On December 28th, 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison after serving 8 years of a 10-year sentence for her role in the murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard. Less than one month later, she has 9.9 million followers on TikTok and 8.3 million on Instagram. So how did she go from convict to social media star overnight? And why are millions of people obsessed with her?

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was convicted in 2016 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder after conspiring with her former boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to murder her abusive mother. Her mother was suspected of having Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a psychological disorder in which a caregiver seeks attention by pretending that their child is ill. By the age of 7, Gypsy Rose’s mother claimed that she had numerous diseases, such as muscular dystrophy and leukemia. Over time, Gypsy Rose was unnecessarily subjected to feeding tubes, wheelchair use, and multiple procedures and medications.

Gypsy Rose’s case led to a media frenzy, with many documentaries, podcasts, and films being made about it. The most famous one, however, is the mini-series The Act, starring Joey King, which gained Gypsy Rose much more fame. While the show was a big hit, Gypsy Rose truly grew her influencer status during her last months in prison. She gained an entirely new fandom through TikTok, where people would write comments like “WE LOVE YOU GYPSY ROSE” and “My favorite influencer.”

Part of the fascination that people have with Gypsy Rose and her abusive mother stems from the contradiction of the basic belief of how a mother should treat her child. The norm would be for a mother to do everything she can to keep her child safe and loved. However, Gypsy’s mother did the exact opposite of that and made her feel so unsafe that she resorted to murder. This is not the first time that the public has become obsessed with the story of an abusive mother. In August 2022, former child actress, Jenette McCurdy, published her book I’m Glad My Mom Died which tells the story of her childhood with an abusive mother, who forced her into acting and fueled her eating disorders. The book became a #1 New York Times bestseller with over 2 million copies sold. Evidently, people are intrigued by these types of stories as McCurdy’s book regained the fame that she had when she was young and Gypsy Rose’s case made her a social media star.

People also love a comeback story, and Gypsy Rose’s life is just that. When she first went to prison, she said that it was the freest she had ever felt, and her first post on social media after being released was captioned, “First Selfie of Freedom,” which had comments like “Slay my girlie!!” and “QUEEN”. Blanchard also married behind bars last year to Ryan Anderson, a teacher from Louisiana. Another one of her first social media posts was a photo with her husband, which she captioned, “A New Years Eve Eve Kiss with my hubby.” Her “redemption arc” has gained her a mass of fans since she was granted parole in September 2023. The fact that she was an accessory to murder has not stopped them from sharing their love and admiration for her all over social media.

While Gypsy Rose has many fans, there are still some people who have spoken out about the peculiar situation. The podcast Do We Know Them has called the obsession with Gypsy Rose, “disturbing, dystopian, and strange.” It is indeed a horrible situation that has a lot of controversy surrounding it, as it is difficult to objectively decide whether someone should be a fan of an ex-convict. However, no one truly regrets the situation as much as Gypsy Rose herself, who said in an interview, “She [her mom] didn’t deserve that. She was a sick woman and unfortunately, I wasn’t educated enough to see that. She deserved to be where I am, sitting in prison doing time for criminal behavior.”