Waterstones sacks TikTok book influencer who said she'd enjoy 'tearing up' copies of gender-critical author's work

A TikTok book influencer has shared a video of her welling up after she was sacked for comments she made online against a gender-critical author. 

Tilly Fitzgerald, who runs the social media account Tilly Loves Books that reviews novels for her 90,000 followers, was sacked by Waterstones for saying that she would 'tear up and bin' the book of a gender critical author.

She made the comments in response to author Christina Dalcher expressing her support for a new publishing group, called the Seen Network, that works to protect women's right and raise concerns around the impact of gender ideology. 

Ms Fitzgerald wrote in response to her support for the network: 'Oh I'll enjoy tearing up your books and popping them in the bin today. Thanks for the heads up.'

After her comments were flagged to Waterstones, she was fired on the grounds of breaching their social media policies and nothing to do with trans rights, according to the bookstore.  

Speaking to The Independent she said she was 'absolutely devastated' to lose her job, adding that the sacking was 'disproportionate'.

She said: 'I'm absolutely devastated that this escalated to me losing a job a love.

'I acknowledge that my comments were a violation of the social media policy, and I did apologise for any trouble caused, however, I think the punishment was disproportionate and a warning would have been more appropriate.'

She continued: 'I was talking about my own personal property on my personal social media account, and I have every right to get rid of books by an author I no longer wish to support based on their behaviour.

'I'm so grateful for all the support people in the book community have shown. The last thing I would consider myself is an activist (although I'm forever in awe of those who are brave enough to fight so relentlessly), but to me, it's fairly simple - we just let people be who they want to be and begin with kindness.'

This comes as author JK Rowling launched a fresh attack on Labour as Sir Keir Starmer appointed two women and equalities ministers to sit around his Cabinet table.

In a surprise move, Downing Street revealed both Bridget Phillipson and Anneliese Dodds would hold the title in the new Government.

It led to confusion about who would ultimately be in charge of fulfilling Labour's pre-election promise to 'simplify' the process for trans people to legally change gender.

Rowling yesterday questioned the choice of Ms Dodds for the role, having previously clashed with Ms Phillipson over Labour's stance on transgender issues.

The Harry Potter author used social media to highlight an answer by Ms Dodds in 2022, when the Labour frontbencher was asked about her party's definition of a woman.

'I have to say that there are different definitions legally around what a woman actually is,' she replied in a BBC interview at the time.

She added: 'I think it does depend what the context is surely. I mean surely that is important here.'