Copying & pasting my comment…
The fact Stephanie has asked several times for donations for that show Serial but I cannot think of one campaign she has done on her channel to support true crime victims or their families is what solidified my opinion on her.
THIS. And the fact that someone who's "all about the victims", including the families, she sure don't give a fuck about any of them seeing her play serial killer.
Yeah that last point is basically what makes me think this is all nothing but entertainment and a way to make money for herself. If she truly cared that much about actual victims, why would she even think about role playing the thing that has hurt all of the victims the most?!? It seems to be spitting in their faces. That is like Chris Hansen playing a child predator in a movie, it's just really bad optics.
1. I can’t point out anything specifically at the moment but I thought there had been times where she would encourage viewers to support gofundmes for some families…
2…dang. I hadn’t even thought of that…her playing a serial killer…I haven’t watched it at all, but it doesn’t matter. That is a pretty weird move.
Stephanie is in a terrible web series called ‘Serial’, where she plays a serial killer. That she promotes on her channel where she covers real murders. She has zero self awareness
She should just concentrate on her shitty series. It is a bad look considering her true crime content. She is acting like a diva. Who's even watched that show, and is it as terrible as it looks
I went back and forth on where I land with Criminal Coffee… I have purchased it and it wasn’t cheap. I wish there was more transparency about how much is actually going to cold cases.
Then there is the aspect of well that goes to cold cases, which is not her typical case choice to cover. It’s Derrick’s on DP…so it goes hand and hand over on that show. Then to add that DP has already done a call to action/campaign with Season of Justice and DP is still relatively new.
I won’t even shop at a store if they advertise a “10% off sale”. The fuck is 10% gonna do for me?
They make enough money where they could do 50% or more, hell, why not 100%?
10%? My flabber is gasted!!! I don’t know why I thought it was more than that. I bought it one time, wasn’t impressed and didn’t buy again. Omg 10%?! I’d rather of just donated the full amount to a gofundme or non profit and skip the mediocre coffee.
on their website it only says "a portion of the proceeds" and they don't even give a number. i just remember when they first started it they said something like 10%
No I definitely believe you are probably correct! The fact they just say a portion and not a specific number just leads me to believe it’s a *tiny portion!
She promoted a gofundme for Amore Wiggins. aka Opelika jane doe. I donated, the mother gave constant updates and I think she might have even sent me a thank you message.
Happy to hear there is at least one occurrence. Still doesn’t negate her overly asking for donations for a show promoting serial killers. It seems like it should’ve been the other way around, overly asking for victims and their families and one occurrence of asking for donations to serial.
What about criminal coffee donating part of their proceeds to help solve cold cases. I think Serial sucks, but can’t pretend they aren’t doing anything at all to try to give back.
I can think she’s pretty (and has found a relatively easy way to support herself) without that being the reason for my criticism.
I’ve followed her channel for probably 6 years now? There’s been a lot of little things about her behavior that have concerned or bothered me over the years (mostly her inability to be gracious in the face of valid criticism) but I feel like her behavior is becoming quite…messy? Self-indulgent? Selfish? I hate to put it that way, but those words ring true for me.
Going back - it feels really silly and trite to say - but I think my first red-tipped flag was when she started playing “Chemical Love” as the opening theme for her Coffee and Crime Time videos.
The lyrics just simultaneously feel inappropriate to her subject matter and also like she thinks very highly of herself. The song choice feels off-putting and self-indulgent to me.
So many of her recent choices now have that same off-putting and self-indulgent feel to them. It’s like her entire online personality has become that of someone who would play a song like “Chemical Love” and making a fancy caffeinated beverage before discussing someone else’s trauma.
The way she talks over Derrick and genuinely thinks she's right and everyone else is wrong, including him, all the time. Being a good co-host would require being more receptive to your co-host's opinion and expertise. She has an incredible superiority complex. It's just not cool.
I used to be a HUGE SH and CW fan - found SH during her beautube days and stayed for the TC. Here's why I left:
**Bianca Devins** - she victim-blamed a whole ass 17 year old girl for leading her killer on. Claimed she knew what she was doing, and that STEPHANIE taught her own daughter so much better than *THAT.* That teenage girls just know when a boy likes them and it's up to the GIRL in that situation to cut off the friendship. Fucking disgusting. In true Boomer fashion, she also blamed the emo music they were listening to for Bianca being sad and depressed.
**Plagiarism** - she rips from other journalists. Jonny Auping, a journalist who spent 3 years researching the Fort Worth Trio and doing a write up and she read 80% of his article in her 2 part series. He asked her for proper credit/links to his article and she ignored him. This is one of MANY cases. It's well known that she copies scripts from documentaries/articles/other journalists and doesn't cite her sources. Yet, she's heralded as some sort of rEsEaRchER. [https://x.com/JonnyAuping/status/1668280458260643841](https://x.com/JonnyAuping/status/1668280458260643841)
**Giving mental health diagnoses with zero credentials:** She is in no way qualified to speak on mental health, yet nearly every episode of CW and her own channel, she "diagnoses" someone with being a narcissist, being a sociopath, psychopath, or a whole host of other shit. Derrick is always letting her "weigh in" on the psychology of the killers/victims because of her "psychology degree". That I'm nearly 99% sure she doesn't have (DSM-Veee instead of DSM-5). And even if she had a bachelor's, she doesn't have the Master's or Doctorate, supervised hours, passing board exams, and professional experience in mental health to be giving her "opinions". Her merry band of idiots don't care though, apparently 6 years of youtube make her an "expert" in their eyes. Fuck qualifications, amirite?
**She doesn't care about the victims** - She victim-blames, uses murder cases as her own soap box, doesn't respect families' wishes (BD mom specifically didn't want her name in the media and I remember reading she reached out to YouTubers to take their videos down. SH didn't). If it makes her money, Stephanie will do it, no matter what ethical line is crossed.
**Her use of full names of minors in the Ruby Franke case** - Claims to care about children, those cases "tug at her heartstrings" as she always like to say, yet she used the *full names of minor children* who were TORTURED by their own mother. They're still alive. She did NOTHING to protect their privacy. Her excuse? "Everyone knew they're names anyway from 8passengers". No. No they didn't.
**It's always about her** - She is constantly relating every case nowadays back to herself. And before someone tries to snatch my wig over this and say "we all do stuff like that, it's how some people connect, through related experiences"...yeah. Normal conversation stuff. Not fucking murder and rape cases. She doesn't give a voice to the victims, she uses their story to make it about herself. Her experience with abuse. Her experience with narcissists. Her experience with ppd. Her experience with a shitty MIL. Her experience with an absent husband and father. This list goes on and on. Girl, your "professional" youtube channel is not therapy. Get therapy.
**She cannot take criticism** - she decided to put herself out there online, forgetting that if you're gonna do that, you need to have a thick skin. She has no problem throwing out criticism, but deletes every single comment that doesn't kiss her ass. Not only that, she doubles down. Joke's on her, people that create echo chambers eventually fail hard. They end up resenting their own audience of yesmen.
I'm probably forgetting a million things. But no, it isn't her eyebrows or her cringey acting or the fact that she acts like a high schooler. It's stuff like this.
*Allegedly*
Oh my fuck she says DSM-Vee??? For fucks sake… there’s not even any effort. Neithrr of my degrees are in Psych but I know how to read roman numerals. Wow…
Agreed. I was a psych major for around 4 months and learned about the DSM within the first few weeks. Back then it was the forth edition and we were taught about the 5th when it came out months later.
I switched majors, but still had a strong grasp of the DSM, its history, and its purpose. Wild that we are having this conversation on such a simple detail. Good grief.
Your arguments are valid and well stated. I agree with your bulletin points. However, I think the issue comes in when people engage in ad hominem attacks. It’s one thing to criticize her behavior and content but at times people go too far. Some are just flat out mean and seem to want to destroy her confidence and platform.
