Melody Nafari is a Canadian social media star who is known for her TikTok profile @melodynafarii, on which she posted dance videos, duets and lip-sync videos before becoming inactive. She was also active on the Instagram profile @melodynafari, which is currently private, and had the Twitter handle @melodynafari, on which she was never active. She received criticism for being insensitive towards the plights of the Asian community for making a viral video following the popular “fox eye” trend.
Career
Melody Nafari gained popularity on TikTok in early 2019 after posting a video on her @melodythetiktokian handle after she met and interviewed actor Finn Wolfhard. She also made several duets featuring Charli D’Amelio, one of the most popular influencers on the platform. Nafari, who has since then changed her TikTok handle to @melodynafarii, continued to post dance videos, duets and lip-sync videos on the platform and amassed a massive following within a year. However, she stopped posting videos on the profile shortly after and only mentions in the bio: “maybe ill come back idk”. There is also a TikTok profile with the handle @ihatemelodynafari, which some believe is her alt account, but it has not been confirmed. A basketball fan and supporter of the Toronto Raptors, she had posted a video of people celebrating on the streets of Toronto after the team won their 2019 championship. Interestingly, Nafari, who joined social media at 14-15 years, is one of the influencers who received notoriety for looking much older than their actual age through the use of makeup. She also shared selfies and fashion pictures on her Instagram profile @melodynafari, but it is currently set as private. While she had a Twitter profile as well, she has never been active on that platform.
Controversy
Despite her popularity, Melody Nafari has also courted criticism for one particular TikTok from early 2020 in which she was seen pulling at her eyes to mimic the “fox eye” look, a popular social media trend that saw people mimicking the upturned, slanted eyes, a facial feature Asians have commonly been harassed for. Coming at a time when hate crimes against Asians were on the rise in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend was called out for culturally appropriating Asian features. Although the video received over a million views within a short period, Nafari also received comments from TikTok users of Asian background who expressed their disappointment over the practice becoming a trend, pointing out that many Asians faced bullying in school for looking that way. Interestingly, although Nafari was at the receiving end of criticism after her video went viral, she was not the one to originate or popularize the trend. Even celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Miley Cyrus have sported similar looks in the past.
Family Life
Even though not much is known about Melody Nafari’s family life, she had once posted a video called "make my mom famous" featuring throw back pictures of her mother on her TikTok.
