“My content was stolen, let’s roll the clips.” With those eight words, Black ADHD content creator Brianne Saturdays set off a viral moment earlier this month when she called out a white influencer who appeared to remake one of her videos word for word—with receipts to back it up.
Brianne Saturdays spoke to The Root about the incident after posting a side-by-side comparison of fellow ADHD content creator Laurie Faulkner, who is white, seemingly reciting her explanation of why women with ADHD tend to over-explain. The similarities went beyond the core message. Faulkner appeared to follow Saturdays’ exact wording, delivery, and even her cadence.
“My first feelings were sadness that this hard work that I do after a long day of being a nurse and mothering my two children was just taken away from me,” Saturdays told The Root. Along with that sadness came fear.
She worried that publicly defending her work could backfire, leaving her to face consequences while the person accused of copying continued unscathed. “The biggest feeling of all was that I would have another life occurrence of something unfair happening to me, and I would still get the sh*t end of the stick,” Saturdays said.
For Saturdays, the alleged plagiarism was more than just another instance of content recycling without credit. It surfaced a familiar tension: whether defending herself would cost her more than staying silent.
“I am a very quiet, to myself, woman. After a life of being parentified and being the eldest daughter, second mom to my single mom, I was always fighting off chaos—whether protecting my siblings, standing up for myself in school, church, places where authority felt they could get away with mistreating me or the younger versions of me that I looked after,” she told The Root.
That constant responsibility followed her into adulthood. Learning she was neurodivergent—a term describing people whose brains process information differently than society considers typical—eventually helped her understand herself better and prioritize protecting her peace. Now, she lives in her “truest form as a neurodivergent, Black woman.”
Protecting that peace becomes harder online, where Black innovation is routinely exploited. Ideas help shape conversations, only for more popular or privileged creators to reproduce the work and claim recognition. When Black creators speak up, they often get painted as the problem for demanding credit.
This time, Saturdays decided silence meant abandoning herself. “I then remembered that entire life I spent sticking up for other people was always for other people,” she shared. “This was an opportunity to stick up for me, so I ran with it.”
That choice triggered an outpouring of support. Her original post took off. New followers rallied behind her on TikTok and Instagram.
“The response was absolutely healing and incredible! I went from 10k on a Friday night to 80k less than a week later. That was just on TikTok; on Instagram I went from 1k to now sitting at 40k in less than a week,” she said.
What mattered most wasn’t just the follower count spike. It was seeing Black women recognize what happened and show up for her the way she’d spent years showing up for everyone else. “It all came full circle and I have no regrets about posting the video,” Saturdays told The Root.
As of this writing, Laurie Faulkner has not addressed the accusation or issued a public apology. Her TikTok and Instagram comments have also been limited.
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