Catelynn Lowell took to TikTok on May 6 to publicly confront the adults who stole her 16-year-old daughter Carly’s prom photos and used them to make cruel comments about the teenager’s body, calling the behavior flat out disgusting and announcing she will block anyone who does it on her pages.
The backlash from the Teen Mom star came after unauthorized accounts circulated Carly’s prom images and commenters began targeting the teen’s physique. For Lowell, the cruelty was not just personal — it was a broader failure of adult responsibility online.
What Lowell Said On TikTok
Speaking directly to her followers in the video, Lowell made clear she had zero tolerance for what she witnessed.
“Why do grown adults feel the need to comment on children’s and minor’s bodies?” Lowell said in her TikTok, as reported by US Magazine. “Saying that she looks like a skeleton, or she needs to eat cheeseburgers, or she’s too skinny.” She also noted that her younger daughter Novalee, 11, faces the same type of commentary about her body.
Lowell pushed back on the idea that body shaming only affects heavier people. Thin people, she argued, are just as vulnerable to public ridicule — and the harm is just as real.
She pointed out that both Carly and Novalee have naturally fast metabolisms, a trait shared by their father, Tyler Baltierra.
Lowell made her zero tolerance policy explicit: anyone who comments on a minor’s body on her TikTok or Facebook fan page will face an immediate block, no exceptions. “It’s disgusting,” Lowell told People, summing up her feelings about the entire situation.
Why This Moment Hits Differently
Carly’s story carries an emotional weight that goes far beyond a typical celebrity parenting dispute. Both Lowell and Baltierra are 34 today, but they were still teenagers when Carly arrived in May 2009 — a chapter of their lives that MTV captured on 16 and Pregnant.
The couple made the difficult decision to place Carly for adoption, and for years maintained an open arrangement that allowed them to receive photos and visit once a year.
That arrangement changed in 2023 when Carly’s adoptive parents chose to close the adoption. Lowell described the emotional difficulty of that reality, saying she ultimately wants whatever is best for Carly.
Baltierra shared in April that the couple has set up an email account they write to regularly, hoping that one day Carly will want access to those messages as a way of knowing she was never forgotten.
Against that backdrop, seeing strangers weaponize stolen photos of her daughter — a child she has limited contact with — adds a particular sting to the situation.
The Bigger Problem: Adults Targeting Minors Online
Lowell’s frustration speaks to something parents across the country are grappling with: the ease with which adults can access, share, and comment on images of children and teenagers online.
When photos are taken from a teen’s social media and redistributed without consent, the original poster loses all control over who sees them and what gets said.
Body shaming directed at minors, whether about weight, height, or appearance, can have serious consequences for developing self-esteem and mental health. The fact that the comments in this case came from grown adults, not peers, makes the dynamic even more troubling.
Teenagers are already navigating enormous social pressure; having strangers pile on from behind a screen adds a layer of harm that is entirely avoidable.
Why It Matters For Parents
Lowell’s willingness to speak out publicly is a reminder that advocating for your child’s dignity sometimes means calling out bad behavior in front of a large audience.
Her message was not just directed at the specific commenters who targeted Carly, it was a broader statement that children’s bodies are not public property, and that adults who treat them as such should expect to be called out.
For parents of teenagers who are active on social media, this story is a useful prompt to talk with your kids about what happens when images leave their control, and to make sure they know you will stand up for them if something like this happens.
It is also worth having a conversation about skinny shaming specifically, which often gets dismissed as less serious than other forms of body shaming, a false distinction that Lowell addressed head-on.
Lowell has not indicated she plans to take any legal action over the stolen photos, but her public stance sends a clear message. As her daughters grow up in the public eye, even partially, she is drawing a firm line around what she will allow on her platforms.
Whether other public figures follow her lead in calling out this behavior so directly remains to be seen, but her voice adds to a growing conversation about protecting minors from online harassment.
