Somehow it has been less than a week since Beauty YouTube exploded over the kerfuffle surrounding influencers James Charles and Tati Westbrook. In that time, Westbrook has nearly doubled her subscriber count (5.9 million to 10 million at time of publishing this blog) and Charles has bled out 3 million (16.5 to 13.4 million.) According to various pop culture-savvy sites, that’s not all he’s lost.
If you have no idea what any of this is about, I’ve written a handy explainer. If you don’t have time to read it because you’d rather your updates be piping hot and current, here’s the abridged: Westbrook was a mentor to Charles when he got his start in the beauty guru YouTube community three short years ago, at age 16. In the time since, she’s apparently, quietly, felt betrayed by him on multiple occasions. This all came to a head when he promoted Sugar Bear Hair vitamins at Coachella, the direct competitor of her main business, the supplement company Halo Beauty. (He said he needed the deal last minute because they provided him security and he was overwhelmed at the festival.) She posted a 43-minute long vlog explaining all of that drama, and concluded by saying Charles is wildly inappropriate and often disregards straight men’s sexuality while attempting to seduce them. Charles posted a short video apology in response, just seven hours later.
It’s dramatic and petty as all hell, and many, many other players in the YouTube community have come out to show their support for Westbrook (like Jeffree Star, who called Charles a “danger to society.”) Conversely, very, very few have backed Charles (noted anti-semite PewDiePie, Star-haters/makeup artists Gabriel Zamora and Nikita Dragun might be the extent of the list.)
So what’s the latest? Allow me to break it down.
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