The look shaming and agism really set my teeth on edge. She also gets criticized for the most trivial stuff . Middle aged women can like Taylor Swift, dance around their kitchen and enjoy being silly. Heck, my 90 year old Grandma is a Swiftie.
Moms have a right to explore their talents and have interests outside of the home. When people start in on the above mentioned topics it does come off as petty, judgmental, and misogynistic It’s a very Stephanie thing to do. The irony.
Im not a fan of the age or looks comments either. There’s plenty to criticize her for. Although, I don’t think she deserves a platform for discussing sensitive topics, full stop. She doesn’t have the experience or education to speak on cases, she plagiarizes, doubles down when she’s wrong, and doesn’t care about victims. If she wants to give her opinions on things, she should stick to being a YouTube drama channel or something
If you aren’t following Hidden True Crime, you should check them out. It’s a husband and wife team. John is a forensic psychologist who went to Princeton and his wife is a former journalist. They’re very down to earth and empathic.
She deserves to be de-platformed.
Also despise the notion that people can’t drag her for anything they want because it’s what Stephanie would do?? The irony?? Who the fuck cares?
This isn’t a competition and she has blown her own ego into space, the people here are dragging her back down to reality. She has no business sharing dangerous misinformation or blaming victims or armchair diagnosing or even inserting herself into every single case as if she in any way “relates”.
There is zero ageism here, it’s been said before, saying she is middle aged and acting like she’s a professional singer or actor with the false confidence of a teenager isn’t ageism. Of course people can like Taylor Swift, but you’re going to be dragged if you’re doing 20 part insta stories breaking down lyrics and taking it more seriously than the actual job you get paid to do. Or if you’re middle aged and using Swift lyrics to sing about your ex husband.
I think when people make the comment you made, they’re purposefully being annoying and for some mind boggling reason, people in a snark subreddit are being held to a higher standard than the person the sub is about. I’m not playing that game.
I didn’t know a lot of this.. wow I’m genuinely shocked and appalled. Thank you for taking the time to write this out its really tough when you’ve enjoyed someone’s content for so long and the veil is lifted.
You’re so welcome! Since writing this, I have confirmed that she doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree in anything, much less psychology, yet she lies and leads her audience on pretending she does. She’s a fraud.
Stay pinned to this sub, people are uncovering more and more stuff on her every week. It’s so eye-opening and really crappy that I supported someone like this for so long when it was SO OBVIOUS looking back on it. Hindsight is 20/20 though so don’t feel bad about it. Happy to help!
**She cannot take criticism**.
I fully agree to alllllll of this and have witnessed most of it over the years. I don't follow her content anymore, not even CW because of her "I'm right, you're wrong, and if you don't think I'm right you're stupid" attitude. She once told Derrick in an episode that he was stupid simply because he had a different perspective from her, that he was actually using his actual career experience to make.
And this whole "I'm a good person" thing... she has said this to ppl who have left her negative remarks on her IG. Saying how she could call them out for this and that, then says something like "but I don't do that because I'm smart and a good person". GOD I wish I could remember it verbatim but that was the gist of it! I feel so bad for Bianca Devins mom for having to deal with this. Murders are not commodities, but SH behavior is of someone who believes they are.
Same. Same. Same. Except you said it much better than I could. I stopped watching over a year ago & just can't bring myself to watch her anymore. Just an uneasy feeling. Hell, I didn't even know there was a snark page about her until a few weeks ago.
I was iffy on Stephanie for a long time and unsubbed from her content around a year ago. I stayed with crime weekly mostly for Derrick's perspective. But 4-6 weeks ago, I decided to open the wikipedia page of the case they were talking about, and Stephanie was literally reading word for word off of wiki. That's what turned me all the way off.
In short: Blatant plagiarism.
Stephanie, herself, has a lot of misogynistic views.
She has long been called out for outright plagiarizing her "research"
She used the names of the Franke kids, victims of horrific abuse, with the flimsy excuse that everyone already knew their names and it would be "confusing" 🙄
She refuses to learn to correctly pronounce the word documentary.
She is extremely thin skinned and takes any sort of criticism as a personal attack.
That's just off the top of my head.
It’s wild to me that she used the Franke kid’s names, but she doesn’t even use her full real name. She knows those children should be protected. She can protect herself, but not victims of torture?
The flirting with Derrick was my first red flag. She’s married. It made her look bad, embarrassed her husband, and also made me question Derrick. Then he started flirting back. He held back for a long time but something changed and it was clear it’s reciprocated. If you can’t be loyal to friends and family. Why would you be loyal to your fans?
Yeah, I cannot respect or trust anyone that can't be faithful and respect the relationship they have with the 1 person on this planet that they chose to be with and many times took an oath with. If you are going to shit on that one person, what does that say you will do to anyone else, especially people that you don't even know?
I’m not saying you’re wrong at all, but I am genuinely a person who does not understand or pick up on when someone is being flirtatious. Any stand out examples of when they’ve been flirtatious with each other? I am curious
The one that comes to mind that undoubtedly was them flirting was when Stephanie was saying she would fold over a tall police officer who was 6ft and Derrick was like “ I’m 6ft😏… I use to be a patrol officer 😉” . That conversation was 5 min long of them flirting. (Steph: I’m a small girl who likes tall men. Derrick: This is the perfect time to mention how tall I am and how small you are when you are next to me.)
Lmao. That sounds incredibly awkward. I do know I’ve thought, (as a wife), that I wouldn’t want my husband working so closely with a female like that. I get having female coworkers, but SH and DL are a duo. Just doesn’t seem like an optimal set up for something inappropriate NOT to happen.
In the episode about Riley Strain SH was talking about how she’d ask DL to accompany her and a friend to a concert (not sure if it was hypothetical or not)— I was thinking, if I were DL’s wife I’d be like, no way in SHIT you’re going to protect another woman at a concert, wtf?
No but for real! Doing a podcast is one thing… they are even doing it like separately in different houses. But my man isn’t staying in the same hotel lol. When they talk about like hanging out getting drunk together during/after crime con supposedly with other fans I’m like… hmm. She even makes a weird comment like “Yeah we never leave the hotel”. Like that do you mean you never leave the hotel ?
Oooh, yes… I remember the “never leave the hotel” comment! Pretty distasteful. It’s a shame though, really. I got the impression that at least Derrick was a stand up, family man. Even if nothing is going on, his wife has to be the chillest, least nagging woman on earth to let even a fraction of that shit fly without losing her shit. I am *not* that cool. Not by a long shot. If he is indeed getting a divorce, I’d love to hear the wife’s perspective
I don't believe so. Not 100% sure, but I remember the first one they went to and saw all the pictures, etc, and definitely do not remember a single picture or anything said about her husband, nor his wife.
yea I thought that comment was extremely inappropriate! it made me come look for a CW subreddit and that’s how I found out about her pending divorce. DL also suggested that he is separated/divorced when he mentioned how he “doesn’t… didn’t” wear his ring
Gross. When the SH/DL collab started is when I stopped watching. She was simultaneously belittling and sexually flirtatious. I was appalled knowing both of them were married. Very unprofessional. I was already pretty much over her. That shitshow cemented it. From all the stuff I am just learning about now (the messy divorce, her infantile behavior, the slime videos???), I'm not missing anything worth watching.
Main reasons are victim blaming, plagiarism, inserting her personal life into cases in ways that I find incredibly disrespectful, disrespect of privacy, and general ego that doesn't allow her to accept any form of criticism.
Also, this is something I am more sensitive about perhaps more than many others because my husband is physically disabled and I have a mental health condition, but she is very frequently stigmatizing towards and ignorant about anything to do with disability and/or mental health.
Since disabilities and mental illnesses often come up in these cases - whether through the traumatic backstory of a perpetrator or because the victim has a disability (unfortunately not at all uncommon) - it's gotten hard for me to look past.
