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Mom blogger2/19/2024 ![]() It was as though she had become a character on a long-running show whose storyline had run its course, but she didn't have the grace to exit the stage and disappear into oblivion. Her mental health continued to deteriorate in full public view, her writing becoming increasingly incoherent and her precarious health becoming more apparent with every moody photo she posted of her needle-thin frame in skimpy clothing. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. They all agreed Heather's behavior was not OK, and never mind that they were piggybacking off their association with her and becoming characters in her story. She would attempt to develop relationships with followers, friendships that would start with passionate declarations of mutual respect and end with the former fan gaining their own degree of influence and engagement by regaling the comments section with all the crazy things Armstrong had done to scare them off. It quickly deteriorated into drunken rants and accusations. In the early days of the pandemic, she instituted a weekly Quarantine Cocktail Hour, meant to rekindle the vestiges of the old community and reestablish solidarity among all the moms stuck at home helping kids struggle through virtual learning. She continued to need us, but maybe we needed her less – after all, the internet was full of Dooce dupes. In the years after, she continued to struggle with mental health issues, admitting to issues with addiction and eating disorders, and indulged the occasional flame war with a commenter, all for the consumption of a shrinking audience. In 2012 Armstrong divorced her husband, blowing up one of the tentpoles of her curated "imperfectly thriving" image. How serious could her struggles really be in the midst of such success? In 2009, at the height of her popularity she boasted more than 8 million followers, was featured on Oprah, had a book on the New York Times bestseller list, and was on the Forbes list of most influential women in media. But these confessions, far from putting people off, only made her more popular the more raw and outrageous she was, the more followers she amassed. Yes, she struggled with ongoing mental health issues that included depression and suicidal ideation, and one of the reasons she became famous was by chronicling her involuntary commitment to a mental health facility after the birth of her oldest child. As Dooce became more famous, there were more set expectations of what she was supposed to be. Somewhere along the way, her distance from us widened and the community gave way to something more malignant – an audience, with all the intendent judgements that implies. TakingCaraMAGA: What to do when your favorite mommy influencer is outed as a Trump supporter
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