A New York City influencer has sparked fierce debate over her ‘dystopian’ Los Angeles fire relief efforts – with some disapproving of her beauty product goodie bags and others rushing to her defense.
Serena Kerrigan, 30, shared a photo to her Instagram story showing skincare and haircare donations that were to be sent to victims of the fires ravaging LA communities.
She wrote on Thursday: ‘Putting together bags of products to send to LA. If you guys have any stuff you can donate, DM @cocoschiffer.’
The photo showed pink bags filled with cosmetic supplies, which some viewers felt trivialized the devastation being caused by the ongoing flames.
‘This story really struck a dystopian chord with me,’ Reddit user AffectionateRip764 wrote in a thread dedicated to ‘discussion and snark about NYC influencers.’
They continued: ‘I am not trying to shade her intentions, however, seeing this influencer “front lines” response to the devastation in LA by sending goodie bags of picked over products is so incredibly satirical and influencer-age Fahrenheit 451.
‘The critical resources those people are looking for are not Crown Affair mousse or 111Skin(??) face masks in a neon pink Poppi PVC bag.’
In the comment section, more than 100 people responded to the post, chiming in to discuss Kerrigan’s contributions.
Serena Kerrigan, 30, shared a photo to her Instagram story of her preparing ‘goodie bags’ of beauty products to send to send to victims of the fires ravaging LA communities
The photo showed pink bags filled with skin care and hair supplies, which some viewers felt trivialized the devastation being caused by the ongoing flames
The LA fires have displaced more than 180,000 people and took the lives of at least 16 Californians
Many people saw AffectionateRip764’s perspective, but actually sided with Kerrigan and praised her actions.
‘I understand where you’re coming from but people lost everything. I think that while items like these aren’t practical, they’ll help people feel some level of normalcy as they figure out how to move forward,’ an approving user replied.
A few commenters said they watched Kerrigan’s full story and she explained that the items were from a canceled event.
Another user said: ‘People are losing everything. Think about how this might make a few teenage girls in a temporary shelter feel normal for even just a few minutes. I think honestly anything helps, and hygiene products are always being requested.’
One person said that it was a great way for Kerrigan and others to put good use to items that would have likely been thrown away or not used.
They wrote: ‘It’s also a good way to put elaborate and often wasteful PR box stuff to use. Influencers throw so much of this stuff out just because of the absolute excess they receive. I’m not against it’
AffectionateRip764 said the bags were ‘incredibly satirical and influencer-age Fahrenheit 451,’ referencing the classic novel set in a dystopian society
Another woman shared that at first, she did not understand why Kerrigan would send these kinds of bags out. However, she quickly changed her perspective.
‘Why shouldn’t influencers send their massive piles of sh*t they’ll never use (prob just save to use for a giveaway) to people who lost truly everything. It’s actually refreshing to see them do SOMETHING tactical as opposed to just posting.’
The rest of the comments echoed the sentiment that the influencer’s gesture is more than most other people are doing to help out.
They also pointed out that these products could put a smile on the face of someone who has just lost everything they own.
Someone addressed AffectionateRip764: ‘There’s nothing dystopian about wanting skincare after all your sh*t burned down. Now tell the class what you’ve donated to the people in California.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to Kerrigan for comment.
More than 180,000 residents have been displaced by the raging disaster and at least 16 have been killed. More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed.
The fires started in the Pacific Palisades area of LA and rapidly spread into Brentwood, a ritzy neighborhood home to high-profile people including Lebron James, Kamala Harris and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The LA fires that erupted across the county are still raging and are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history
The fires started started in the Pacific Palisades area of LA and rapidly spread into Brentwood
According to The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades Fire is 11 percent contained and has spanned across more than 23,700 acres in LA county.
‘This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in U.S. modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,’ AccuWeather meteorologist Jonathan Porter told the Associated Press.
AccuWeather experts predicted that the economic losses and damages caused by the fire so far fall between $135 billion and $150 billion.