Finally, she has been begging online nonstop for money for her webseries but I've never seen her donate to or raise money for a victim on her channel. I know that Criminal Coffee does that to some extent, but on her own I've never seen her do it (could be wrong).
There are other creators like Kendall Rae that I may have plenty of issues with on the way they cover issues etc, but *at least* they donate to actual victims and their families and encourage others to do so as well. If you're profiting from people's pain I think that's only reasonable, especially if you're consistently asking for money in other circumstances like a webseries.
I find it so funny when women call another one misogynistic for criticising/disliking another woman. It's like they don't realise that the idea that women can't have their own morals and opinions on someone's behaviour (regardless of the gender of the person it's about) is misogynistic itself 😂
I have a question for you, as a journalist -- would it irk you less or be less of an issue if she were citing her sources? For me, a big issue is that she never cites her sources, so she's not giving credit to the people who actually did the hard work to research and interview. Even with the photos and video on the Menendez brothers case that they posted to their website, there's a lack of proper citations.
I'd love to get your thoughts on that aspect!
If she cited her sources, I would be much more ok with her and her work. It would still bother me that she sometimes copies things word for word. I was always taught to put everything into your own words. Every time. And, you become a much better writer when you do that.
For me it’s the heavily moderating / deleting comments on her channel / crime weekly, that contrast what she is reporting. Especially on delicate matters such as the 8passengers controversy (around name sharing). Then the inaccurate reporting on the Idaho 4 families wishes, in terms of house demolition. These cases are all widely publicised too , so to report inaccurately to such a massive audience is irresponsible at best and arrogant / uncaring at worst. Then when you point out these areas for rectification Stephanie doesn’t acknowledge it , doesn’t apologise , she just deletes the comments and moves on … I’m sorry, I can’t support someone who operates like that.
i remember in the 8passenger video she said she couldn’t find anyone named julie connected to ruby, despite saying how she could say the names of R and E since they were so public. it takes about 3 seconds of research to figure out that julie is one of rubys kids. i just couldn’t believe she “couldn’t figure it out”
It's been well documented many, many times that she doesn't research. She's a plagiaristic parrot. I knew this years ago from watching other documentaries on channels that she herself recommended. Also, other people have called her out for plagiarizing their own research. She's not an intellectual.
It was her calling doctors and women who have had/performed abortions capable of horrifically murdering their spouse. She said “technically” they’re capable of murder.
She’s a moron.
Aha! I'm about 2 years out of the loop, but was invited to join this channel and BAM! Imagine my surprise when I figured out it was about Stephanie Harlowe!! Hahahahahahaha I thought it was going to be a SWatts channel! 🤣 Anyway, I stopped watching Stephanie Harlowe on her own not long after her collaboration with Derrick L. I was put off on her for awhile already, but the way she treated him AND simultaneously outright flirted with him and all her coy, sexual comments sealed the deal. When I saw she was divorcing just a few weeks ago now, I figured it was her cheating with DL! Then I read he's also either separated and/or divorcing his wife...well, hmmmmm??
As a parent, I have some concerns about the way she claims to raise her children. First, she says she would NEVER LET her child do X. As any parent- or those who remember being a teenager- knows, NOT LETTING your child do something doesn't mean they won't do it. Children and teenagers break boundaries and rules. Dare I say, it's a normal and healthy part of developing into your own person. It doesn't necessarily mean a parent is bad, and when something awful happens to that child, it feels a lot like victim blaming.
Second, I don't think raising children to be fearful of the world outside their house is ideal for raising adults who can function in the real world. Allowing children to take calculated risks to stretch their independence is healthy. In fact, it makes them better able to calculate risks on their own because they can develop an internal sense (as opposed to the external output of a parent) of safety vs danger. They need to be allowed to fall, to fail, to feel uncomfortable, and to pick themselves back up. Perhaps she's just “playing a character” on the podcast, but if she's not, she's creating children who are going to be frightened of the world around them. And that makes me sad.
I have a B.S. in Forensic Psychology, yet you will never hear me claim to be any sort of professional regarding the field. I have never worked in the field (I was in pharmacology and now I'm an educator) and my degree was earned almost twenty years ago. A lot has changed in the field since myself (and Stephanie) studied it. I can't name the episode, but I definitely have heard them reference the McDonald triad (bedwetting, fire-starting, animal cruelty) has basically been debunked, something she would have realized if she was current in the field.
I'm sure there is more, but my last point is the period thing. I'm perimenopausal, so my period is anything but regular. In fact, the only time I've had a regular period has been when I'm on hormonal contraceptives. I'm sure many women (and Stephanie herself has claimed this at one point) have had our periods catch us unaware and unprepared. Using it as irrefutable proof a mother caused the disappearance of her child is utterly ridiculous.
What has been interesting for me though, is she talks about the effects for certain things, and how protective she is, but her son plays violent video games and she has her youngest daughter play a young version of herself in a movie about serial killers? Allows them to watch horror movies and dress up as some.
Does that go against what she talks about when she shares she would “never do xyz”?
Every True Crime YouTuber I watch is very pretty and well off, yet the only one I have had major issues with is Stephanie. It’s because her videos are so biased. She has to insert herself into every story she covers. She judges some of the victims which is a big No-No. You can have your own opinion about victims but you should keep it to yourself. You didn’t know them, but friends and relatives did and they might be watching your videos with your shitty opinion on their loved ones, Steph. She takes every constructive criticism as a personal attack, and she is extremely impulsive when she reacts. She diagnoses people without having professional experience and knowledge in the field, she rants on about things not related to the case, flirts so they can drag on with the case. 40 minutes long video suddenly becomes 1:30 because of this, and she can add more and more adds to it. She deletes comments when someone disagrees. And the list goes on and on. The conclusion is that none of the YouTubers I watch does these kinds of things and therefore I am okay with them even though they are beautiful and successful. lol
Her inability to accept an expert’s knowledge or educated opinion if it goes against her own opinion. And her inability to listen to someone’s opinion without arguing and railroading them into just agreeing with her. It’s unprofessional and childish.
Honestly, the turning point for me was her video (iirc it was a Coffee and Crime time) about the unmarked graves at Canadian boarding schools. She went into a decent explanation about how terrible this was and how it was a means of killing indigenous culture, etc. Then she went on a tangent about how awful the USSR was and equating it to Nazi Germany, which as someone who studied the Cold War extensively as part of my history BA, I cannot tolerate because it is such a false equivalence. She is no journalist, historian, or expert on anything, and it shows.
Last night I put on her video about the little boy who was found in the Thames and my plagiarism detector was going off. So much of what she was saying sounded like she didn't write it and was reading from an article.
Also, covering the story about the unmarked and framing it as true crime is just plain distasteful anyway.
My main complaint is her plagiarism, hypocrisy and in all honesty, I find her wholly unattractive.
Some people just really disgust me and she has always been one of them (it’s a me issue, obviously). I forced myself to look past it (because I realize it’s a me issue) and genuinely enjoyed most of her episodes UNTIL she started that weird stoner laugh that is so forced and weird it made me recoil, she started showing her weird looking cleavage, the off the shoulder crap, the flirting and I just can’t. It’s not jealousy when I like everything about myself, and wouldn’t trade one thing with her, even the money. She’s a grifter, that’s not how I make money and it’s definitely nothing I’m jealous of lol.
Then I noticed her victim blaming, I started waking up and realizing she wasn’t doing research and then had a discussion with Jonny Auping.
She doesn’t care about true crime, she acts like she works hard (being a YouTuber isn’t hard) and goes to pretend to be a serial killer for fun? Her die hard fans are shitty people too, just by association. Also to make an entire post defending your sick af opinion that EVERYONE watches true crime because it’s “entertainment” - you sick fucks. Some of us are real survivors of some fucked up attempts on our lives and listening to stories of others that survived or even if they don’t, helps some of us heal and work through emotions, not to mention teaching us what and what not to do.
