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Colleen Ballinger is a YouTuber whose “character” is called Miranda Sings, a talented but incredibly awkward singer. She was one of the platform’s early success stories, and has been around almost since the beginning of YouTube. She’s written a book and has a Netflix show, so she’s one of the YouTubers who was able to crossover to more traditional media. A large portion of her fan base has always been teens and tweens. Then a month ago stories surfaced that Colleen had engaged in inappropriate discussions and behavior with underage fans. She would have young fans come onstage at her comedy shows and have them do things that were obviously uncomfortable. I’m skirting around the details here because it’s all pretty gross and I do not want to trigger anyone. There were also accusations that she performed in blackface back in 2009. Reporters at the Washington Post fact checked and it turns out the face paint she was wearing was green and leftover from a performance of songs from Wicked…but it still looks pretty bad. After these stories from fans came to light and Colleen started losing sponsorships, she created an apology video that was… a ukulele song. Truly. Because that’s how to demonstrate that you take accusations of grooming seriously, I guess? That went over about as well as expected. And now she’s cancelling the rest of her comedy shows.
Colleen Ballinger, who is better known for her YouTube character Miranda Sings, has had the rest of her shows in her 2023 tour canceled.< Ballinger was set to appear in her comedy show, where she performs as both herself and her character, on Thursday in Boise, Idaho. Links to that event and the rest of the remaining shows on her website now go to Ticketmaster pages noting that the events are canceled. The cancellations follow former fans telling HuffPost that they had inappropriate relationships with the 36-year-old YouTuber when some of them were teens. The former fans said that Ballinger would confide in them about her relationship problems and make sexual jokes. Adam McIntyre, one former fan, said on his YouTube channel that Ballinger “grooms” her fans. (In a YouTube video in which Ballinger sang the entire time, she denied “grooming.” “I’m not a groomer, I’m just a loser who didn’t understand I shouldn’t respond to fans, and I’m not a predator even though a lot of y’all think so,” she sang.)
I have never liked Colleen and never understood her popularity. But after learning what her fans are saying, I’m even more put off. It isn’t normal or appropriate for an adult woman to want to be ‘friends’ with minors or tell them blue jokes. I briefly worked as a school teacher and it was very important to me to uphold boundaries with all my students because I wanted to model what a safe, trustworthy, respectful adult looks like. Some kids unfortunately don’t have adults at home they can trust, and when you’re a teacher you’re very aware of that possibility and you have a legal obligation to be on the watch for it. You want to provide those students with the structure, boundaries, and care they need. That’s why I get so mad when I see people like Colleen taking advantage of her young fans’ trust and admiration. She clearly enjoyed having these parasocial type of friendships with a completely unequal power dynamic, which makes my skin crawl. The incident with the green face paint also isn’t the first time she’s been accused of racism. There’s precedent for that, too, which the WaPo article I linked to talks about. I’m not surprised she’s canceled her tour, I can’t imagine that many people would have showed up after all this. What she did is not OK and she doesn’t seem to have shown any real remorse for it. Also, this seems like a dynamic that has happened with a lot of YouTube stars.
3 years ago i posted a video titled, “colleen ballinger, stop lying” in which i described the emotionally abusive end to my ‘friendship’ (not real one…in theory) with youtuber colleen ballinger. the video response was quickly turned against me & i was villainized & bullied for 3… pic.twitter.com/kJnTFmsjvI
— adam mcintyre (@theadammcintyre) June 4, 2023
Maybe it’s due to “cultural differences” (I’m black), but I never understood Colleen/Miranda’s appeal. What’s so funny about that character?
Btw, did you hear about her “apology”? A 10 minute song called “Toxic Gossip train”.
Fun fact, actually really really devious fact: She made it a 10min song for two reasons:
1. 10 minutes to monetize it + it’s perfect for ads.
2. So she could hit everyone with a copyright claim who posted parts of her bullsh*t non-apology apology.
The more I hear about her, the more obvious it becomes that she’s a truly awful, awful person. Just despicable.
I never got her appeal either.
Mandy, normally I’d be in agreement that maybe it’s cultural differences, but I’m incredibly white and don’t for the life of me understand why this woman’s shtick would appeal to anyone, lol.
Same, I thought maybe I was just too old because she came around when I was well into adulthood and I’m not her intended audience. I remember I first learned about her when I saw an acquaintance’s daughter dress up like her for Halloween and was really confused. Then I think I watched a clip or something and the character she plays just made me really uncomfortable and like she was making fun or a certain group of people and being ableist, which I’m just sensitive to having a daughter with profound medical needs. I honestly don’t understand the appeal of a lot of the people that have started off on YouTube and maybe that’s because I’m a decade too old but they all seem to end up people terrible but the signs were always there.
