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A recent TikTok video has gone viral after a woman who applied to be a brand representative for a local Michigan boutique got an accidental response from the VP of operations saying she's "not that cute."
Gracie Lorincz applied to Ava Lane Boutique in Auburn Hills. After receiving an accidental email from Chuck DeGrendel, the VP of operations and the owner's husband, she made a TikTok about the incident, captioning it, ":))))) feeling amazing"
According to the TikTok, the accidental email from Chuck to Gracie wrote, "This girl is fresh out of college (Hope College) and not that cute. She applied to the sales model position. Are you sure you want me to interview her?"
In the short amount of time that the video has been posted, it has been seen over one million times, and TikTok users have left one-star reviews on various platforms of the Boutiques app. One review wrote: "BEWARE - THIS APP INSTALLED POP-UP MALWARE ON MY PHONE REMINDING ME I AM NOT THAT CUTE."
Chuck and his wife Laura Langen DeGrendel, Ava Lane Boutique's owner, posted a public apology on Facebook Live Thursday (July 8) morning, the Detroit Free Press reported.
In the apology, Chuck said that a human resources employee usually reviews all applications, but they were out of the office this week, so he took over. He meant to send the email to Laura but accidentally sent it to Gracie.
In response to what he said about Gracie in the email, he said his apology, "I don't know why I said that, but I did, and I'm very, very sorry for saying that because it was very unprofessional and really not in line with our core values here, or my core values in general." He added that he "can only imagine how awful she would feel." and "It was wrong to say on many levels, I don't know why I said it, but I did. And it's 100% my fault."
Chuck stated that he did send a private message to Gracie as soon as he found out about his mistake.
Since the TikTok has been posted, the entire DeGrendel family has received threats. In the video, Laura noted, "Our phone numbers are out there, our address is out there, our children have been threatened. I'm pretty sure the girl who Chuck just apologized to didn't mean for her followers to contact us, to threaten our family. I'm pretty sure that was not her intention, but that's what happened."
Gracie has commented on her viral video, saying: "Hi! This has gotten a lot more attention (than) I had ever imagined. Thank you so much for the support, but please leave his family out of this."