Caroline’s fake pregnancy reveal, she also said she’d be returning to YouTube. Before this April, Caroline hadn’t posted to the platform for at least a year. Now, she is looking to bring back “Doctor Caroline,” where she gives advice to fan-related questions and concerns.

Though she offended many, the video in which she revealed that her pregnancy was fake has gained 163K views in under one day. So, despite clickbaiting, there are still subscribers who are interested in her content.