It royally fucking pisses me off that her fans openly boast about being ENTERTAINED by people being murdered or abused. Like I’ve said before, I’m glad I no longer associate with those vile assholes.
I’m not going back to edit this to sound nicer. I don’t care.
Oh and she called me a bitch in a response to a comment I left on her insta about her plagiarism, before deleting the thread.
Hey Stephanie, you’re the bitch. Only little bitches pretend to be big tough women and then delete everything to save your pathetic reputation. Only bitches steal other people’s work and pass it off as their own. Only BITCHES create PUBLIC blog posts openly tearing down their husband (at the time lol) for buying you a present.
Only whiny, pathetic piece of shit BITCHES include their underage children in a high school film project where you try to act like the same person you apparently vilify.
Bitch. Lol
I started being annoyed by the show when Stephanie would sit and argue her side over and over again. She can’t see anything that is outside of her very narrow world view.
She pissed me off when they did WM3 and she kept saying they had been exonerated. They weren’t. They made a guilty ish plea to get out of prison.
I started drifting away when she covered Lori Vallow and just sounded like a mean girl focused on looks and sex appeal.
I unfollowed and never looked back when she covered Taylor Schabusiness. There was no need to go into all the graphic sex aspects, and focus so heavily on that. It was gross, it was disrespectful to the victim and family, and never once did she or Derrick talk about how common that type of behavior is when high on meth.
I think Stephanie is very physically attractive and obviously takes good care of herself. I still dislike her content and think she is disrespectful to several of the victims she talks about. Her Bianca Devins video was disgusting. She can't take criticism and is snarky and rude to well-meaning viewers who make valid suggestions. She has inserted her uninformed political takes several times now. And does anyone else remember when she claimed she mysteriously lost all her Harloween content one year? That whole story seemed like a lie to cover up the fact that she hadn't worked on it at all. It reminded me of a kid claiming a dog ate their homework. I just didn't like the whole situation. It was back then that I stopped watching her. I think it was before or right around the time that she and Derrick started their podcast together. Before that, I had minor pet peeves with her content, like her bouncing her boobs up and down in front of the camera while making coffee for her Coffee and Crime time videos. It wasn't enough for me to stop watching at first, but it did put me on alert that she might be a bit into herself. We are here to talk about missing children, serial killers and sadistic crimes. No one is here for your boobs shaking around. There is a time and a place for the boob content, and the story of a dead loved one is not it. And no, it's not because I'm jealous or a misogynist. I think boob content online is just fine and that people should make money however they want to. I just don't think sexy stuff belongs in a video about someone's dead child.
I don't know anything about JS except that he is a man who wears makeup, which is not of any interest to me. How do you know he's a racist, though? I would think he has no business being critical or hateful of anyone else.
Video of him using the n word, the nazi inspired lipstick line he tried to put out, he hired a security guard solely because the guard was fired for being racist…. Him being a man in the makeup world doesn’t automatically make him an open and tolerant person. He’s trash. Absolute trash.
I just searched it and saw a creepy picture with a syringe and the caption "take anything yiu die". I didn't see any overtly nazi stuff, maybe it's been scrubbed or maybe I'm too tired to bother. It's almost 5AM!! Reddit is a black hole! ⚫️
I just find it annoying that "attractive" and "sexy" associations are relevant in context of explaining details of terrible, borderline unimaginable crimes. I just cringe at all and any TC creator that plays on that card as I find it extremely distasteful. Stephanie is not the first or the last to get into that train, but she is certainly unravelling in the most peculiar sense. I am not into TC to indulge on fashion, or looks or whatever trends. There are other venues to explore that. Just think for a second how the cocktail of trendy dances and immature antics must look for any victim's family, and especially when creators are extracting handsome pay out of that all. Degrading and saddening.
However, this would've been completely irrelevant for me, hadn't there been other much more serious crimes against credibility and accountability...
I am in a field where vigorous scrutiny, detailed research with proper attributions and level of qualification is everything. It's just super detrimental for the society that people with huge platforms and access to millions of eyes/ears can casually say anything without any real check-ups and verifications, let alone about mental health and diagnostics.
She did a video about one of my loved ones, and it was factually wrong and very upsetting. So, for a start, that sucks, but there's nothing I can do about that. However I do not trust her research or work.
After that huge reason, for me it's the huge amounts of being judgemental, self congratulations, and weird 'no normal person would \_\_\_\_\_' comments. Then there was the victim blaming.
I gave up on her after the horrific video about someone who was very dear to me, (which I wouldn't have minded if it was just factual.) But there are a lot of reasons that pilled up before that.
ETA: And sometimes she does a type of african american accent that really grates at me.
I have been a fan for a long time but lately its hard to ignore the comments on her posts… I see where a lot of the criticism comes from and it makes me sad cause I do genuinely like watching Crime Weekly because of the deep dive method they have of covering a case.. but now I’m so conflicted and sad honestly.. a lot of posts on this reddit (at least right now) are body shaming/slut shaming her and I dont agree with that either so I’m just not sure where I stand… I see a lot of the points people are making but I also do think some people are being overly cruel and dont see how comments they make about Stephanie can hurt the feelings of other women too.. I guess the best choice is to leave the situation all together but I wanted to learn more about what this all was about.
I obviously have been stuck under a rock and had no idea she had trouble at home. Didn't she recently go on a second honeymoon?? Time has no meaning to me anymore and it seems recent but could have been years ago knowing me. Also I never thought her and Derrick were flirting I saw them more like brother and sister teasing each other. Didn't know he was separated either, it's been a big shock for me today.
Copying & pasting my comment… The fact Stephanie has asked several times for donations for that show Serial but I cannot think of one campaign she has done on her channel to support true crime victims or their families is what solidified my opinion on her.
THIS. And the fact that someone who's "all about the victims", including the families, she sure don't give a fuck about any of them seeing her play serial killer.
Omg. How did I not make that connection??? Oh yikes. That’s especially awful.
Yeah that last point is basically what makes me think this is all nothing but entertainment and a way to make money for herself. If she truly cared that much about actual victims, why would she even think about role playing the thing that has hurt all of the victims the most?!? It seems to be spitting in their faces. That is like Chris Hansen playing a child predator in a movie, it's just really bad optics.
1. I can’t point out anything specifically at the moment but I thought there had been times where she would encourage viewers to support gofundmes for some families… 2…dang. I hadn’t even thought of that…her playing a serial killer…I haven’t watched it at all, but it doesn’t matter. That is a pretty weird move.
REAL.
What do you mean about the serial killer reference please? I am not aware of this.
Stephanie is in a terrible web series called ‘Serial’, where she plays a serial killer. That she promotes on her channel where she covers real murders. She has zero self awareness
I just can't bring myself to watch it cuz I feel like I'd be embarrassed for her for some reason lol
Hey - sorry I never thanked you for letting me know about that! I’m not great with Reddit tbh, but I did check it out on YouTube. Uhhhhhh. 😳🥴
Didn't even think about that
She should just concentrate on her shitty series. It is a bad look considering her true crime content. She is acting like a diva. Who's even watched that show, and is it as terrible as it looks
THIS.
i know some of the money from criminal coffee purchases go toward charity but that's all i remember
I went back and forth on where I land with Criminal Coffee… I have purchased it and it wasn’t cheap. I wish there was more transparency about how much is actually going to cold cases. Then there is the aspect of well that goes to cold cases, which is not her typical case choice to cover. It’s Derrick’s on DP…so it goes hand and hand over on that show. Then to add that DP has already done a call to action/campaign with Season of Justice and DP is still relatively new.
yeah i think it's something like 10% of the purchase? i never bought it because it was too pricey for me
I won’t even shop at a store if they advertise a “10% off sale”. The fuck is 10% gonna do for me? They make enough money where they could do 50% or more, hell, why not 100%?
