Alabama Mom Cashes In After Her 'Hot Mugshots' Go Viral
An Alabama mom has turned her brushes with the law, and the viral fame that followed her arrests, into a content success story for the ages.
Abbie Newman, who currently calls Augusta, Georgia, home, was arrested twice last year. The 28-year-old's mugshots appeared on the popular Instagram account Mugshawtys, and went viral with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.
Abbie was arrested for fighting in public last April and charged with disorderly conduct. Then, around Thanksgiving, she found herself back in jail. This time for shoplifting.
Sensing that she had something to work with due to all the attention her mugshots were receiving, Abbie decided to lean into her newfound fame rather than go into hiding. She struck while the iron was hot and is cashing in as a result.
"I didn't even know until I got out of jail and saw that all of my social media had gained followers, and I was being tagged everywhere with my mugshot up," Abbie said during an interview with the Daily Mail. "Really it turned out for the best I suppose."
Alabama Mom Abbie Newman Is Putting Together A Hall Of Fame Run
Abbie started slinging X-rated content on Snapchat, Twitter and OnlyFans after getting out of jail. In her first week, she pulled in $24,000.
"I was really depressed right before the arrest and didn't even log on (to OnlyFans) for a good while," she explained. "Then I made $24,000 in a week after getting out of jail, just from customers adding my Snapchat, Twitter and OnlyFans."
Abbie says last year was a tough year for her. She was dealing with a lot. In addition to the two arrests, she had had a miscarriage. Ending up behind bars and then going viral didn't just help financially. She says it also saved her life.
The miscarriage sent the recovering heroin addict down a dark path. Complicating matters are a couple of mental health issues that she wasn't taking her medication for at the time. She wasn't herself and was dealing with depression.
Thankfully, she's been able to put that all behind her now. Abbie's "blessing in disguise," her arrest and viral fame, have her back to feeling like herself again.
"So going viral helped me not only pay off my debts and live a more comfortable life, it also helped me get back to myself. I'm very blessed it happened," she continued. "Most people don't get second chances, and I'm probably on my 10th chance by now, so it's really a blessing how it all worked out."
Abbie rode her viral success all the way to an appearance on The Steve Wilkos Show. Talk about hitting the big time. The taste of TV has her eyeing a return, possibly on a reality TV show like Baddies - which is a Bad Girls Club-inspired conflict-filled series.
Whether she hits it big on reality TV or not, Abbie has hit it big in the world of mugshot viral fame. I don't know if there is a Mugshawtys hall of fame, or what the criteria would be for induction if there is one, but I'd say Abbie Newman is easily a first ballot inductee.