“I was really low.” Jazzy Whipps on Bim Ajadi’s new documentary on her recovery from online trolling (BSL)

Jazzy Whipps is a deaf content creator and presenter, who now has an Instagram account with nearly 25,000 followers. She typically comes across as happy and bouncy, but there is a dark side to her story, when she was subjected to vicious trolling after using her voice in a video shared online.

Jazzy shares her story for the first time in a new documentary called Becoming Jazzy Whipps, directed by deaf director Bim Ajadi. The documentary premieres next week on Together TV and was funded by the channel’s Diverse Film Fund.

Hi Jazzy! Tell us how your career first started?

When I was 14, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, and spent time in hospital, so I spent a lot of time in bed, and I watched a lot of YouTube videos, they were huge back then, and I realised there weren’t enough deaf YouTubers, so I wanted to do something.

As soon as I finished school, I started to make videos about my lifestyle, makeup etc and then I realised that it was important to make videos about deaf awareness and the barriers deaf people face because I’m deaf myself and I want to make the world more accessible, and things started to take off from there. From 2019, my videos started to go viral and I got opportunities to work with brands to raise deaf awareness.

The documentary covers the dark side of social media. Tell us a bit about what happened to you?

I made a video about using my deaf voice in 2019 but it was later, in 2020 when the video started to attract a lot of trolling. Not just making fun of my voice, but other trolling as well like people trying to drag me down. I went through a really low time, and the lockdown made it worse. It was the worst time because I was at home reading the comments. I was really low.

That’s when I started having counselling, to find ways of dealing with it. I had a small amount, then stopped, then two years later, I started to get anxious about the trolling happening again, I’ve had counselling on and off since it happened and it has helped me to become resilient. My family and friends have been supportive too, I’m so grateful for them.

How did this documentary come about?

Last year, I was filming with Bim Ajadi for the BSL Zone show OMGenius. Over a few weeks, we talked and I told him about my journey, the ups and downs I’ve had, which he didn’t know about. Lots of people meet me and think I’m always happy but they don’t know the background, what I’ve been through.

A few months later, he called me and told me about his idea for a documentary. He asked me lots of questions, so I wrote all about my life! Good things, and bad things. Then Bim applied for funding, and got it. I wanted people out there to know they weren’t alone and to always be kind to people no matter what because you don’t know what they’re going through.

How did you feel about telling your story on camera?

I was nervous because that’s something I hadn’t shared, not a lot of people know about it, only my family and close friends, but at the same time, I wanted to help people out there.

Because when people are trolled, they feel like there’s something wrong with them, but really the trolls are people who aren’t happy with themselves and want to drag other people down. Before, the trolling made me think there must be something wrong with me but then I realised it was more about themselves.

What did you think of the final documentary?

I felt that Bim made a really beautiful film! It made me emotional, when telling my story it gives me flashbacks with what I’ve been through. I felt proud because I’ve never given up, I carried on. People tried to drag me down but I didn’t let them, I kept going.

What was it like to work with Bim as the director?

Bim is brilliant. He always listens, I felt comfortable sharing my story with him, he’s really supportive and he’s a brilliant director and person!

The documentary covers the trolling you received for using your voice, and one emotional moment is when your mum expresses her sadness that you stopped using your voice after that. Have you felt able to go back to using your voice again?

No, I haven’t really. But I feel happy now because I grew up with a lot of people telling me what to do, hospitals, school, speech therapy, having a cochlear implant, using my voice. After the trolling, I felt like I’d worked hard, for what? Trying to hear and use my voice.

The trolling affected my confidence in my voice, I wondered: ‘Is that what people are really thinking?’ I felt like ‘You know what, I won’t bother anymore.’ I switched my voice off. Since then, I’ve felt happier this way, signing. In a way it’s a challenge to other people, to sign, having different ways to communicate instead of speaking and this is who I am, BSL has always been my first language.

Why do you think it’s important that people watch the documentary?

Because a lot of people don’t realise the reality of social media. They think what I’m doing is easy, but in reality, it’s a lot of hard work and it’s definitely not easy. I love my job and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had! Everyone goes through a hard time, it’s the same as anyone else and that’s why you should always be kind and think before you comment.

Also because social media is a big thing now, and people are subjected to trolling, and I’m worried about the effect on other people. Hopefully the documentary makes people feel they’re not alone.

Becoming Jazzy Whipps will be premiered on Together TV, Thursday 5th September at 7pm. Available on Freeview 83, Sky 170, Virgin 136, Freesat 164, or Together TV’s streaming service. Becoming Jazzy Whipps was directed by Bim Ajadi and was produced as part of Together TV’s 2024 Diverse Film Fund in partnership with British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust(BSLBT.)