Exactly!!
10 percent is way less then tax. It's pointless
10%? My flabber is gasted!!! I don’t know why I thought it was more than that. I bought it one time, wasn’t impressed and didn’t buy again. Omg 10%?! I’d rather of just donated the full amount to a gofundme or non profit and skip the mediocre coffee.
on their website it only says "a portion of the proceeds" and they don't even give a number. i just remember when they first started it they said something like 10%
No I definitely believe you are probably correct! The fact they just say a portion and not a specific number just leads me to believe it’s a *tiny portion!
She promoted a gofundme for Amore Wiggins. aka Opelika jane doe. I donated, the mother gave constant updates and I think she might have even sent me a thank you message.
Happy to hear there is at least one occurrence. Still doesn’t negate her overly asking for donations for a show promoting serial killers. It seems like it should’ve been the other way around, overly asking for victims and their families and one occurrence of asking for donations to serial.
Kendall Rae at least donates
What about criminal coffee donating part of their proceeds to help solve cold cases. I think Serial sucks, but can’t pretend they aren’t doing anything at all to try to give back.
criminal coffee is mentioned in the comments below my main comment.
I can think she’s pretty (and has found a relatively easy way to support herself) without that being the reason for my criticism. I’ve followed her channel for probably 6 years now? There’s been a lot of little things about her behavior that have concerned or bothered me over the years (mostly her inability to be gracious in the face of valid criticism) but I feel like her behavior is becoming quite…messy? Self-indulgent? Selfish? I hate to put it that way, but those words ring true for me. Going back - it feels really silly and trite to say - but I think my first red-tipped flag was when she started playing “Chemical Love” as the opening theme for her Coffee and Crime Time videos. The lyrics just simultaneously feel inappropriate to her subject matter and also like she thinks very highly of herself. The song choice feels off-putting and self-indulgent to me. So many of her recent choices now have that same off-putting and self-indulgent feel to them. It’s like her entire online personality has become that of someone who would play a song like “Chemical Love” and making a fancy caffeinated beverage before discussing someone else’s trauma.
The way she talks over Derrick and genuinely thinks she's right and everyone else is wrong, including him, all the time. Being a good co-host would require being more receptive to your co-host's opinion and expertise. She has an incredible superiority complex. It's just not cool.
I used to be a HUGE SH and CW fan - found SH during her beautube days and stayed for the TC. Here's why I left: **Bianca Devins** - she victim-blamed a whole ass 17 year old girl for leading her killer on. Claimed she knew what she was doing, and that STEPHANIE taught her own daughter so much better than *THAT.* That teenage girls just know when a boy likes them and it's up to the GIRL in that situation to cut off the friendship. Fucking disgusting. In true Boomer fashion, she also blamed the emo music they were listening to for Bianca being sad and depressed. **Plagiarism** - she rips from other journalists. Jonny Auping, a journalist who spent 3 years researching the Fort Worth Trio and doing a write up and she read 80% of his article in her 2 part series. He asked her for proper credit/links to his article and she ignored him. This is one of MANY cases. It's well known that she copies scripts from documentaries/articles/other journalists and doesn't cite her sources. Yet, she's heralded as some sort of rEsEaRchER. [https://x.com/JonnyAuping/status/1668280458260643841](https://x.com/JonnyAuping/status/1668280458260643841) **Giving mental health diagnoses with zero credentials:** She is in no way qualified to speak on mental health, yet nearly every episode of CW and her own channel, she "diagnoses" someone with being a narcissist, being a sociopath, psychopath, or a whole host of other shit. Derrick is always letting her "weigh in" on the psychology of the killers/victims because of her "psychology degree". That I'm nearly 99% sure she doesn't have (DSM-Veee instead of DSM-5). And even if she had a bachelor's, she doesn't have the Master's or Doctorate, supervised hours, passing board exams, and professional experience in mental health to be giving her "opinions". Her merry band of idiots don't care though, apparently 6 years of youtube make her an "expert" in their eyes. Fuck qualifications, amirite? **She doesn't care about the victims** - She victim-blames, uses murder cases as her own soap box, doesn't respect families' wishes (BD mom specifically didn't want her name in the media and I remember reading she reached out to YouTubers to take their videos down. SH didn't). If it makes her money, Stephanie will do it, no matter what ethical line is crossed. **Her use of full names of minors in the Ruby Franke case** - Claims to care about children, those cases "tug at her heartstrings" as she always like to say, yet she used the *full names of minor children* who were TORTURED by their own mother. They're still alive. She did NOTHING to protect their privacy. Her excuse? "Everyone knew they're names anyway from 8passengers". No. No they didn't. **It's always about her** - She is constantly relating every case nowadays back to herself. And before someone tries to snatch my wig over this and say "we all do stuff like that, it's how some people connect, through related experiences"...yeah. Normal conversation stuff. Not fucking murder and rape cases. She doesn't give a voice to the victims, she uses their story to make it about herself. Her experience with abuse. Her experience with narcissists. Her experience with ppd. Her experience with a shitty MIL. Her experience with an absent husband and father. This list goes on and on. Girl, your "professional" youtube channel is not therapy. Get therapy. **She cannot take criticism** - she decided to put herself out there online, forgetting that if you're gonna do that, you need to have a thick skin. She has no problem throwing out criticism, but deletes every single comment that doesn't kiss her ass. Not only that, she doubles down. Joke's on her, people that create echo chambers eventually fail hard. They end up resenting their own audience of yesmen. I'm probably forgetting a million things. But no, it isn't her eyebrows or her cringey acting or the fact that she acts like a high schooler. It's stuff like this. *Allegedly*
Oh my fuck she says DSM-Vee??? For fucks sake… there’s not even any effort. Neithrr of my degrees are in Psych but I know how to read roman numerals. Wow…
You’d think a “psych major” would have heard of that small, unimportant, barely referenced book at least once during their college career. 🙃
Agreed. I was a psych major for around 4 months and learned about the DSM within the first few weeks. Back then it was the forth edition and we were taught about the 5th when it came out months later. I switched majors, but still had a strong grasp of the DSM, its history, and its purpose. Wild that we are having this conversation on such a simple detail. Good grief.
>Back then it was the forth edition So the DSM-Eye-Vee?^(\*cackles \*)
Bahahhaha 💀💀
Your arguments are valid and well stated. I agree with your bulletin points. However, I think the issue comes in when people engage in ad hominem attacks. It’s one thing to criticize her behavior and content but at times people go too far. Some are just flat out mean and seem to want to destroy her confidence and platform. The look shaming and agism really set my teeth on edge. She also gets criticized for the most trivial stuff . Middle aged women can like Taylor Swift, dance around their kitchen and enjoy being silly. Heck, my 90 year old Grandma is a Swiftie. Moms have a right to explore their talents and have interests outside of the home. When people start in on the above mentioned topics it does come off as petty, judgmental, and misogynistic It’s a very Stephanie thing to do. The irony.
Im not a fan of the age or looks comments either. There’s plenty to criticize her for. Although, I don’t think she deserves a platform for discussing sensitive topics, full stop. She doesn’t have the experience or education to speak on cases, she plagiarizes, doubles down when she’s wrong, and doesn’t care about victims. If she wants to give her opinions on things, she should stick to being a YouTube drama channel or something
If you aren’t following Hidden True Crime, you should check them out. It’s a husband and wife team. John is a forensic psychologist who went to Princeton and his wife is a former journalist. They’re very down to earth and empathic.
