On Dr. Phil, Danielle Bregoli was propelled into the spotlight with the catchphrase “Cash me outside.” After seven years, she navigates fame on her own terms.
“HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEONE AND THOUGHT, ‘They look insane’?” Bhad Bhabie, also known as Danielle Bregoli, is sitting cross-legged on a massive grey velour sofa in her brand-new Los Angeles home at 4:30 p.m., surrounded by a three-foot-tall stuffed Pikachu and plush flower cushions.
“Have you ever considered why that person appears insane?” she asks. “The term is “sonder.” Suppose you are walking down the street and passing people while imagining their lives. You wonder, “What does this individual want? What trauma has this individual endured? Was this individual ever married? Does this person have children? When I first learned this word, I thought, “Oh, s***, it makes sense!”
In 2016, Bregoli and her mother appeared on Dr. Phil for a segment titled “I Want to Give Up My Car-Stealing, Knife-Wielding, Twerking 13-Year-Old Daughter Who Tried to Frame Me for a Crime!” Bregoli is speaking about what she learned from that experience. As the audience laughed at Bregoli’s youthful bravado, she became defensive and shouted, “Catch me outside, how about that?”—although it came out as “Cash me outside, how do you do?”
The viral video caused her to momentarily become one of the most despised people on the internet. She has since reluctantly accepted her status as a meme, because how could she not? It launched her rap career, garnered her millions of Instagram followers, and will generate interest in her new music, should she ever release it. It has also fuelled her account on the subscription-based platform OnlyFans, which she created six days after turning 18 and which, according to her, allowed her to regain control of her image. According to her erstwhile manager, the fact that she made at least $70 million in the process didn’t hurt either.
Bregoli is most grateful for her appearance on Dr. Phil because it has given her the gift of singing.
“I learned not to judge others,” she explains. “Because I was criticized, judged, and subjected to all of this dreadful s—. I don’t look at individuals and think, ‘They appear insane.” When I look at them, I wonder why they appear insane.”
BREGOLI IS PROFOUNDLY HUNGOVER. A few days before her 20th birthday, she’s on her second Postmates order of the day, a softball-sized turkey and provolone on rye. She is puffing on a vape with her legs draped over the lap of a man who appears physically incapable of glancing up from his phone. Bregoli’s manager, Dan Roof, smirks and claims they are “hanging out” when asked about him. (I can confirm that they were viewing Cocaine Bear and enjoying it prior to my arrival.)
Bregoli resides on her own expansive estate in Woodland Hills, California, surrounded by dozens of Bearbrick figurines. Five years ago, she debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as the youngest female rap artist with “These Heaux.” And on OnlyFans, she charges $23.99 per month for her dimly illuminated semi nudes (for an additional fee, she will send private Direct Messages of, for example, shower time nip slips).
Typically, creators will describe the effort they exerted in great detail. Not Bregoli. “I get new swimsuits or lingerie and take pictures,” she says with a shrug. “I do whatever I feel like doing.” As a matter of fact, Bregoli applies this mindset to almost everything she does. After Dr. Phil, her viral fame drew the attention of record producers and managers; even that, she says, was “presented to me, and I was like, ‘Screw it, let’s see’.” Now that she has the ability to do whatever she desires, her current desire is to do almost nothing.
Roof states, “She is simply living the life of a college freshman with no classes.” “[She is] binge drinking and doing whatever stupid sh*t teenagers do. She simply has much more money.”
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