If you watched Teeny Chirichillo, while they were being authentically themselves (for better or worse) throughout the Emmy Award-winning series.
From picking fights with the picture-perfect Sam Phalen (and everything in between), Teeny did not leave anything off the table!
Although they did not take home the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar prize — falling short of the Final Tribal Council after a final four fire-making challenge that will be written into the Survivor history books — Teeny certainly caused quite a bit of chatter after their Survivor appearance. Based on some social media activity (primarily via Reddit), fans either love or hate the freelance writer, with seemingly nothing in between. How wild is that?
As polarizing as can be, some of the contrasting comments regarding Teeny are as follows:
“I rolled my eyes at Teeny the entire time.”
“I LOVE TEENY.”
As an avid member of the Survivor fandom (when they are not actually in the game, of course), Teeny opened up about this backlash in an exclusive interview with Mike Bloom at Parade, deeming some of the commentary surrounding them to be “complicated.”
“I know you were such a big part of this fandom, and you know there’s an entire secondary Survivor experience of watching the edit and people react to you online. What’s been your experience now to be on the other side of it, watching the fandom react to you as a contestant?” Mike said to kick off the conversation. Keep scrolling to see what Teeny had to say in response.
Teeny said that “for the first five episodes, it was awesome,” since they received a very positive response via social media that changed drastically as Survivor 47 progressed.
“I feel like I started off really, really strong, and I had a lot of potential, and it was great… Then, the wheels fall off for me in many ways. It was complicated. It’s been complicated. Especially after the episode where I have my outburst about Sam, it’s been super enlightening to to see the conversations about it.”
But Teeny related to a lot of the criticism aimed in their direction and even invested time in self-evaluation and self-discovery after watching the episodes back on their television screen. “I think a lot of the criticisms I have already very much so felt within myself. I have already kind of tried to make amends with and find ways to grow from and learn from,” the New Jersey native continued.
Concluding the conversation, Teeny itted that “it was really frustrating to not be able to speak more about it,” as there are a lot of controversial comments that they would want to address publicly, primarily stemming from their own insecurities.
“I love Sam, and we’re great friends to this day, and I adored him out there, but there was such a mismatch because I had those complicated inner feelings and projections and jealousy and all this other stuff. It’s shocking to see myself not be able to make that connection on that day when I had that tantrum. It’s surprising to see myself so unaware in that moment, but I’m proud that I was able to kind of do the work of realizing what it was, and by the end, being able to speak to it.”
Everyone makes mistakes, and we are thrilled to see Teeny learning from their mistakes and bettering themselves each and every day.
Although Teeny has grown tremendously since Survivor 47 finished filming earlier this year, to see their journey from start to finish nevertheless, you can stream the entire season on Paramount Plus.
Published: Dec 29, 2024 03:27 pm