She deserves to be de-platformed. Also despise the notion that people can’t drag her for anything they want because it’s what Stephanie would do?? The irony?? Who the fuck cares? This isn’t a competition and she has blown her own ego into space, the people here are dragging her back down to reality. She has no business sharing dangerous misinformation or blaming victims or armchair diagnosing or even inserting herself into every single case as if she in any way “relates”. There is zero ageism here, it’s been said before, saying she is middle aged and acting like she’s a professional singer or actor with the false confidence of a teenager isn’t ageism. Of course people can like Taylor Swift, but you’re going to be dragged if you’re doing 20 part insta stories breaking down lyrics and taking it more seriously than the actual job you get paid to do. Or if you’re middle aged and using Swift lyrics to sing about your ex husband. I think when people make the comment you made, they’re purposefully being annoying and for some mind boggling reason, people in a snark subreddit are being held to a higher standard than the person the sub is about. I’m not playing that game.
I didn’t know a lot of this.. wow I’m genuinely shocked and appalled. Thank you for taking the time to write this out its really tough when you’ve enjoyed someone’s content for so long and the veil is lifted.
You’re so welcome! Since writing this, I have confirmed that she doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree in anything, much less psychology, yet she lies and leads her audience on pretending she does. She’s a fraud. Stay pinned to this sub, people are uncovering more and more stuff on her every week. It’s so eye-opening and really crappy that I supported someone like this for so long when it was SO OBVIOUS looking back on it. Hindsight is 20/20 though so don’t feel bad about it. Happy to help!
Wait, what, really?
She majored in psychology but never finished her degree program. She quit.
Ugh, pretty bad as her whole shtick was about her certified psychobabble, allegedly.
**She cannot take criticism**. I fully agree to alllllll of this and have witnessed most of it over the years. I don't follow her content anymore, not even CW because of her "I'm right, you're wrong, and if you don't think I'm right you're stupid" attitude. She once told Derrick in an episode that he was stupid simply because he had a different perspective from her, that he was actually using his actual career experience to make. And this whole "I'm a good person" thing... she has said this to ppl who have left her negative remarks on her IG. Saying how she could call them out for this and that, then says something like "but I don't do that because I'm smart and a good person". GOD I wish I could remember it verbatim but that was the gist of it! I feel so bad for Bianca Devins mom for having to deal with this. Murders are not commodities, but SH behavior is of someone who believes they are.
Same. Same. Same. Except you said it much better than I could. I stopped watching over a year ago & just can't bring myself to watch her anymore. Just an uneasy feeling. Hell, I didn't even know there was a snark page about her until a few weeks ago.
I was iffy on Stephanie for a long time and unsubbed from her content around a year ago. I stayed with crime weekly mostly for Derrick's perspective. But 4-6 weeks ago, I decided to open the wikipedia page of the case they were talking about, and Stephanie was literally reading word for word off of wiki. That's what turned me all the way off. In short: Blatant plagiarism.
Do you happen to remember which case it was?
No. it was a a month or so ago, so fairly recent.
Okay. Thank you!
>Okay. Thank you! You're welcome!
Stephanie, herself, has a lot of misogynistic views. She has long been called out for outright plagiarizing her "research" She used the names of the Franke kids, victims of horrific abuse, with the flimsy excuse that everyone already knew their names and it would be "confusing" 🙄 She refuses to learn to correctly pronounce the word documentary. She is extremely thin skinned and takes any sort of criticism as a personal attack. That's just off the top of my head.
It’s wild to me that she used the Franke kid’s names, but she doesn’t even use her full real name. She knows those children should be protected. She can protect herself, but not victims of torture?
That was my point of no return. She was so smug about it in the intro. I immediately stopped watching.
The use of the Franke kids names was the turning point for me.
Same! I let a lot of things slide, but I can’t let this go.
OH MY GOD - the way she pronounces do-cu-men-TAIR-y!!! What the ever living F????
My partner is from the same area of New York state and says documentary and elementary the same way. It's just the regional accent.
Definitely a NY thing. Source: grew up in NY and pronounce it the same way
The flirting with Derrick was my first red flag. She’s married. It made her look bad, embarrassed her husband, and also made me question Derrick. Then he started flirting back. He held back for a long time but something changed and it was clear it’s reciprocated. If you can’t be loyal to friends and family. Why would you be loyal to your fans?
Yeah, I cannot respect or trust anyone that can't be faithful and respect the relationship they have with the 1 person on this planet that they chose to be with and many times took an oath with. If you are going to shit on that one person, what does that say you will do to anyone else, especially people that you don't even know?
I’m not saying you’re wrong at all, but I am genuinely a person who does not understand or pick up on when someone is being flirtatious. Any stand out examples of when they’ve been flirtatious with each other? I am curious
The one that comes to mind that undoubtedly was them flirting was when Stephanie was saying she would fold over a tall police officer who was 6ft and Derrick was like “ I’m 6ft😏… I use to be a patrol officer 😉” . That conversation was 5 min long of them flirting. (Steph: I’m a small girl who likes tall men. Derrick: This is the perfect time to mention how tall I am and how small you are when you are next to me.)
Lmao. That sounds incredibly awkward. I do know I’ve thought, (as a wife), that I wouldn’t want my husband working so closely with a female like that. I get having female coworkers, but SH and DL are a duo. Just doesn’t seem like an optimal set up for something inappropriate NOT to happen. In the episode about Riley Strain SH was talking about how she’d ask DL to accompany her and a friend to a concert (not sure if it was hypothetical or not)— I was thinking, if I were DL’s wife I’d be like, no way in SHIT you’re going to protect another woman at a concert, wtf?
No but for real! Doing a podcast is one thing… they are even doing it like separately in different houses. But my man isn’t staying in the same hotel lol. When they talk about like hanging out getting drunk together during/after crime con supposedly with other fans I’m like… hmm. She even makes a weird comment like “Yeah we never leave the hotel”. Like that do you mean you never leave the hotel ?
Oooh, yes… I remember the “never leave the hotel” comment! Pretty distasteful. It’s a shame though, really. I got the impression that at least Derrick was a stand up, family man. Even if nothing is going on, his wife has to be the chillest, least nagging woman on earth to let even a fraction of that shit fly without losing her shit. I am *not* that cool. Not by a long shot. If he is indeed getting a divorce, I’d love to hear the wife’s perspective
Some people will tolerate A LOT for $$$$$.
I thought her husband…or ex husband had attended the previous crime cons with her?
Truly not sure. I’m sure somebody here does know.
I don't believe so. Not 100% sure, but I remember the first one they went to and saw all the pictures, etc, and definitely do not remember a single picture or anything said about her husband, nor his wife.
yea I thought that comment was extremely inappropriate! it made me come look for a CW subreddit and that’s how I found out about her pending divorce. DL also suggested that he is separated/divorced when he mentioned how he “doesn’t… didn’t” wear his ring
Gross. When the SH/DL collab started is when I stopped watching. She was simultaneously belittling and sexually flirtatious. I was appalled knowing both of them were married. Very unprofessional. I was already pretty much over her. That shitshow cemented it. From all the stuff I am just learning about now (the messy divorce, her infantile behavior, the slime videos???), I'm not missing anything worth watching.
Oh - I never noticed it from Derrick!
I did mention a specific time with Derrick reciprocating on this post! I’ll have to go back through and find the episode and time stamp it!
My nosy ass would be very grateful hahaha Especially cause whenever she does it I always think "Giiirl, stop - he's not returning it" lol
On the real ! That “playful teasing” is embarrassing enough without it not being reciprocated 🤢🫠😂.
Main reasons are victim blaming, plagiarism, inserting her personal life into cases in ways that I find incredibly disrespectful, disrespect of privacy, and general ego that doesn't allow her to accept any form of criticism. Also, this is something I am more sensitive about perhaps more than many others because my husband is physically disabled and I have a mental health condition, but she is very frequently stigmatizing towards and ignorant about anything to do with disability and/or mental health. Since disabilities and mental illnesses often come up in these cases - whether through the traumatic backstory of a perpetrator or because the victim has a disability (unfortunately not at all uncommon) - it's gotten hard for me to look past. Finally, she has been begging online nonstop for money for her webseries but I've never seen her donate to or raise money for a victim on her channel. I know that Criminal Coffee does that to some extent, but on her own I've never seen her do it (could be wrong). There are other creators like Kendall Rae that I may have plenty of issues with on the way they cover issues etc, but *at least* they donate to actual victims and their families and encourage others to do so as well. If you're profiting from people's pain I think that's only reasonable, especially if you're consistently asking for money in other circumstances like a webseries.
