Carissa Codel, a 27-year-old Missouri-based journalist who delivers morning headlines for OzarksFirst, rose to fame last year after reading unfavorable remarks about her body in her polished news-anchor voice.
Now, she’s back, showing viewers how to turn the tables on trolls with a compilation of some of her funniest comebacks.
“One year of this. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed along, and an even bigger thank you to the haters. I appreciate you more than you know,” she wrote in the caption of her August 18 post.
Tracey Everbach, a journalism professor, however, warned that criticism about appearance can sometimes escalate into physical threats for industry professionals.
Carissa Codel returned with a fresh compilation proving she has mastered the art of trolling her trolls
Codel has a petite yet curvy frame, standing at 5-foot-3 and weighing 180 pounds.
While her appearance frequently draws hateful observations, the people making them never get the reaction they anticipate.
Instead of responding with anger, the newscaster meets the jabs with humor.
Codel burst out laughing when one critic dubbed her the “third White Chick,” referencing the 2004 buddy-cop comedy White Chicks.
Her reaction was much the same when another compared her to “the Pokémon Jigglypuff but in human form.”
“Built like my grandpa’s prescription lenses,” a third wrote.
Codel’s response? “She’s blind as a bat.”
Among the other remarks that Codel laughed off was one claiming her arm was “big enough to stop the next meteor,” and another quipping, “I know about five thick news anchors and she’s three of them.”
The idea of embracing online hostility came to Codel in August 2025.
In a December 2025 interview with USA Today, she said she brainstormed the idea of producing the segment for the channel with her team, and they were all on board.
However, she said she did not expect the videos to blow up and garner millions of views.
Codel described the response as “wild” when speaking with the outlet.
Codel considers herself thick-skinned but acknowledged filtering out comments that went too far
Codel said people’s opinions never really hurt her feelings because she knows how she looks.
Her ability to laugh things off is something she said she picked up early on.
“My family is very thick-skinned,” she explained.
She also shared that she has lost 55 pounds in the last three years, and that change has made it easier for her to look at comments about her body without feeling shaken.
“I find it so funny,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, you think I’m big now? You should have seen me back then.’”
She, however, said she refrains from airing excessively cruel comments.
Codel explained that both she and her team take great care to screen out the worst of the bunch, as purely mean-spirited remarks do not deserve the attention, let alone a spotlight.
Codel’s upbeat persona and positive approach have earned her a growing fan base
Codel has 778,000 followers on Instagram and 300,000 on TikTok, bringing her total following across the two platforms to more than 1 million.
Initially, Codel feared that her irreverent approach could undermine her professionalism or damage her credibility as a journalist, but she soon realized the opposite had happened.
“I think they see me as a more genuine person,” she said, “instead of just a reporter.”
Codel’s supporters regularly chime in in her comments section and leave encouraging notes.
“In another era, she would have won beauty contests,” one wrote.
“Hot, blonde, blue eyes, independent, goes to the gym. My understanding says haters are just threatened by her,” another added.
Codel has found that her videos have helped several young women cope with body image issues.
She said parents have reached out to her on more than one occasion to thank her for the impact she has made.
“That was not necessarily the goal, but I’m so glad that that is happening. It makes my heart so happy to hear those,” she said.
Online attacks can sometimes carry far more serious consequences
Hateful comments about female journalists are widespread.
While the comments Codel highlights are mostly based on her physical appearance, some journalists face physical threats, said Tracey Everbach, a journalism professor at the University of Texas.
“[Codel] was reading those comments and calling those people out for making fun of her weight or her appearance. But I do think that it doesn’t address the fact that there are these really, really horrible threats that women get.”
Jake Nelson, an associate professor of communication at the University of Utah who researches the connection between journalists and their audiences, said there isn’t a tried-and-tested way for reporters like Codel to manage online hate.
“There’s just something about the social media environment where you are not thinking at all, really, about who’s on the receiving end of whatever it is that you say,” Nelson said.
“And that’s even more exaggerated when it comes to journalists. They’re not thinking about journalists like a human being.”
Nelson, however, was appreciative of Codel’s approach and said humor helps diffuse tension more often than not.
“Let’s make shouting out these comments and not blurring the names normal,” a social media user wrote
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