What happened to Alex Dougherty?

Alex Dougherty is the oldest member of the Dougherty Dozen, a family of 13 that has become popular online thanks to mom Alicia’s vlogs and social media posts.

The oldest Dougherty sibling is 18 and has recently graduated high school. He was adopted by Alicia and Josh Dougherty (43 and 45 respectively) when he was just five, joining the family a year prior through foster care. His birth mom Sarah is still in his life, however, having attended his graduation ceremony in June. He’s a big brother to James, Patrick, Dayshawn, Bree, Zoey, Dash, Jordan, Jason, Bodhi, and Harlee.

Alex’s TikTok fame

Although Alex’s mom kicked off the family’s online presence with a YouTube channel, and TikTok and Instagram accounts, where she talks about the Doughertys’ day-to-day, including meals, groceries, and vacations, the 18-year-old has collected quite a bit of a following himself.

Alex is particularly famous on TikTok where he has over 316.000 followers. Back in March, it became a trend on the platform to buy customized shoutout videos of Alex via the Cameo website, with some of these clips amassing over seven million views, and the teen becoming Cameo’s most searched person for a beat.

The online celebrity, who also practices shot put and football, will be attending Utica University in the Fall “to continue [his] athletic and academic career,” he announced in an Instagram post.

Despite Alex just living his life and posting about it online like anyone his age, for some reason, TikTok users have decided to choose him as a target for tasteless mocking and bullying, which sadly translates into hateful comments in nearly every single one of his videos, making fun not just of him, but his mother and the rest of his family. On July 18, someone spread a rumor that Alex had died, but he was featured in a video his mother shared on Instagram and TikTok that same day. No one from the family has addressed the rumor at the time of writing.

Some people justify this behavior with the problematic nature of family/mom influencers, especially since the Doughertys have questionable lifestyle habits, including a less-than-ideal diet. Still, targeting Alex and mocking him relentlessly hardly seems justifiable.