Truth about bitter influencer ‘feud’ everyone is talking about… as explosive ‘copycat’ claims and secret ‘jealousy’ are revealed

As influencer Natalie Reynolds smiled at the camera, posing in a Spider-Man leotard and pretending to hang from the ceiling, some of her more than 21 million viewers experienced déjà vu.

For earlier that day, they said they had seen fellow creator Brooke Monk share an identical video with her audience more than six times the size, accusing Reynolds of copying her content.

But this wouldn’t be the first time.

Fans of Monk, who boasts 48.5 million followers on TikTok alone, have repeatedly pointed to striking similarities between her videos and that of Reynolds, down to outfits, hand gestures and even captions.

In another seemingly parroted post, Monk and her boyfriend Sam Dezzani wore all-black outfits and captioned the video ‘POV: when you got in an argument but that means you get to make up.’ Reynolds and her fiancé, Zack Huelsman, quickly shared their own almost-identical version with her 8.5 million TikTok followers.

While a few fans have brushed off the parallels as the Los Angeles-based influencers, both known for posting comedy skits and couples’ content, simply following viral trends, far more have speculated that there is an ongoing feud between the two content creators, both 23.

Adding fuel to the fire was a Snapchat video shared by Reynolds in December titled ‘Exposing Brooke Monk,’ in which she claimed she met Monk at the TikTok Awards that month and had hoped to ‘settle the drama between us like grown women.’

‘The second that I said her name she looked at me in total disgust. Didn’t even look at me like I was a human,’ claimed Reynolds, whose mascara was smeared as if she had been crying. She claimed she had ‘never been so embarrassed in her entire life’ after the encounter.

Today, some believe Reynolds is trolling Monk, even appearing to have a picture of Dezzani hanging behind her in some videos. But in a diabolical twist, others think that it’s all a ploy to get more views, speculating that the two may even be working together behind the scenes to boost their online fame.

After all, brand consultant Sam Gauchier told the Daily Mail that would be a ‘smart TikTok strategy.’

‘One idea creates two videos, two comment sections and a wave of searches, profile visits and repeat views,’ the New York City-based consultant said. ‘Natalie playing the villain people love to hate, and Brooke playing the person everyone rushes to defend.’

Ciara Strickland, a TikTok creator with more than 600,000 followers on @TheNewMixx, told the Daily Mail that ‘one of the most frequent controversies in the creator economy at the moment’ is copycat content.

‘There’s a clear reward in the comments and stitches section for drama – even when the conflict is real, both creators’ teams tend to amplify it, since the algorithm truly can’t tell real beef from just content,’ she said.

Regardless of whether the influencers are really manufacturing the drama for the camera, AI strategist Nicole Garcia told the Daily Mail that intentionally copying Monk is beneficial to Reynolds because ‘even when the comments are negative, that engagement can still help push the videos out to more people.’

In the end, Garcia said it benefits Monk because followers go to her page to comment about how Reynolds copied her again, which ‘creates more attention and engagement.’

Indeed, viewers often debate in the comments of both Monk and Reynolds’ videos on whether the ‘copying’ claims are true, with some going so far as to post side-by-side comparisons of the creators’ clips.

‘Natalie is not a copycat like if I’m wrong,’ one commenter declared. Another wrote, ‘She did it better than Brooke.’ Meanwhile, others accused Reynolds of imitation and made sure to ask, ‘Who saw Brooke and Sam’s first?’

But Amelia Samson, a creator with 600,000 TikTok followers, is not quite as convinced the feud is staged, telling the Daily Mail that ‘there’s not an obvious upside for [Monk] in manufacturing a public feud.’

Monk, for her part, is already wildly successful, landing lucrative deals over the years with brands like Too Faced Cosmetics and Paramount and earning a spot on the Forbes top creator earnings list, where she is estimated to be worth more than $5 million. Reynolds, on the other hand, seems to have more to gain.

‘They’re both savvy creators who know that people are invested in the drama,’ she said, adding that she thinks it is ‘more likely that real tension is being played up for content than that the entire thing was secretly orchestrated by both of them.’

But for all the speculation online, Monk has remained mum about her apparent imitator. In an interview with Barstool Sports in December 2025, Monk said she had never met Reynolds and had nothing negative to say about her.

In fact, a representative for Monk immediately turned down an interview with the Daily Mail when the topic of Reynolds was broached.

Meanwhile, Monk’s boyfriend Dezzani denied speculation about bad blood, simply stating: ‘There’s no “feud.”‘

Reynolds herself is no stranger to controversy.

She sparked fury in 2024 after she dared a homeless woman, who apparently could not swim, to jump into a lake for $20. The viral video showed the influencer encouraging the woman before mocking her mercilessly. Reynolds later addressed the backlash on X, writing: ‘I was kicked out of location and was demanded to leave while others helped. She was floating not sinking. allah.’

The lake incident was only a few days after she shot streamer Benny Mack with a paintball gun during a livestream and was then accused of assault by her followers.

Reynolds found herself under scrutiny once again when she played the viral TikTok game ‘we listen and we don’t judge’ with Gypsy-Rose Blanchard. They received substantial backlash for their ‘tone deaf’ collaboration after Blanchard made light of her mother’s murder during the video.

Reynolds addressed her past controversies while appearing as a guest on the LOL Podcast Show. When asked point blank during the interview, ‘Do you copy Brooke Monk’s videos?’ Reynolds said, ‘No, I do not,’ much to the hosts chagrin. 

Instead, Reynolds claimed that Monk copies her videos, insisting that they have ‘real actual beef’ and that Monk is ‘jealous’ of her.

The Daily Mail has contacted Reynolds for comment.

Monk, on the other hand, has taken a different approach to achieving internet stardom. Unlike other equally successful content creators, she never voices opinions – controversial or otherwise – nor shares details about her personal life.

In fact, the only ‘scandal’ she’s faced are claims that she’s not real and is actually AI due to her style of content and the empty background that routinely appears in her videos.

And that’s precisely what Garcia says makes her videos so ‘addictive’ – fans never ‘really get to know her,’ which makes it easy for others to copy her content.

Branding expert Baruch Labunski, founder of Rank Secure, told the Daily Mail that Monk’s career is an example of how social media fame has evolved and people no longer have mainstream success, even with millions of followers: ‘A lot of people have seen her TikToks but couldn’t tell you who she is.’