Parenting influencer Karissa Collins found herself in the middle of a social media uproar. A video she shared on TikTok showed several of her 11 children playfully hitting her belly. This happened while she was experiencing a miscarriage, and the clip quickly drew sharp criticism.
Collins, 41, responded to the backlash in a TikTok video on Thursday, July 17. “I apologize,” she began. “When I posted that video, what other people might think didn’t cross my mind at all.” She explained that it was a sweet, private moment with her kids. Collins added that she never thought anyone outside her close circle would even see it.
Earlier in July, Karissa and her husband, Mandrae Collins, had announced they were expecting their twelfth baby in a now-deleted video. Days later, she shared the sad news of a missed miscarriage. She decided to let the fetal tissue pass naturally, without medical help. It was around this time that she uploaded the TikTok video where her younger children were gently tapping her stomach. All posts related to the pregnancy announcement and miscarriage have since been removed.
Collins addressed the controversy directly. “I don’t do clickbait. I don’t like controversy,” she said regarding the belly video. “I don’t post offensive things to gain followers. I don’t want those types of followers. I’m not looking to gain followers.” She stated her goal is to share a message from God. Her ministry, she explained, tells women to trust God with their bodies and how many children He chooses to give them.
The content creator then gave more background on the viral video. She said her children were just “having fun” after a family meal. They were even showing off their own full bellies. “I said, ‘Do you want to see a big tummy? Let me show you mine,’” she recounted. She admitted she has a “big tummy” from carrying 15 pregnancies and is currently trying to lose weight. “I shared the video because my kids saw my belly and started laughing,” she shared. “They squeezed it like it was slime and Squishmallows. It was the funniest thing. I never wanted to forget that moment when they found so much joy in my belly.”
According to Collins, her 4-year-old daughter ended up tapping her belly “a little too hard.”
@thecollinskids Apology and explanation. #family #faith #miscarriage
“I said ‘ouch’ in the video, but they weren’t hurting me,” she stressed. “They didn’t harm anything inside me.”
In her apology video, Collins also addressed broader criticism about her large family. “If you haven’t had 11 kids, I don’t think you have the right to say it’s impossible or that you can’t achieve it,” she stated. She admitted she used to say the same thing when she had five children. “I had no idea God had a large family planned for us,” she noted. “We just believe we should live a life of faith, and that children are eternal. They have great value.”
Collins finished by saying she doesn’t understand why some social media users “degrade other families” by sharing negative comments online. “That’s called clickbait, and that’s what it is,” she said. “I’m not going to point anyone out on my platform. My platform is just to share the messages the Lord gives me and the blessings He has given us. It’s to show other women that it is possible to trust God, be joyful, and enjoy motherhood.”