- A TikToker who makes a living teaching others how to write essays has admitted to plagiarism.
- Brooke Lim, 19, apologized for plagiarizing an essay about her struggles with an eating disorder.
Brooke Lim rose to fame as a TikToker known for teaching people how to write essays well. This week, that all came crashing down around her when she was accused of — and admitted to — plagiarizing a part of her own essay.
Lim, a 19-year-old TikTok influencer who goes by the ID @sugaresque, also happens to head up a tuition agency known as the Classicle Club. Lim's TikTok paints the picture of a glamorous life: With perfectly coiffed hair and carefully curated outfits, she's built an ardent following of more than 183,000 people.
Lim — lithe, beautiful, eloquent, and social media-savvy — made more than six figures in 2022 from the agency alone, reported The Straits Times, Singapore's national paper.
But on Wednesday, April 19, Lim was accused by a Tiktok account with the ID @sugaresqueessay of extensively plagiarizing an essay titled "On Being Afraid Of Eating," initially published on her blog, Grayscale Copy, on April 18. Lim's blog is now password-protected.
@sugaresqueessay ‼️ PAUSE TO READ ‼️ i cant believe she plagiarised so much from ONE book alone and THERES ACTUALLY EVEN MORE from another book too (haven’t had the time to compile) #sugaresque #plagiarism #fyp #fypシ #fypsg #sgtiktok #sg #singapore #bombasticsideeye #criminaloffensivesideeye #accountability #controversy #blowthisup #exposed #takeresponsibility ♬ LMAO THE VIDS - ✨ ILikePotatosOnCheese ✨
Videos — and a lengthy Google document posted by an anonymous person — accused Lim of lifting phrases and even specific plot points from at least five different books for a long-form essay, which she characterized as a recount of her own experience battling an eating disorder.
In a TikTok video posted on Monday, Lim confessed to making "the very serious and regrettable" mistake of plagiarizing work from other writers. She apologized to her students and followers, and the authors whose work she used.
"I should have been more careful throughout the process of crafting the essay, instead of just reaching into my past compilation of thoughts and insights that I had lifted from past authors," Lim said in her video. "I should have done my due diligence and I will be more careful in the future."
@sugaresque ♬ original sound - Brooke
Lim told Insider on Tuesday that she's "deeply apologetic" and takes "full responsibility" for "plagiarising a segment of the essay."
"I would like to clarify that the essay was written in a purely personal capacity and was not intended for profit, academic assignment, or publication and that this was an arbitrary incident that does not relate to any of the materials that I have used at Classicle Club," Lim said.
Lim told Insider that she will "be more mindful moving forward."
The creators of a Change.org petition are separately calling for Lim's UCLA admissions letter to be vetted for plagiarism.
"Regarding the petition, I am aware of its existence, and I understand the concerns raised by those who have signed it," Lim said. "I would like to clarify that as of time of writing, I have not committed to UCLA, and am not a UCLA student. I trust that the school will do its due diligence and I would be open to clarifying my stance directly should the need arise."
Due to laws and policies that protect students' privacy, UCLA is unable to provide information on whether any student has applied or been admitted to the school, Ricardo Vazquez, director of media relations at UCLA, told Insider.
The petition — which had 750 signatures at press time — accused Lim of "seeking to boost her professional credibility as a writer through her plagiarised essay."
"She can stoop so low as to plagiarise something as personal as an eating disorder, that which many vulnerable people struggle with," read the petition. "Words cannot describe how disrespectful and callous it was of her to exploit such mental conditions, something so visceral and real to many, to suit her own agenda."
April 26, 2023: The story has been updated with a comment from UCLA.