HGTV / YouTube Jenn Todryk
HGTV star Jenn Todryk is used to the positives and negatives of fame, having grown a social media following and written her first book all prior to landing her first show, “No Demo Reno”.
Now, in an August 15 appearance on her fellow HGTV star’s podcast “Mina AF”, Todryk and host Mina Starsiak Hawk (from “Good Bones”) spoke about some of the downsides to their HGTV fame, including backlash from fans on social media.
“The HGTV fans are amazing but they can be ruthless, and they can be mean, and judgy. And I’ve noticed that because whenever [I got more followers from my show] I noticed that there was a change, and it was a little more negative,” Todryk shared.
“The thing is,” Starsiak Hawk said, agreeing with Todryk’s point, “It is 99 amazing, supportive comments to one nasty one, but it’s hard not to just remember the one nasty one.”
Jenn Todryk Finds Humor in Some Negative Comments
Todryk went on to say that no matter how strong somebody is, they will always “wonder if there is a little bit of truth” in a negative social media comment. She went on to share that one of her and her team’s strategies to combat social media negativity is to make light of the more outrageous comments.
“My superpower is, I kind of love it when I get a little bit of hate because I can twist it to my benefit,” Todryk said, “And one was a man named Keith, who said that my show was too sexual and that children shouldn’t be watching it, and so now I talk about Keith all the time and ‘sexual by nature’, ’S.B.N.’ is a common thing we say, and it’s totally turned [into something that] makes me laugh.”
Starsiak Hawk also has her own methods for making light of negativity online, as the “Good Bones” star shared a comedic Instagram Reel on August 14 in which she depicted a stereotypical interaction between herself and a made-up Instagram user, which she named, “Cranky Karen”.
In the video, Cranky Karen writes Starsiak Hawk saying she has an issue with the host, who responds, “Oh, ok. Maybe just give me a call and we can talk through it.” Cranky Karen then says that she can’t call Starsiak Hawk as she doesn’t have her phone number, and Starsiak Hawk responds again with a message for the Cranky Karen character and the rest of her fans watching the video.
“Oh, gosh. You’re right! You don’t know me well enough to have my number do you…” Starsiak Hawk wrote back in her comedic video, “Yo, CrankyKaren, maybe if you don’t know me well enough to have my number… you don’t know me well enough to have a problem with me.”
Jenn Todryk Returns to HGTV in September
HGTV revealed in an August 15 press release that Todryk would be back on screens soon, as her show “No Demo Reno” is scheduled to air its third season premiere episode on Thursday, September 14, at 9 p.m. Eastern.
The 12-episode season will air weekly on the network, with new episodes becoming available to stream on discovery+ and Max the day after they air on HGTV.