British influencer receives death threats after identifying as Korean

In the category of ‘striking news’, I have another one for you today. Because this is a headline I didn't think I would be writing very quickly, but it seems to be something that is indeed happening. Oli London, a British influencer who has undergone no less than 18 cosmetic surgeries, is receiving death threats. And the reason for that is quite special.

London, who identifies as non-binary and has changed their name to Jimin, no longer identifies as British but as Korean. That is also the reason for the name change: a singer from the hugely popular K-pop group BTS is named Park Jimin and that is exactly what those 18 surgeries were for. Jimin (influencer, not singer) wanted to look as much like Jimin (singer, not influencer) as possible. Are we still following?

Not everyone is supportive of this choice; according to London, they are mainly ‘liberal white people’, while ‘Republicans and people struggling with their identities themselves’ actually do show their support. Meanwhile, it has reportedly gotten so out of hand that London has received multiple death threats directed at them. Bizarre.

Now I seriously didn't know that you could identify with a different nationality, but there you go: you learn a little every day. I also learned that there is even a term for this: transracial. Last but not least, I learned that you can even receive death threats for this from people who consider themselves heavy keyboard warriors and then send messages from behind their PC to someone they absolutely do not know. I will never understand that last point.

It's quite a remarkable transformation, that's for sure. People can say that Khloé Kardashian has had a ‘head transplant’ but that doesn't even come close to what London has done. Just check out the video below.

Image: Instagram London Oli