Despite the vitriol she receives online, Ashley Leechin, who has amassed 1.1 million followers, claims to be just another stan.A Change.org petition was submitted on Ashley Leechin’s page earlier this month. Ashley Leechin is a certified nurse, mother of two children, and TikTok founder who is well-known for her striking likeness to Taylor Swift. “This petition expresses my viewpoint and aims to assist in putting an end to online harassment, bullying, and false defamation directed at Ashley Leechin and other people,” she said.

With 1.1 million TikTok followers, Leechin responded to a long list of accusations made against her on the platform in her petition. These included claims that, despite being a registered Democrat, she voted for Trump and that, in order to look more like Taylor, she had plastic surgery (though she did admit to getting Botox and filler). The lengthy petition also refuted allegations that she “stole” Taylor Swift’s favourite number, 13 (she was born on December 13 instead of Swift’s); that she adopted cats that were “exactly the same as Taylor’s cats”; or that she purposefully held her pen in the same way as Swift. She wrote, “I hold my pen in a way that is comfortable and relieves direct pressure off the median nerve.”

It’s possible that the petition was created to silence Leechin’s detractors, who have long called her a “pathological liar” who is fixated on Swift. Rather, it had the opposite impact, as is frequently the case on the internet. One Swiftie responded to the petition on Twitter with, “Her name is Ashley Leechin because she’s LEECHIN’ off Taylor’s career!” “Has anybody called her the Swiftie George Santos yet?” another person commented.

In the Swiftie community, Leechin has tread carefully for years. Her videos mostly include her life as a Taylor Swift impersonator, her bright red lipstick (Swift’s distinctive appearance), and her kitten Sloan, who is an exact replica of Swift’s cat Meredith Grey. (She refers to what she tells Swifties when they stop her on the street with her nickname, “noitsAshley13.”) Despite the fact that Swift’s appearance has given her a huge platform, she disputes that she deliberately copies Swift’s look or even acknowledges the similarity. “I don’t think, ‘Holy cow, I look like Taylor,’ when I look in the mirror. Ashley is the only one, she says.