When mom and photographer Kayla Frizzell of Shepparton, Australia, swapped a sweet treat for fried chicken, she was hoping to do a lighthearted take on the typical cake smash in honor of her baby girl's first birthday. Frizzell says that KFC is her favorite food, so the switch made sense — but after sharing the photos on social media, she faced the wrath of online trolls who called her daughter fat. These haters didn't hold back and told the 26-year-old mom that she was wrong for letting her baby eat the fast food during her photo shoot. But Frizzell isn't willing to take these attacks lying down. "If she is 'fat' then SIGN ME UP!" she tells CafeMom.
Frizzell says that if there's one thing she's known for, it's her love of the Colonel's fried chicken.
Frizzell, who is also a mom to 5-year-old Seth, owns More Than Words Photography, and adds that she's genuinely "one of KFC's biggest fans."
She eats the fried chicken "usually every weekend and I never put on weight so it's just a running joke."
"I even get KFC after a gym workout sometimes," she tells CafeMom.
That's why nothing seemed more obvious than to pay homage to her favorite fast food chain during a photo shoot for her daughter Mia's first birthday.
Typically, she doesn't even do cake smashes, but she really wanted something to mark the occasion that would make her friends and family laugh.
"It seemed very 'me' to swap out a cake for some KFC," she says. As a photographer, she tries to capture each person's "unique story. And this is mine."
Mia had never even eaten KFC before her big photo shoot, so this was a special moment for mom and daughter.
The little one was very curious about "all this new food surrounding her," her mom says.
"Normally she has full attention for the camera and all smiles and poses, but this shoot she was all about trying the new foods!" her mom recalls.
And really, not much was eaten when all was said and done.
"A few chips, half a nugget and some popcorn chicken was consumed," Frizzell says. "Mia is still breastfed three times a day at least so having a taste of KFC isn’t going to impact her."
It was supposed to be "a special shoot for Mia for when she’s older," but as Frizzell quickly saw, it became so much more.
At first, Frizzell was only going to share the finished pictures on her private Facebook page, but she ended up posting them on her business page on May 21 to give everyone a laugh.
"The original response from my followers was all love and laughter, full of encouraging words and admiring her cuteness and creativity!" she says.
But then the haters started pouring in.
"No wonder this baby is fat, 1-year-olds shouldn’t be eating KFC" Frizzell tells us one comment read.
"No wonder this baby is fat, children services will be informed," read another.
Normally, Frizzell would just delete the negative comments and move on, but she was moved to do something else.
"I realized I needed to make a stand for my baby girl. I wanted to show her that it is just as important to have a heard voice as it is to always be kind," she says.
The abuse only got worse as the post attracted more attention.
People started leaving negative reviews on Frizzell's business page, including one person who took Frizzell to task for "feeding her daughter KFC chicken."
"No wonder she is fat," the review stated. "As a practicing children's dietitian nutritionist this is very unhealthy.”
"Well troll, you better get back to the books because labeling a child as fat is much more damaging than a bit of chicken," Frizzell fired back.
It became a battle. Frizzell would delete the review from her business page only to have this person post a new review on her page.
"Over and over again with all different nasty comments, the final stating 'Kayla Frizzell is abusing her child and I have filled a report – she will be charged with neglect,'" the mom recalls.
Frizzell tried banning the commenter from her Facebook page, but the troll was determined to make her life miserable.
The person started commenting from a different Facebook account, Frizzell says, and even stooped so low as to claim she worked for the Department of Human Services (or Services Australia as it's now known) — which Frizzell later learned was a lie.
"No, she didn't work at DHS, she didn't even work at all, and the 'children' she claimed to be a mother of were actually 'reborn art dolls' — which are super-realistic newborn dolls. So I understood why she considered my perfectly growing daughter as 'fat' because she lives in an unrealistic world where babies are handmade and has too much time on her hands," Frizzell explains, clearly frustrated.
She describes her time battling the trolls as like "talking to brick walls."
She tried in vain to remind them that the "fat" child they were commenting on was actually "my beautiful, loved and healthy daughter." But it was no use.
"The real danger here isn't a d–n chicken nugget, it is them!" she says. "The labeling and shaming of a 1-year-old and her mother, the false accusations, the financial damage they can cause my business by the ridiculous claims and reviews, and the seriousness of making a false claim to DHS!"
It was all too much.
"How dare they waste [my] time," she says. "They deserve a fine."
After a news outlet covered Frizzell's story, the abuse only got worse.
This time one of the trolls called Frizzell pretending to be DHS.
"Making false claims trying to scare me and my family, telling me that they are coming to Shepparton next week for my daughter and that feeding her KFC is very abusive and I will also be sued," the mom recalls.
"Lucky for me I figured out that it was one of the trolls, who lives two hours away from me, and wow, she was a horrible and nasty 'DHS worker' that couldn’t get her story straight."
No matter what, Frizzell says she isn't going to let the trolls get to her.
In fact, she hopes her story encourages other people to do their own KFC cake smashes.
"Do it for Mia!" she exclaims.
"Since when is fat shaming a 1-year-old ever acceptable?" she continues. "When it comes to babies and toddlers, the word fat should not exist especially."
If anything, Frizzell says she hopes people will see her story and women will band together to raise each other up and not tear each other down like her trolls did.
"Monkey see, monkey do!" she continues. "I hope that my troll's children never find out about the time their mom publicly shamed my daughter!"
She hopes that we can all raise "strong, confident, brave and kind kids," which means not shaming their bodies — especially at such a young age.
Besides, "who doesn't love a chunky baby?!" she asks.
