Singapore TikTokker confesses to plagiarising eating-disorder essay: ‘I am so sorry’
- Brooke Lim, a 19-year-old influencer known for teaching people how to write essays, was accused last week of extensively plagiarising another’s work
- In a TikTok video posted on Monday, Lim confessed to making ‘the very serious and regrettable’ mistake of plagiarising work from other writers
Brooke Lim rose to fame as a TikTokker known for teaching people how to write essays well. This week, that all came crashing down around her when she was accused of – and admitted to – plagiarising a part of her own essay.
But on Wednesday last week, Lim was accused by a TikTok account with the ID @sugaresqueessay of extensively plagiarising an essay titled “On Being Afraid Of Eating”, initially published on her blog, Grayscale Copy, on April 18. Lim’s blog is now password-protected.
Videos – and a lengthy Google document posted by an anonymous person – accused Lim of lifting phrases and even specific plot points from at least five different books for a long-form essay, which she characterised as a recount of her own experience battling an eating disorder.
In a TikTok video posted on Monday, Lim confessed to making “the very serious and regrettable” mistake of plagiarising work from other writers. She apologised to her students and followers, and the authors whose work she used.
“I should have been more careful throughout the process of crafting the essay, instead of just reaching into my past compilation of thoughts and insights that I had lifted from past authors,” Lim said in her video. “I should have done my due diligence and I will be more careful in the future.”
Lim told reporters on Tuesday that she was “deeply apologetic” and takes “full responsibility” for “plagiarising a segment of the essay”.
“I would like to clarify that the essay was written in a purely personal capacity and was not intended for profit, academic assignment, or publication and that this was an arbitrary incident that does not relate to any of the materials that I have used at Classicle Club,” Lim said.
Lim said that she will “be more mindful moving forward”.
The creators of a Change.org petition are separately calling for Lim’s UCLA admissions letter to be vetted for plagiarism. UCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours about whether Lim – a graduate of the elite Raffles Institution school in Singapore – had been accepted.
Words cannot describe how disrespectful and callous it was of her to exploit such mental conditions
“Regarding the petition, I am aware of its existence, and I understand the concerns raised by those who have signed it,” Lim said. “I would like to clarify that as of time of writing, I have not committed to UCLA, and am not a UCLA student. I trust that the school will do its due diligence and I would be open to clarifying my stance directly should the need arise.”
The petition – which had 750 signatures at press time – accused Lim of “seeking to boost her professional credibility as a writer through her plagiarised essay.”
“She can stoop so low as to plagiarise something as personal as an eating disorder, that which many vulnerable people struggle with,” read the petition. “Words cannot describe how disrespectful and callous it was of her to exploit such mental conditions, something so visceral and real to many, to suit her own agenda.”
