Youtube drama. We’ve all seen it, we’ve all gone on social media with our popcorn to see how it turns out in the end. Basically, Youtube drama has been sensationalised and is slowly encroaching upon real life and news updates. If you become famous on Youtube, there’s a high chance that your private dramas aren’t going to be kept hidden for long. So, now that we are halfway through 2019, let’s do a rundown on some of the biggest Youtube scandals so far!
James Charles vs Tati Westbrook
Both of these beauty gurus went head-to-head when James Charles advertised a competitor to one of her products, Halo Beauty. So, for context. James and Tati had a good relationship, James often calling the beauty guru his “mom” and they were often seen in videos together. However, at Coachella on Aprill 22nd, James posted a “swipe up” Instagram story that promoted Sugar Bear Hair, an insta-popular set of gummy bears that are well-loved in the fashion community. However, as Tati had them as her direct competitors, this left her upset.
After this occurred, Tati called James out on it. Even though he made an apology post about this, another beauty YouTuber, Gabriel Zamora, jumped onto the drama. She called him out for his “loyalty” and spoke about the idea of how far people should be able to promote competitor brands. Once this happened, Tati uploaded a video explaining why she no longer wanted to be associated with him. She claimed that his reputation meant more to him than their friendship.
But then Tati dropped the bombshell. She accused James of coercing heterosexual men into doing sexual acts with him. She claimed that he would manipulate them into thinking he was gay and that he would use his fame and money to threaten men who didn’t accept his advances.
This was when James and Tati began to lose subscribers. There was even a live ticker that documented the counts as they rose and fell together. Then May 18th came. After Tati had gained a ton of support over what she had said, James posted a video called “No More Lies.” This video documented all of Tati’s videos against him with screenshots, messages and evidence. He claimed, “Tati made a video telling stories about me, publicly humiliating me, and now I have serious allegations against me detrimental to my career.” That was why it was time to set the record straight.
Tati never responded to the video and soon claimed that she would be taking a digital break. However, June 3rd came and Tati deleted all of her videos that had anything to do with the feud. She then returned to regular posting. It took about 15 days for James to post his next video on an update of his life. He claimed that he needed some time for a “detox” but that he would still be playing with makeup and keeping his fans up to date on his life.
Drama sorted.
Jaclyn Hill
No matter what sort of person you are, you could be a Manchester escort or a professional lawyer, you need the right sort of makeup to help you finalise your look. That’s why it came as a shock when Jaclyn Hill, a
Youtube beauty guru, launched a makeup brand (aka. a lipstick) that contained fibres, holes and “plastic balls” in the makeup itself. After the nude lipsticks
were released on May 30th, they completely sold out. However, Hill was soon as bombarded with complaints. These included:
- Broken bullets
- Gritty Lipstick textures
- White Fibres on the lipstick
- Hard “plastic” balls hidden in the formula
People began to question whether or not the formulas were expired. After a Twitter backlash, Hill took to Youtube to explain that the products were not expired. Instead, they may not have had their products mixed in properly and that the fibre hairs were from white gloves used during the quality control testing.
Things only grew worse when Marlena Stell, a make manufacturer with 11+ years of experience, came onto twitter to speak about the issues. She claimed that if there was anything sharp in the products then the sterile environment was not kept up to standard. In addition to this, if there were any hairs or lint on the product then that proved that the company was not being cost-effective in their sanitary standards (i.e. their gloves.)
As a result of the drama, the products were recalled due to “inconsistent production” and poor quality. However, from all this mess we did receive a number of good quality memes. So, we did get something good out of it!
Amberlynn Reid
Well, this drama is still ongoing, and it may not be as big as the other dramas on Youtube, but it is something that needs to be addressed. Amberlynn Reid is a vlogger on Youtube who originally used her videos as motivation to make her lose weight. She originally started over 300 pounds. However, thanks to her mukbangs and problems committing to any of her diets, she has proceeded to hit over 500 pounds. Not only has this shocked her viewers, but her own drama started when she was caught out in a series of lies (her worst one being that she was stuck in a relationship where her partner domestically abused her.) The problem with her channel now is that it is very hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Her lies and unhealthy lifestyle have become so big that she has had several smaller drama channels dedicated to her and her uploads.
Her channel is still ongoing, so that means her drama most likely is as well.
Nikocado Avocado
Nikocado Avocado is a mukbang channel on Youtube who practically has drama in his life on a daily basis. Not only does he eat HUGE portions on a daily basis, but he has a ton of emotional breakdowns that document his health problems, problematic love-life with his husband and his weight gain. Small things tend to be overdramatized in order to gain the viewers’ sympathy. However, his major drama came from his video “I’m fed up…exposing fake Youtubers.” This was actually aimed at Trisha Paytas, as he believed that she was ghosting him and being fake.
Trisha Paytas has a beauty channel, however, is also known for her eating videos and sexual topics, but apparently ghosted Nikocado when he came to see her in LA. Trisha claimed that a collab was never meant to take place and was worried about his mental health state, claiming that he was becoming “obsessive.” Whilst this drama soon fizzled out, Nikocado Avocado is still promoting unhealthy eating habits through his mukbangs and is still uploading emotional content to this day.
Veronica Wang
Veronica Wang holds a Mukbang ASMR channel that focuses on the sound of eating. Her beauty and large portions have brought her fame, but she has struggled with critique and parody channels mocking her content. One example of this was “shookbang”, a small channel that made parodies of Youtubers, including herself, that she claimed were using her copyrighted content. She also went around copyright striking different Mukbang channels that she was involved in video wise. Whilst she did apologise for her actions and retracted her strikes, this did damage her reputation.
What Youtube dramas do you know about?
Although most of the dramas seem to have come from the Mukbang, ASMR and the beauty community, there are most likely still more to come before the end of the year. So, sit back and sip on your tea. Let us know what you think the biggest dramas so far have been in 2019!