"I wasn't really expecting to form such strong friendships from the show," Bekah says — but with such bonds also come adversaries. The former contestant recently reinforced her alignment with Becca on Twitter, when she called out former Bachelor contestant Tia Booth and current Bachelorette contestant Colton Underwood for possibly rekindling their relationship in the franchise’s spinoff series, Bachelor in Paradise. (As of mid-June, Bachelorette viewers had seen Tia and Colton both assure Becca that their relationship was over.) Former Bachelor and BiP contestant Raven Gates saw the tweet, and posted a message that fans quickly interpreted as a subtweet; the two went back and forth on Twitter for a while, (even after Bekah was apparently blocked by Raven).

The exchange is a reminder that what happens inside the Bachelor mansion (or in Paradise) doesn’t always stay there; instead of airing on TV, this particular spat played out on fans’ Twitter feeds, mashed in between tweets from their own friends. People were quick to respond to both contestants’ messages, forming opinions of their own and choosing sides.

A day later, Bekah came back to Twitter to apologize to her followers for the drama. “It wasn't really necessary to do it in that way, tweeting sarcastically,” Bekah tells Teen Vogue, adding that she “probably shouldn't have engaged with Raven even at all, and that was just my petty, sh*t-stirring side coming out.”

But Bekah is no stranger to online feuds — or to cyber bullying. When her season of The Bachelor aired earlier this year, some viewers were extremely cruel, despite claiming to love the show itself. “For The Bachelor in particular, there are a lot of really judgmental, critical, and hateful people that are in the fan base,” Bekah says. “It was really hard to get used to people attacking [me], or just commenting really mean things.”

Plenty of other Bachelor contestants would agree. The show encourages viewers to tweet along with the episodes, which results in plenty of amusing commentary — but also a lot of hurtful messages. Olivia Caridi, who appeared on Ben Higgins’s season, told Page Six that she once received a message from a viewer that read: “You’re the worst person, ever. You should die.” Clare Crawley was slut-shamed during her appearance on Juan Pablo Galavis’s season in 2014, though it should be noted that male contestants often avoid such sexist wrath. It seems as though some audience members forget that they’re not watching fictional characters every Monday; rather, these contestants are human beings with actual emotions.

Bekah says that while some people might not understand that she’s actually a real person, other online bullies have an even more upsetting approach. “I have people who follow me, they watch my stories, and they realize I'm a real person and it's like they're going out of their way to trigger you, and saying things to get a reaction out of you,” she explains. “It’s kind of ridiculous. It made me have a thicker skin.”

However, viewers of The Bachelor didn't really get to see the entire picture of who Bekah is. And how could they, when the series is so heavily edited to tell the most “dramatic” story possible? “I am young and I do have a wild personality,” Bekah says of how the show portrayed her, “but people might be surprised by [the fact] that I'm not really a big partier at all. I don't really go out that much. I really like staying in and reading, or just having hangouts with just a couple close friends. I don't have as much of a gregarious social life as you might expect.”