Chrissy Teigen is hoping the media will stop focusing on her Twitter feed and start focusing on aid for Indonesia after she live-tweeted an earthquake on Sunday.
The model (and iconic social media user) has been on the Indonesian island of Bali for a vacation with husband John Legend and their young children, so when an earthquake hit the area early Sunday morning, she did what she does best: posted about it online.
Bali. Trembling. So long.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018
The building where Teigen and Legend are staying happens to be on stilts, so it made for a wobbly (but stable) ride through the magnitude 6.9 quake:
Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride. 15 solid seconds of “hooooooly shit this is happening”
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018
The earthquake has left at least 98 Indonesians dead, and an estimated 20,000 homeless, with President Joko Widodo expressing “deep sorrow” for the families Sunday and promising to rebuild. But because American media is the way it is, a lot of the reporting on the natural disaster hinged on Teigen’s tweets. Specifically, Teigen shared that she’d been naked inside her room when the quake hit, so she’d walked outside holding her infant and simply saying, “I’m naked. I’m naked. I’m naked,” in case anyone saw.
I very calmly walked outside saying clutching baby saying “I’m naked. I’m naked. I’m naked.” like a naked zombie
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018
Throughout the day, Teigen updated about the quake’s aftershocks, and let fans know that her family was safe.
So many aftershocks ???
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018
another aftershock just now. probably the 8th one we have felt since the big one last night. we are safe, up high and nothing around us. thinking about everyone around us and in Lombok especially.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 6, 2018
But Teigen also started to notice the story was getting picked up because a celebrity had been naked during an earthquake, not because a natural disaster had rocked the country where she was staying.
“Great a news story just talked about my crotch tweet in the middle of earthquake tweets,” she joked.
great a news story just talked about my crotch tweet in the middle of earthquake tweets I gotta delete it, that can’t be how I go down
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018
Teigen ended the thread asking for no more “news stories mentioning” her family, and instead inviting the media to “talk about those in danger and share information to help those in need.”
Please don’t make anymore news stories mentioning us. Talk about those in danger and share information to help those in need.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 6, 2018
For those looking to make a donation, the Indonesian Red Cross is on the ground helping with recovery, and regional groups like Mercy Relief have pledged their assistance.
