Being fired from an influencer gig isn’t the end of their career for some; it’s just the beginning of a new one.
Over the past two years, three of the most contentious online celebrities have pulled off successful comebacks. But instead of altering, they simply changed platforms.
With over 20 million followers across several platforms, James Charles, Tana Mongeau, and Jeffree Star have all achieved success in what could be viewed as their second (or third, or fourth) attempt at internet fame. The three were among the most popular and frequently criticized online publishers during a recent period when influencer material was predominately in the form of weekly YouTube videos.
They have all experienced numerous waves of mass opposition, or what some may refer to as cancellation. They are now successful on several platforms and with different types of material, using their improved reputation to introduce tours and goods.
Star, who rose to fame on YouTube as a beauty and high-end fashion expert, has embraced TikTok Live and spends hours livestreaming there. Mongeau, who became well-known on YouTube for making exaggerated “Storytimes” about herself, debuted the “Cancelled” podcast in 2021 and has since attracted millions of listeners. She has also begun a cross-country live tour. Charles, who rose to fame on YouTube in the late 2010s for his beauty videos, now has around 38 million TikTok followers and has just recently established an independent makeup business called “Painted,” which has already received support from some of the influencers who helped bring about his downfall.
Their comebacks show that popular creators can overcome what once looked to be career-ending controversy — or even utilize it to their advantage — even on the internet, where past wrongdoings can follow people for a lifetime and “cancel culture” supposedly rules.
“If people are talking about you and remembering you, that is significant, particularly in light of how crowded the market is now. It’s advantageous if people recognize you by name, according to Crystal Abidin, an online studies professor at Curtin University in Australia and expert on internet cultures.
Regularly released YouTube videos, which were typically 20 minutes long, served as the foundation for online popularity for more than a decade. This method allowed influencers to monetize their YouTube channels by receiving a cut of the money generated by the adverts that appeared before and during their videos.
The daily dramas involving those creators were discussed as a result, giving rise to a content niche known as drama channels. These channels would cover everything from secret influencer sponsorships and subpar product launches to more serious allegations like sexual assault and racism. These controversies also started to be covered by traditional media.
According to Spill Sesh, an unidentified pop culture news commentator with more than 700,000 followers, “They almost need publicity, whether it’s good or bad, just to stay pertinent, to keep the views up, and to keep their products selling.” Many of them have adopted the trait of frequently being dropped as their personality.
This tried-and-true method started to fail around the year 2020. Many of the platform’s breakout stars in genres including vlogging and beauty content were involved in a wave of prominent status sexual misconduct and racism charges that rocked the YouTube landscape. Charles was charged with sending sexually explicit messages to juvenile admirers, Star’s troubled past with racist material and sexual assault claims came to light again, and Mongeau eventually apologized for his alleged racist microaggressions against Black inventors.
Both Charles and Star have refuted claims of inappropriate behavior and violence. Charles admitted to messaging two people under the age of 18 but claimed that at least one of the boys lied about his age. In a 2017 video, Star earlier confessed to having written and published racist material. But in 2020, a reactionary tidal wave resulted from their scandals.
According to Spill Sesh, who is regarded as one of the top YouTube drama channels, influencers were covered by the mainstream media for the first time ever. “I know a lot of individuals don’t want to view influencers as celebrities, yet they have been reported on for the first ever,” he added. Therefore, their cancellations and the issues they were facing were far more widespread than just a small, specialized YouTube community.
Quick consequences followed. Charles’ whole YouTube channel was momentarily demonetized, which prevented him from earning money from advertisements. Star abruptly vanished from YouTube, and when he reappeared, his number of views had significantly decreased. Mongeau experienced the same thing. Like many YouTubers, all three had previously discussed their struggles to consistently monetize their oftentimes perceived advertiser-unfriendly, and occasionally seemingly pointless, video.
Charles ceased posting while he was being demonetized on YouTube. After 90 days (the amount of time needed to elapse before he could reapply for monetization), he returned to the platform and claimed to have used the time to “actually [hold] myself accountable” and “do a lot of work behind the scenes.” Later, Charles took down the first video in which he admitted to messaging children.
Similar to this, during his own issue in 2020, Star took a few weeks off from posting and then came back with a video that didn’t directly address any claims or queries but instead recommended taking legal action against his detractors (none was apparently taken) and stated that he had been reflecting on his actions. Mongeau apologized to two Black creators after taking several months off from publishing in 2020. She denied being racist and claimed her actions were the result of immaturity. Her apologies were not accepted by them.
Although Charles, Mongeau, and Star continue to upload videos to YouTube, their audience has been declining, and they now upload videos less frequently than they did when their celebrity peaked, four or five years ago.
Many of them, according to Spill Sesh, were simply sick of it. They essentially stopped blogging and kind of disappeared. They may have lost interest in uploading on YouTube because of the negative feedback and demands for them to solve various issues in the comments.
However, Mongeau has been successful in regaining a loyal fan base thanks to her podcast, which is suitably titled “Cancelled” in honor of the multiple controversies she has faced throughout her YouTube career. The podcasts are between one and two hours long, which is substantially longer than Mongeau’s usual content. Spill Sesh claimed that this is part of the reason why “Cancelled” succeeds since Mongeau’s initial appeal was her willingness to share candid anecdotes about her life.
Even this year, Mongeau took “Cancelled” on tour and is currently moving around the United States. Sesh claimed that Mongeau’s viewers now anticipate that she would be “canceled,” therefore all she needs to do is make an apology in the following episode to keep them watching. “Cancelled” is streamed on Spotify and YouTube in addition to other podcasting services. Mongeau recently suffered a “Cancelled” sponsorship loss from the language-learning software Babbel as a result of sharing a podcast anecdote about wanting a French wine tour guide “dead.” However, Mongeau returned the following episode with new sponsors.
Charles’ typical YouTube video view count decreased by 10.1 million views between 2020 and 2023. But Charles quickly established himself on TikTok, working with some of the platform’s greatest artists in 2020, including Charli D’Amelio, and amassing a fanbase of about 30 million. Currently, Charles’ TikTok videos average five times as many views as his YouTube videos.
TikTok’s rise to prominence as a dominant platform, according to Abidin, has made it more difficult for individual influencers to make a name out in the sea of producers, in large part due to the company’s never-ending, algorithm-driven “For You Page.” Contrary to expectations, this has made it more difficult for new creators to establish themselves while benefiting established creators with strong brand recognition like Star and Charles.
“As a result, people are passively consuming more content, though it may not always stick in their minds. You must be the kind of influencer or event that is “Google-able” or “Google-worthy” in order to stand out in today’s market, according to Abidin. I have a need to know, so I’ll Google it or look it up on YouTube, which increases interest in what you’re doing.
Conversely, Star didn’t begin using TikTok until quite recently. Star began spending hours at a time streaming live to tens of thousands of viewers after TikTok debuted TikTok Live, which enables users to reward creators with modest sums of money by sending symbolic “gifts.” Star additionally advertises his goods, such as his makeup line, to his followers directly through the TikTok Shop function.
Spill Sesh remarked, “Suddenly he’s unlocked this element of TikTok and he’s thriving on it.
Star has lived in Casper, Wyoming since the height of his YouTube career and now runs a yak farm there. He just recently launched a store where he sells yak items, including yak meat, and makeup.
People who used to see him in the drama days ask, “What do you mean he’s thriving?” Sesh said, “Spill.” “Everyone on TikTok is watching and they’re like, ‘What do you mean you don’t like farmer Jeffree?'”