It’s looking more and more like Mackenzie Standifer will never be a hit with Teen Mom fans.
Perhaps she was doomed from the start, joining the cast as wife of the perennially unpopular Ryan Edwards.
Or maybe fans are so loyal to Maci Bookout that they refused to ever give Mackenzie a fair chance.
Whatever the case, Mackenzie didn’t do much to improve her standing with fans in her early days on the show, as many accused her of enabling Ryan’s destructive behavior.
She later put her foot down and threatened to divorce Edwards if he continued using drugs and getting arrested, but many felt that it was a case of too little, too late.
Now, Mack is being accused of engaging in risky behavior of her own.
And for the fans who believe she endangered the life of her 10-month-old son, the situation is no laughing matter.
Standifer went live on Instagram while driving a car with her son in the backseat.
As if the filming while driving wasn’t bad enough, she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt during the segment.
The video wasn’t on Mackenzie’s page for very long, but it’s still being discussed in the comments section of her other posts.
“You can tell she’s driving in the video,” one follower wrote, according to The Sun.
“Are seatbelts and using your phone while driving just not a big deal in the US? This genuinely horrifies me,” another sdded.
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure she’s driving based on the cars going the other direction in the background,” a third chimed in.
Another person pointed out that the baby in Mackenzie’s backseat is improperly secured.
“Plus the baby is strapped improperly,” she wrote.
“For one, his size and age dictate that it’s significantly safer for him to be rear-facing and two, if his chest clip was in the correct position we’d be able to see it in this picture.”
“I would assume she is driving based on the fact that she keeps looking at the road. However, [Ryan] could be driving too so she may need to pay attention in case he passes out,” another follower observed.
That’s a reference to the episode in which Ryan passed out while driving to his own wedding.
Mackenzie was riding shotgun, and her reaction was to turn off the cameras that MTV had placed in the car, rather than force her semi-conscious soon-to-be husband to pull over.
Of course, as is always the case in these scenarios, some folks took their criticism of Standifer entirely too far and began to focus on her appearance, rather than her actions.
Mackenzie posted this screenshot of messages she received from a rabid hater.
The worst trolls seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to zeroing in on a person’s most vulnerable points.
Standifer has lost a lot of weight in recent months, and it seems she’s still a bit insecure about her looks.
So of course, that’s what some bullies focused on when it came time to tear her apart on Instagram.
Look, what Mackenzie did on Instagram was undeniably unsafe, but she’s also a young mom who was very suddenly thrust into the public eye.
People who call themselves fans should be a bit more patient with Standifer — and no one should be attacking her because of her appearance.
