Mia Khalifa has revealed to her fans why she no longer wears her trademark glasses.
The 28-year-old influencer and sports commentator spoke about why she decided to ditch her own eyewear when responding to an earlier video published on TikTok by another woman who goes by the handle @oreomilkshake.
In it, the user stated that she no longer wears glasses herself after boys in her own high school mocked her for looking like Khalifa, a former adult actress.
As you can see in the video above, the footage was captioned: "I can't wear my glasses because the high school boys keep saying I look like Mia Khalifa with them, and it makes me uncomfortable."
This video quickly went viral, attaining over 8.5 million views, and soon managed to catch the attention of Khalifa herself.
Khalifa turned the original video into a duet and reacted tearfully to the revelation that she had inadvertently provoked bullying, stating: "I'm so sorry. I don't wear them anymore for this reason."
Her reaction clearly provoked the sympathy of her 25.7 million followers on the platform; accruing over 9.3 million likes and a further 196,000 comments from supporters as of the time of writing.
For example, one person wrote: "i wish i could give you a hug, it's not your fault at all. [sic]"
A second agreed that: "It's not your fault honey it's not your fault."
Then this TikTok user stated: "Don't be sorry. Past is the past. Its not an insult to be compared to you."
Finally, this commenter stated: "I even feel the pain for both sides ... it's really sad."
Per Buzzfeed, Khalifa later thanked her fans for their kind messages in a post made to her Instagram stories, stating: "I know that deep down, but the guilt is crushing.
"I wish I could protect every little girl from the male gaze. I know how I feel when men harass me in public, it kills me that other girls get the same abuse just for looking like me."