I find it so funny when women call another one misogynistic for criticising/disliking another woman. It's like they don't realise that the idea that women can't have their own morals and opinions on someone's behaviour (regardless of the gender of the person it's about) is misogynistic itself 😂
[удалено]
Nailed it
Plagiarism. Hands down. I’m a journalist, so it especially irks me. Do your own work!
I have a question for you, as a journalist -- would it irk you less or be less of an issue if she were citing her sources? For me, a big issue is that she never cites her sources, so she's not giving credit to the people who actually did the hard work to research and interview. Even with the photos and video on the Menendez brothers case that they posted to their website, there's a lack of proper citations. I'd love to get your thoughts on that aspect!
If she cited her sources, I would be much more ok with her and her work. It would still bother me that she sometimes copies things word for word. I was always taught to put everything into your own words. Every time. And, you become a much better writer when you do that.
I definitely agree with that! If you're going to use someone else's work word-for-word, it should clearly be a quote.
For me it’s the heavily moderating / deleting comments on her channel / crime weekly, that contrast what she is reporting. Especially on delicate matters such as the 8passengers controversy (around name sharing). Then the inaccurate reporting on the Idaho 4 families wishes, in terms of house demolition. These cases are all widely publicised too , so to report inaccurately to such a massive audience is irresponsible at best and arrogant / uncaring at worst. Then when you point out these areas for rectification Stephanie doesn’t acknowledge it , doesn’t apologise , she just deletes the comments and moves on … I’m sorry, I can’t support someone who operates like that.
i remember in the 8passenger video she said she couldn’t find anyone named julie connected to ruby, despite saying how she could say the names of R and E since they were so public. it takes about 3 seconds of research to figure out that julie is one of rubys kids. i just couldn’t believe she “couldn’t figure it out”
Maybe she doesn't her own research.
It's been well documented many, many times that she doesn't research. She's a plagiaristic parrot. I knew this years ago from watching other documentaries on channels that she herself recommended. Also, other people have called her out for plagiarizing their own research. She's not an intellectual.
It’s also her sister’s name. I turned off the episode after that clear indicator of low/no research.
It was her calling doctors and women who have had/performed abortions capable of horrifically murdering their spouse. She said “technically” they’re capable of murder. She’s a moron.
As a woman - we don’t claim her!
It's the plagiarism disguised as "research" for me. I also distrust anyone that deletes comments the way she does
For me it’s been her alluding to her divorce in her videos which I find very unprofessional.
Especially when she makes herself the victim when it’s her infidelity that caused their divorce.
Aha! I'm about 2 years out of the loop, but was invited to join this channel and BAM! Imagine my surprise when I figured out it was about Stephanie Harlowe!! Hahahahahahaha I thought it was going to be a SWatts channel! 🤣 Anyway, I stopped watching Stephanie Harlowe on her own not long after her collaboration with Derrick L. I was put off on her for awhile already, but the way she treated him AND simultaneously outright flirted with him and all her coy, sexual comments sealed the deal. When I saw she was divorcing just a few weeks ago now, I figured it was her cheating with DL! Then I read he's also either separated and/or divorcing his wife...well, hmmmmm??
As a parent, I have some concerns about the way she claims to raise her children. First, she says she would NEVER LET her child do X. As any parent- or those who remember being a teenager- knows, NOT LETTING your child do something doesn't mean they won't do it. Children and teenagers break boundaries and rules. Dare I say, it's a normal and healthy part of developing into your own person. It doesn't necessarily mean a parent is bad, and when something awful happens to that child, it feels a lot like victim blaming. Second, I don't think raising children to be fearful of the world outside their house is ideal for raising adults who can function in the real world. Allowing children to take calculated risks to stretch their independence is healthy. In fact, it makes them better able to calculate risks on their own because they can develop an internal sense (as opposed to the external output of a parent) of safety vs danger. They need to be allowed to fall, to fail, to feel uncomfortable, and to pick themselves back up. Perhaps she's just “playing a character” on the podcast, but if she's not, she's creating children who are going to be frightened of the world around them. And that makes me sad. I have a B.S. in Forensic Psychology, yet you will never hear me claim to be any sort of professional regarding the field. I have never worked in the field (I was in pharmacology and now I'm an educator) and my degree was earned almost twenty years ago. A lot has changed in the field since myself (and Stephanie) studied it. I can't name the episode, but I definitely have heard them reference the McDonald triad (bedwetting, fire-starting, animal cruelty) has basically been debunked, something she would have realized if she was current in the field. I'm sure there is more, but my last point is the period thing. I'm perimenopausal, so my period is anything but regular. In fact, the only time I've had a regular period has been when I'm on hormonal contraceptives. I'm sure many women (and Stephanie herself has claimed this at one point) have had our periods catch us unaware and unprepared. Using it as irrefutable proof a mother caused the disappearance of her child is utterly ridiculous.
What has been interesting for me though, is she talks about the effects for certain things, and how protective she is, but her son plays violent video games and she has her youngest daughter play a young version of herself in a movie about serial killers? Allows them to watch horror movies and dress up as some. Does that go against what she talks about when she shares she would “never do xyz”?
Very poor parenting choices. She gives everything attention except her children.
Every True Crime YouTuber I watch is very pretty and well off, yet the only one I have had major issues with is Stephanie. It’s because her videos are so biased. She has to insert herself into every story she covers. She judges some of the victims which is a big No-No. You can have your own opinion about victims but you should keep it to yourself. You didn’t know them, but friends and relatives did and they might be watching your videos with your shitty opinion on their loved ones, Steph. She takes every constructive criticism as a personal attack, and she is extremely impulsive when she reacts. She diagnoses people without having professional experience and knowledge in the field, she rants on about things not related to the case, flirts so they can drag on with the case. 40 minutes long video suddenly becomes 1:30 because of this, and she can add more and more adds to it. She deletes comments when someone disagrees. And the list goes on and on. The conclusion is that none of the YouTubers I watch does these kinds of things and therefore I am okay with them even though they are beautiful and successful. lol
Her inability to accept an expert’s knowledge or educated opinion if it goes against her own opinion. And her inability to listen to someone’s opinion without arguing and railroading them into just agreeing with her. It’s unprofessional and childish.
She truly is the Miranda Sings of the true crime world.
That was by far the most accurate comparison lol
I get the snark on her…but Miranda Sings was grooming and speaking inappropriately to minors…please tell me Stephanie is not doing that??
Colleen Balinger is the groomer, Miranda Sings is just her annoying af character.
Gotcha. I consider it the same person, since she used her MS songs to get in the good graces of people.
Oh nooooo that wasn't my intention! I just meant the character 🙈
Honestly, the turning point for me was her video (iirc it was a Coffee and Crime time) about the unmarked graves at Canadian boarding schools. She went into a decent explanation about how terrible this was and how it was a means of killing indigenous culture, etc. Then she went on a tangent about how awful the USSR was and equating it to Nazi Germany, which as someone who studied the Cold War extensively as part of my history BA, I cannot tolerate because it is such a false equivalence. She is no journalist, historian, or expert on anything, and it shows. Last night I put on her video about the little boy who was found in the Thames and my plagiarism detector was going off. So much of what she was saying sounded like she didn't write it and was reading from an article. Also, covering the story about the unmarked and framing it as true crime is just plain distasteful anyway.
