Taylor Swift lookalike Ashley Leechin addresses backlash after pretending to be the singer, calls Swifties ‘possessive’

Taylor Swift lookalike Ashley Leechin was escorted out of a shop earlier this week when she pretended to be the singer. She has called it a social experiment.

Earlier this week, TikToker Ashley Leechin got heavy backlash from fans of Taylor Swift on social media for impersonating her in public. After getting called out for potentially causing a security issue, Ashley has reacted to the backlash and called the whole thing a ‘social experiment’. She also hit back at ‘Swifties’, calling them a possessive group.

Ashley Leechin is famous on TikTok for her resemblance to Taylor Swift.

‘You don’t deserve to live'

Ashley, who looks a lot like the singer, had dressed up as her to confuse fans at a shopping mall in Los Angeles and Disney World. She was even escorted out of the mall for causing chaos. On Wednesday, she took to Instagram to explain her side of the story. She addressed all the nasty comments she has been getting and said that people at the mall or in Disney World were actually appreciative of her act. “If you’re one of the people in my comments saying ‘You don’t deserve to live’ or ‘You should be sued’ and all that stuff, it doesn’t bother me. I’m mentally stable. I’m a mom. I have two kids. I have a husband. I’m solid,” she said.

A social experiment

Ashley had reposted a video with a vlogger, who documented her trip to the mall, dressed like Taylor and flanked by fake bodyguards in black. About the video, she said, “I didn’t hire them. I collaborated with Vic. Pretty much the social experiment was to live a day in the life of a celebrity — to see what would happen if I went out looking like Taylor Swift.”

She also called out ‘possessive’ Swifties. “You can love her music, you can love her as a person, and you can look up to her...and then there's Swifties. In this fandom, I do feel like there is a possessiveness over Taylor. I feel like that possessiveness can get dangerous, and it did show, it really did. I had such a positive experience in person, and then, of course, online, you get a whole different beast,” she said.

I don't follow Taylor's every move

Ashley also addressed the concern around her own and Taylor Swift's safety considering the video came shortly after a bunch of fans stormed Jack Antoniff's wedding where Taylor was a guest. "This video was not to be malicious. It was not to mock anyone. The timing was horrific with everything that was happening,” Ashley said, hinting at Jack's wedding. “I don’t follow Taylor’s every move, so with everything that happened, I was definitely late finding out a lot of that stuff.”

Taylor has not commented on the episode yet. She just finished the first US leg of her Eras Tour and is reportedly writing new music.