Scroll through Twitter on a Monday evening during an episode of The Bachelor, and you'll find a range of lighthearted reactions from fans: jokes about the always fraught hometown dates, memes that snark on the latest drama, silly GIFs about the Bachelor's decisions.

But amid the humor you’ll also find insulting, cruel, and downright offensive posts about the female contestants, criticizing everything about them from their behavior onscreen to their appearance. It's not unusual to see comments like, "I can’t stand your ugly face...BYE!" in the feed. (FYI: We're not linking to the negative tweets or Instagram comments because we don't believe they should get a bigger platform.)

It's a catch-22: The contestants have agreed to be in the public eye by going on the show, and the fans (as well as the reality stars themselves) are encouraged to engage with the franchise on social media. But there's a negative side effect that comes from viewers who use the open call for feedback as an invitation to share their darkest thoughts, and the problem is growing.

This isn't an issue exclusive to The Bachelor and ABC, of course. And the network is responsible for creating a safe environment on set, not the actions of a viewer with a chip on his or her shoulder. But the show is unquestionably a phenomenon—which means a platform for its stars. When The Bachelor first premiered, in 2002, it offered a simple proposition to its contestants: Come on the show, and you might fall in love. Today it's love and thousands of Instagram followers, sponsorship deals, and maybe the chance at continuing within the franchise as a Bachelor in Paradise star or the next Bachelorette. With multiple spin-offs, three-hour finales aired in front of a live studio audience, and contestants who are a click away on social media at all times, Bachelor Nation has become more of a cultural mainstay than a singular TV show.

But the accessibility to the show’s stars can be a double-edged sword. Viewers are quick to form opinions and just as quick to share them, regardless of how mean or productive they might be. Perhaps it’s a misguided sense of “That's what they signed up for” that leads to the free-for-all. Maybe it's an inability to think of the contestants as real people because they're on TV. Whatever the reason, the noise only seems to be getting louder.

While all contestants might face some level of online bullying—this is the Internet, after all—those who end up in the notorious “villain” role arguably see the most hate. Each season one or two contestants are viewed by fans as confrontational or problematic through a mix of carefully constructed editing and their own unfortunate sound bites. It's entertaining for the show, but Bachelor “villains” are then susceptible to verbal harassment, slut shaming, and bullying. There’s also a noticeable double standard with regard to how the trolls treat the women and men of the franchise, as many of the female contestants are subjected to intense scrutiny over their sexuality in ways the men are not.

So with all this social media vitriol, why go on the show at all? Is the possibility of romance and FabFitFun deals worth all the hurtful comments from strangers? Ahead, six former Bachelor contestants explain, in their own words, the ways social media bullying affected them, what they learned from their experiences, and more.

Olivia Caridi

Olivia Caridi appeared on Ben Higgins’ season of The Bachelor in 2016 and received the First Impression Rose on night one. After being eliminated, Caridi has been open about how the social media bullying she experienced deeply impacted her mental health.