Miranda Derrick’s sister Melanie Wilking says she doesn’t want to be ‘defined by trauma’ in new video message

Miranda Derrick’s sister Melanie Wilking is starting to address her followers after the release of Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult.

Following her initial statement released on June 2, Melanie Wilking (now Ekeler) took to her Instagram Stories to share her gratitude in a lengthy video message. “I’m very thankful that Netflix gave us the platform to share our story to more people, because in the beginning, you know, you could have just thought that it was a isolated family incident,” she said on June 2. “And now, watching the documentary, you know that it’s so much bigger than that.”

Melanie and her family went viral in 2022 when they went live on Instagram in the hopes of exposing Shekinah church pastor Robert Shinn for allegedly controlling young dancers in Los Angeles through his church and his management company 7M Films. At the time, many didn’t believe their accusations, though their plea led multiple 7M dancers to leave the church and come forward with stories of financial, emotional, and sexual abuse.

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Of the responses to the documentary since its release on May 29, Melanie says her favourite messages come from parents who watched it with their own teens and young adult children. “They watch the documentary together and kind of [sit] down with their kids and go through some of those red flags that you may see when it comes to highly controlled environments,” she said. “Because this can happen to anybody.”

Courtesy of Netflix

After three years of fighting this battle, Melanie says she’s planning to continue to share her family’s story but is hoping to find “balance” when it comes to her social media feed moving forward. “It’s like this weird balance of keeping the story alive, because we don’t want people to just forget about it, and then move on with their lives," she continued. “Like, no, this is still very serious. And we don’t want Robert to be able to do this to more people.”

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A few days before the documentary’s release, Melanie married NFL player Austin Ekeler with Miranda Derrick in attendance. However, the documentary alleges that Shinn’s followers have been encouraged to spend time with their families in order to share social media content with concerned fans. Miranda and her husband, James “BDash” Derrick, have yet to address the documentary directly, though Miranda has shared multiple dance videos since its release. The comments on those videos have been limited.

Melanie told her followers she will continue to post wedding, honeymoon, and dance content on her feeds for the sake of her “mental health.” Though she admits it’s been a “challenge,” she says, “I can’t let the negativity get to me and I need to continue to live a happy and positive life.”

Courtesy of Netflix

She concluded her statement by thanking viewers for their “love and support” while asking her followers to continue to share her family’s story.

You can read a full transcript of her statement below:

Hey, everyone, I'm just getting ready here for the day and wanted to say, I am just overwhelmed with the love and support of the documentary. It's like, crazy to me. I've loved reading all your messages and just thank you guys so much for reaching out. I think my favourite messages have been [from] parents that have reached out to me saying that they have teen or young adult children and that they watch the documentary together and kind of sit down with their kids and go through some of those red flags that you may see when it comes to highly controlled environments, and just really educating their children on what to look out for. Because this can happen to anybody.

Of course, the goal of sharing our story and doing the documentary and — or even initially, when we went live — is to get my sister out of this group. But aside from that, it's spreading awareness of this group so that this can't happen to more people, because it is still currently happening.

I watched the documentary the other night and just want to say thank you to the whole team that put it on, especially [executive producer Jessica Acevedo] and [director Derek Doneen]. The team approached such a delicate situation with such kindness and patience and, like, this is our real life. And they put on this production. And they were just so kind throughout the process, and so respectful. And so I'm very grateful for that.

I feel like I'm kind of rambling at this point but another thing that's crazy to me is that all of this happened over three years ago. We've been going through this for over three years. It's just insane because so much has happened over the course of that time. I think I mentioned this in the documentary, but life keeps moving. And you don't want to be defined by your trauma or you know, the terrible things that you've gone through. So it's like this weird balance of keeping the story alive, because we don't want people to just forget about it, and then move on with their lives. Like no, this is still very serious. And we don't want Robert to be able to do this to more people.

And there's also the other side of like… I can't let the negativity get to me and I need to continue to live a happy and positive life. So, you know, it's a challenge over here. But I'm very thankful that Netflix gave us the platform to share our story to more people because in the beginning, you know, you could have just thought that it was an isolated family incident. And now, watching the documentary, you know that it's so much bigger than that. [I'm] just very thankful that we were given a platform to share our stories.

But anywho, thank you guys so much again, for all the love and support. If you could keep sharing that would be amazing. I'll keep sharing and I will also, like I was talking about before, [find] that balance. I'm going to still continue to you know, share about my wedding share about the honeymoon, dance around, all that sort of stuff because for my mental health, I have to. Seriously thank you guys so much. Talk soon.

You can watch Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult on Netflix.

This article originally appeared in GLAMOUR US.