Mai FM radio host Tegan Yorwarth has revealed the kind of "dirty, uncomfortable" messages she receives almost every time she posts a photo on social media.
One-third of the Mai Morning Crew, Yorwath told Newshub she's plagued by unwanted private messages on Instagram "every couple of days, if not every day".
The replies to her include "grotesque" comments about her body, persistent attempts to contact her, and even strangers showing up at her geo-tagged location.
"It's unwanted attention. I don't know what goes through people's heads," Yorwarth said.
"I've had someone be rude to me in a comments section of an Instagram post and then seen my location and turned up at a bar I was at."
The 23-year-old broadcaster said she'd experienced a spike in messages from strangers during a recent trip to the Gold Coast.
"I was obviously in a bikini, and apparently that's an invitation," Yorwath said.
"There are some you can shrug off, because they're just being trolls, but others are really intense and are degrading my body or other women's bodies."
"[I'm like,] 'You don't deserve anything from me. I don't actually owe you shit'."
The Mai FM host was compelled to speak out after the overwhelming response she had after sharing screenshots of some messages to her close friends list on Instagram.
"I had about 80 people on that list and nearly every single one of them replied saying 'what the hell?'."
Yorwarth says she rarely replies to the "unsettling" messages - instead ignoring, deleting or blocking the perpetrators.
"I think the best thing is not to entertain it," Yorwarth said. "It isn't okay, but there will always be people who don't understand that."
As to whether her negative experiences with social media will affect what kind of photos she posts this summer, Yorwarth says: "No way".
"I'm always going to post whatever I want to post, nothing is going to change that. At the end of the day, it's my platform, and I own it."
