Nollywood actress Sharon Ooja says she never responds to haters on social media.
When asked how she deals with hurtful comments from haters, Ooja said in an interview with Inkblot Meet and Greet, “There’s something my mother said to me, ‘Don’t respond to shadows.’ You’re trying to be a reflection of me but I’m me. Why are you so focused on me?”
“I’m not a clapback queen,” she remarked. “I will not answer. Even if it hurt, no matter how painful, I’d rather cry behind closed doors than let you see that you got to me.”
Sharon Ooja said that she has gotten hate even from “people I was supposed to look up to”. “They’ve said stuff that they shouldn’t say and I’m like, ‘you should be encouraging me’. But I’ll never give them the satisfaction of knowing they hurt me.”
Ooja also said that in a way, negative comments helped her do better. “When I see some of these comments, it pushes me to do better. I feel bad o. But I still try to keep improving. I speak to my mum about it and she tells me, ‘There are so many people clapping for you. Don’t focus on the ones that aren’t.'”
The 30-year-old actress also said hateful comments are the reason she stays off Twitter. Ooja said, “I love my Twitter family, but they’re like my extended family that I stay away from.”
Ooja concluded, “It’s easy to criticize actors but this is life. Trust me, you’ll be in my position someday and somebody from nowhere will just sit down and discredit your work on Twitter. So feel free o, tomorrow will be your turn.”