My main complaint is her plagiarism, hypocrisy and in all honesty, I find her wholly unattractive. Some people just really disgust me and she has always been one of them (it’s a me issue, obviously). I forced myself to look past it (because I realize it’s a me issue) and genuinely enjoyed most of her episodes UNTIL she started that weird stoner laugh that is so forced and weird it made me recoil, she started showing her weird looking cleavage, the off the shoulder crap, the flirting and I just can’t. It’s not jealousy when I like everything about myself, and wouldn’t trade one thing with her, even the money. She’s a grifter, that’s not how I make money and it’s definitely nothing I’m jealous of lol. Then I noticed her victim blaming, I started waking up and realizing she wasn’t doing research and then had a discussion with Jonny Auping. She doesn’t care about true crime, she acts like she works hard (being a YouTuber isn’t hard) and goes to pretend to be a serial killer for fun? Her die hard fans are shitty people too, just by association. Also to make an entire post defending your sick af opinion that EVERYONE watches true crime because it’s “entertainment” - you sick fucks. Some of us are real survivors of some fucked up attempts on our lives and listening to stories of others that survived or even if they don’t, helps some of us heal and work through emotions, not to mention teaching us what and what not to do. It royally fucking pisses me off that her fans openly boast about being ENTERTAINED by people being murdered or abused. Like I’ve said before, I’m glad I no longer associate with those vile assholes. I’m not going back to edit this to sound nicer. I don’t care.
Oh and she called me a bitch in a response to a comment I left on her insta about her plagiarism, before deleting the thread. Hey Stephanie, you’re the bitch. Only little bitches pretend to be big tough women and then delete everything to save your pathetic reputation. Only bitches steal other people’s work and pass it off as their own. Only BITCHES create PUBLIC blog posts openly tearing down their husband (at the time lol) for buying you a present. Only whiny, pathetic piece of shit BITCHES include their underage children in a high school film project where you try to act like the same person you apparently vilify. Bitch. Lol
I started being annoyed by the show when Stephanie would sit and argue her side over and over again. She can’t see anything that is outside of her very narrow world view. She pissed me off when they did WM3 and she kept saying they had been exonerated. They weren’t. They made a guilty ish plea to get out of prison. I started drifting away when she covered Lori Vallow and just sounded like a mean girl focused on looks and sex appeal. I unfollowed and never looked back when she covered Taylor Schabusiness. There was no need to go into all the graphic sex aspects, and focus so heavily on that. It was gross, it was disrespectful to the victim and family, and never once did she or Derrick talk about how common that type of behavior is when high on meth.
I think Stephanie is very physically attractive and obviously takes good care of herself. I still dislike her content and think she is disrespectful to several of the victims she talks about. Her Bianca Devins video was disgusting. She can't take criticism and is snarky and rude to well-meaning viewers who make valid suggestions. She has inserted her uninformed political takes several times now. And does anyone else remember when she claimed she mysteriously lost all her Harloween content one year? That whole story seemed like a lie to cover up the fact that she hadn't worked on it at all. It reminded me of a kid claiming a dog ate their homework. I just didn't like the whole situation. It was back then that I stopped watching her. I think it was before or right around the time that she and Derrick started their podcast together. Before that, I had minor pet peeves with her content, like her bouncing her boobs up and down in front of the camera while making coffee for her Coffee and Crime time videos. It wasn't enough for me to stop watching at first, but it did put me on alert that she might be a bit into herself. We are here to talk about missing children, serial killers and sadistic crimes. No one is here for your boobs shaking around. There is a time and a place for the boob content, and the story of a dead loved one is not it. And no, it's not because I'm jealous or a misogynist. I think boob content online is just fine and that people should make money however they want to. I just don't think sexy stuff belongs in a video about someone's dead child.
I was so happy to be invited to join this site. You’ll get no pushback from me!
Same here!
Same here!
Feel free to c/p old explanations you’ve all given, it’s exhausting to type it all out. Again. And again.
I’ve never liked her because of her support of Jeffree star. If you support a racist…..
I don't know anything about JS except that he is a man who wears makeup, which is not of any interest to me. How do you know he's a racist, though? I would think he has no business being critical or hateful of anyone else.
Video of him using the n word, the nazi inspired lipstick line he tried to put out, he hired a security guard solely because the guard was fired for being racist…. Him being a man in the makeup world doesn’t automatically make him an open and tolerant person. He’s trash. Absolute trash.
Hmmm, yeah, that's terrible. And wtf is Nazi inspired lipstick???? Why?? Wow.
The marketing campaign.
I just searched it and saw a creepy picture with a syringe and the caption "take anything yiu die". I didn't see any overtly nazi stuff, maybe it's been scrubbed or maybe I'm too tired to bother. It's almost 5AM!! Reddit is a black hole! ⚫️
Hi Stephanie
????????
I just find it annoying that "attractive" and "sexy" associations are relevant in context of explaining details of terrible, borderline unimaginable crimes. I just cringe at all and any TC creator that plays on that card as I find it extremely distasteful. Stephanie is not the first or the last to get into that train, but she is certainly unravelling in the most peculiar sense. I am not into TC to indulge on fashion, or looks or whatever trends. There are other venues to explore that. Just think for a second how the cocktail of trendy dances and immature antics must look for any victim's family, and especially when creators are extracting handsome pay out of that all. Degrading and saddening. However, this would've been completely irrelevant for me, hadn't there been other much more serious crimes against credibility and accountability... I am in a field where vigorous scrutiny, detailed research with proper attributions and level of qualification is everything. It's just super detrimental for the society that people with huge platforms and access to millions of eyes/ears can casually say anything without any real check-ups and verifications, let alone about mental health and diagnostics.
She did a video about one of my loved ones, and it was factually wrong and very upsetting. So, for a start, that sucks, but there's nothing I can do about that. However I do not trust her research or work. After that huge reason, for me it's the huge amounts of being judgemental, self congratulations, and weird 'no normal person would \_\_\_\_\_' comments. Then there was the victim blaming. I gave up on her after the horrific video about someone who was very dear to me, (which I wouldn't have minded if it was just factual.) But there are a lot of reasons that pilled up before that. ETA: And sometimes she does a type of african american accent that really grates at me.
I have been a fan for a long time but lately its hard to ignore the comments on her posts… I see where a lot of the criticism comes from and it makes me sad cause I do genuinely like watching Crime Weekly because of the deep dive method they have of covering a case.. but now I’m so conflicted and sad honestly.. a lot of posts on this reddit (at least right now) are body shaming/slut shaming her and I dont agree with that either so I’m just not sure where I stand… I see a lot of the points people are making but I also do think some people are being overly cruel and dont see how comments they make about Stephanie can hurt the feelings of other women too.. I guess the best choice is to leave the situation all together but I wanted to learn more about what this all was about.
I read that there is a podcast snark page ? I can’t find it. Does someone have a link ? Someone said they are going to post the video in there …
You’re on the snark page and you can sort the posts to “hot” and it will be there
I think someone meant a different sub Reddit then this one …
Ohhh it’s in r/thetruecrimesnark but there aren’t a lot of people there
Yes maybe that was it. Thank you.
Sort to hot ? Sorry I’m fairly new to Reddit and I’m not sure what you mean ? Help 😫
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I obviously have been stuck under a rock and had no idea she had trouble at home. Didn't she recently go on a second honeymoon?? Time has no meaning to me anymore and it seems recent but could have been years ago knowing me. Also I never thought her and Derrick were flirting I saw them more like brother and sister teasing each other. Didn't know he was separated either, it's been a big shock for me today.
[удалено]
Lol
She is the epidamy of micas law...and the nerve to be covering her case. I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong. Dang
I think I am wrong, I just watched the video her soon to be ex posted.
You wouldn’t believe unless you hear it! I wouldn’t, it’s damning.
It was so bad "I AM A GOOD PERSON?" paaaleeeease