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Captain Sandy Yawn from Below Deck Mediterranean and her girlfriend Leah Shafer shared how they handle hateful online attacks, especially during Yawn’s first season of the show.
“The first season it was so hard,” Yawn said on her Captain Sandy and Leah Rae Show podcast. “I answered everyone. I took it personal and then I realized they don’t know me. They don’t get to have me. And I think for Leah, it took you a little while to say they don’t get to have you and your response. Because let me tell you, Leah went after them.”
Girlfriend Leah Shafer realized that responding to online attacks was futile
Shafer gets frustrated with the online attacks. “I mean, naturally, I want to defend my person because I know who she is, and I know her heart and I know who she is in life,” she said. “You only see a little bit of her on the show. And so a lot of times I just don’t think it’s fair that they don’t really see everything.”
“But there’s been some times where I have her written back and Sandy’s like, ‘Take that down,’” she said. “I’ve learned to do restraint. But I think it’s natural to want to defend who you love, especially knowing the truth.”
“Leah has had to learn restraint of text and tongue. Because I love that she has my back,” Yawn said.
Captain Sandy says ‘Below Deck Med’ viewers don’t always see the full picture
In most cases, Below Deck Med viewers don’t see the entire story or exchange that prompted them to comment online. “I also think a lot of times when people see footage, they don’t see all the footage,” Yawn explained. “So there’s a back story. It’s impossible for the show to edit everything. You would be sitting in front of your TV for hours if you saw everything.”
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“So they try to do the best to create that storyline,” she continued. “And there’s many in-cabin meetings between [me and] whoever the Twitter person is pissed off about. Like they’re coming after me because maybe they didn’t hear the previous conversation because it happened in my cabin and no one was around. That’s not fair.”
“We evolve and it’s all about evolving and getting the full story,” she added. “So when I have two different stories try to rise 30,000 feet and see it from a different angle because we’re both human beings. People have feelings. I have feelings. The person you’re mad at me about for whatever I did has feelings.”
Captain Sandy and girlfriend Leah Shafer keep a positive attitude toward online trolls
Shafer found that oftentimes people behind online attacks have no followers and are only on the platform to cause trouble.
“So I look at it like this. Everybody’s a human being. They have a heart, they have a mother, they have a father, and perhaps they have children,” Yawn said. “I look at them like that. I don’t look at them like these angry people that want to attack. Let me tell you this. I don’t wake up and think about who I can hurt today. I don’t wake up and think about whose career I can end today. What I do is I wake up and think about is, who I can help, how can I give back and how can I propel people in my industry to be in my footsteps at the helm? With that comes great responsibility.”
The video of Yawn and Shafer’s interview is here.
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