For years now, people have been speculating on TikTok about Annie Bonelli and her infamous scar.
It seems that every six months, the controversy arises once again.
Annie initially went viral in 2021 for a pink scar she had going down her cheek. She went viral for her scar and its placement but mostly because people thought the way it rested on her cheek looked cute or cool.
Initially, the scar appeared to be slowly fading, and as it di, her videos went less and less viral. Eventually, people began to notice that the scar seemed to have reappeared in the form of a thick red line, and eventually, a thick brown line.
The sudden shift in the appearance of her scar tissue led people to begin to speculate as to whether or not she had begun drawing on her scar for attention. Amidst a lot of speculation, she made videos trying to prove to doubters that she hadn’t drawn it on.
This included wiping the scar with makeup wipes, scrubbing it with a Q-tip, and washing her face.
Dave Portnoy of Barstool and Josh Richards talked to Annie about this controversy on his BFFs Podcast. They pointed out that in one particular video, she attempts to wipe the scar with a Q-tip but eagle-eyed viewers zoomed in and noticed that the head of the Q-tip missed the scar entirely.
But, they also noted that no one who knows her in real life has ever come onto the internet saying that she doesn’t actually have the scar or that she’s faking it. No matter what they threw at her, as Portnoy pointed out, she had an answer or defense for everything.
The speculation even reached medical professionals on TikTok. Dr. Youn, a holistic plastic surgeon, chimed in with his thoughts on Annie’s scar after his audience asked him for his opinion.
According to Dr. Youn, scars for caucasian people typically fade from a wound to a thick pink line to a thin scar lighter than the surrounding skin. But they also can be wide or even become slightly raised above the skin. He noted that older videos of Annie’s scar look realistic, whereas newer ones don’t look like anything he’s encountered as a doctor.
For the most part, the origin of the scar remained mysterious. She never likes to address how exactly she got it or where it was from, but when speculation and bullying got to an all-time high in 2023, Annie Bonelli posted a video once again trying to prove her scar is real and captioning the TikTok her feelings, when she got the scar, and how she’d been treated because of it.
She explained that the scar had taken a lot of her self-confidence away at 15 and prolonged treatments to have it removed or faded had given her chemical burns or made it worse. But she decided not embracing it and openly loving herself would be a disservice to her and the people who know her.
She emphasized the importance of not commenting on or speculating about scars when you don’t know where they’re from. She also noted her ongoing mission to spread awareness for domestic violence (which some fans believe is the origin of the scar) and body positivity.
Commenter consensus theory is that the scar was real at one point, but that she began drawing it back on or over-exaggerating it to gain traction and popularity.
Ava Grimes made a simple video addressing how unfair it feels that this girl is getting attention, likes, and fame from her more aesthetically pleasing scar or, in some people’s eyes, from faking a scar altogether. She stitched a video of Annie wiping the scar off of her face, captioning it “I’ve never hated someone so much in my life,” and displaying facial scars that she got from being kicked in the face by a horse.
Recently, fans have noticed that Annie’s scar is once again fading and seems to be gone altogether despite being very dark and prominent just a year ago.
She said that she’d always been really good at covering it with concealer, and she’d stopped doing crazy treatments and remedies, letting the scar tissue rest. According to Annie, it’s still really dark but it’s looking better, and she always has it covered now.
She also noted that she had gotten fed up with people who didn’t know her calling her “Scar Girl,” and constantly being reminded of a traumatic moment in her life.
Still, people aren’t buying her story and while most have moved on from the “Scar Girl” storyline, as has Annie, she still gets comments from people calling her a liar and saying that she finally gave up on her story.
Evidence feels stacked against either side and anyone who has an opinion is firm on their side of the argument, but the heat has died down and it looks like only Annie will ever know the truth.