While Audrey and Jeremy Roloff seem to be enjoying their family trip to Hawaii, things have not gone off without a hitch.
Between some embarrassing photos to Audrey’s startling brush with racism, it’s not going over well with fans.
Even some of Auj and Jer’s supporters are wincing at what is being described as a tone deaf display of wealth and privilage.
Audrey’s less-than-humble brags are starting to feel more and more like the flaunting of wealth.
Audrey Roloff is sharing more than just family photos while visiting Hawaii with Jeremy and their three children.
She is offering recommendations on where she’s been and which places she and Jeremy enjoy the most.
The offer sounds like she’s opening it up to fans who want to follow in her footsteps … but how many actually can?
Fans love seeing the photos of three-year-old Ember, 1-year-old Bode, and newborn Radley.
Where Audrey runs into trouble is in posts like the one where she offers to explain how Maui became a “highlight of our favorite spots.’
Auj goes on: “We’ve been five times and always try to stay a couple of weeks every time.”
Audrey then opened up to questions from fans, offering to detail things like what a vacationer might need and where they would need to stay.
But following the boastful declaration earned backlash.
Going on vacation is one thing. Highlighting how many times you’ve been on the same pricey vacation is bragging.
“Humble brag minus the humble,” commented one Reddit user who was less than amused.
“Must be nice to have no job and have been to Maui five times,” another wrote. “Some of us work and haven’t been once.”
For a sense of perspective, another noted: “I budgeted it out several years ago and I’d need at least $3,000 to $5,000 to go and be somewhat comfortable.”
“Even the average Joe from Oregon can’t take vacations that last two weeks or more,” another pointed out.
An additional commenter added that this kind of vacation is “Not for people who have jobs.”
There are a couple of issues at play behind the backlash coming from critics and from fans, so let’s take a look.
After decades of wage stagnation, skyrocketing cost of living expenses, and two years of a deadly pandemic, money is tight.
Not for billionaires, who have increased their collective wealth by trillions in recent years, often without actually producing anything to show for it.
But for millions of average, everyday fans, even those with steady jobs, the luxury that Audrey and Jeremy experience is a pie-in-the-sky dream.
There is also the issue of time, which is a specifically American problem when it comes to vacations.
Many developed nations offer — on a national level — several weeks of guaranteed paid time off for vacations.
Someone living in a country where they have six weeks off to vacation and travel every year might not understand why an American Little People, Big World fan feels insulted at Audrey’s boast.
Another factor, of course, is that vacationing in Hawaii is controversial on its own, and not without reason.
To put it bluntly, the tourism industry in Hawaii, which is too often followed by affluent white Americans moving to the island state, is in many ways destroying local Hawaiians.
Being priced out of a home in your neighborhood is bad. Being priced out with nowhere to go except to fly to another state is worse. That’s definitely a factor here.
There’s also the matter of how this trip came to be — namely, that Audrey won the vacation after reaching a certain tier at her essential oils business.
She has been not-so-subtly accused of being part of a multi-level marketing scheme (that is a pyramid scheme, folks), using her fame and platform to hoodwink followers.
If that’s true, then her vacation to Hawaii is also promoting that same alleged scam to her fans … which puts a sinister vibe on the whole thing.
Speaking of vibes, we can’t have an honest conversation about all of this blowback without acknowledging that a lot of people do not like Audrey and Jeremy.
Between politics and some weird comments over the years, “the vibes are off” with these two, and people are unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe that’s unfair, maybe it isn’t, but it’s absolutely a factor in how Audrey’s not-quite-humble brags are perceived.