Just came here to say this. I don’t get it at all.
Maddy that “apology song” has to be one of the most insane things ever uploaded to the internet. Toxic Gossip Train” should be played in psychology classes for all of time as a perfect example of a narcissist DARVO (gaslighting and blaming) their victims. I will never be able to listen to a ukulele again without grimacing. What 30 plus year old woman spends her nights in group chats with 13 year olds ? And in these chats she asked them
Sexual questions and asked for things like a$$ pics? And what I cannot wrap my head around is her constantly bullying and weapon using her fans to bully anyone she didn’t like? Who DOES this stuff. Adam tried to warn about her behavior 3 years ago (after she sent him underwear in the mail???) and she has had her teen aged army attack him and try to destroy his reputation for 3 years. He was 17 at the start of that. She is evil, like as a former teacher of kinds not much younger than this I want to scream every time I hear her name.
Oh God. The Toxic Gossip Train is so catchy. It’s like she found a way to annoy you on repeat long after watching. Don’t. Listen.
Cancelling her tour is the first idea of hers that I agree with. The skit she did in the UK where she stuffed her pants with snacks and had the 9 year (who was enamored) reach around in her pants to get them was appalling.
I turned on her Netflix show once out of curiosity and found it completely unbearable. I watched her ukulele video (why are we calling it an apology video?) and found it so painfully defensive and unapologetic. And she sent underwear to a teenager? I can’t with this woman. She is bats–t!
I saw a couple of her videos some… 10 yrs ago on youtube, maybe? When she was doing collaboration videos with British youtubers. Her character was meant to be a parody of all those white girls on youtube who keep on recording videos of themselves singing having any talent, but think they’re amazing, future stars, not like other girls, etc. Even at that time I didn’t find her character funny at all. I was surprised she was still going and had any fans… Her behaviour is so gross.
Sh*t really hit the fan when one of her former “friend-teens” posted screenshots of her negatively commenting on her podcast co-host’s body and sending pictures of her performing sex acts (she’s a sex worker) to the friend-teens. Then the co-host suddenly believed Adam and the others about how gross, stupid, toxic, and criminally liable Colleen is for the sh*t she’s pulled.
When she shared those images she committed a felony in two countries (the minor is from Ireland) by sending pornography to a minor which if an investigation is opened could lead to her spending time in prison. The evidence is quite clear she did this. All her victims saved their inappropriate (and now illegal) texts from her. That is why she has now lawyered up with a very expensive attorney who is known to take on very problematic clients (I.e. Prince Andrew). I can’t see her making a comeback from this. The only saving grace is that she is now not exploiting her kids anymore on her YouTube channel.
Never liked her either, never understood the appeal for her. Especially her «character» that she played. So cringe when you know whe was in her mid 20 when she started becoming popular.
I am absolutely disgusted by the allegations that has come out, and what she has allegedly done. Watched Adams video on it, and I feel so bad for him and the other victims. I wish them the best.
So happy her show got cancelled. I don’t understand why people would pay money to see her live.
Never heard of this person. Thankfully. Sounds like I dodged a bullet.
@BrassyRebel, same.
Same
Same. I’ve been an avid youtube watcher since its beginning, but somehow this person never crossed my radar and I’ve never heard of her. Then again, I’ve spent the last 13 years or so watching makeup and hair tutorials, cooking segments, dogs being funny, movie trailers, commercials from the 80’s, and Marvel movie breakdowns. I’ll stick with my little happy bubble and count myself lucky.
I’m with you. I enjoy my little YT-bubble of Star Trek news/episode breakdowns, The Mandalorian and cute Grogu videos, hair tutorials, improve your foreign language skills, and learn about different cultures/races.
So glad, I’ve never heard of this person and her persona.
I dont understand her popularity at all. a lot of the reviews of her channel say that the character is disabled in some way? there’s something really creepy and unwatchable about miranda. if she’s supposed to be on the spectrum in some way and packaged as “entertainment” for kids, that’s just extra gross.
honestly that nonpology video is catchier than anything she ever did as Miranda
I assume she’s mimicking certain speech patterns or behavioral traits that imply some kind of disability, yeah, which really sucks, because the character is definitely meant to be ignorant and off-putting. In addition, I just learned that she published a couple books (marketed towards minors) in character where Miranda continuously makes “funny uncle” jokes, implying her character is being sexually assaulted by an uncle character. She also constantly shames others as “sinners.” I guess she thought that was funny, but it’s just disgusting and sad.
I don’t know why other adults around her didn’t say, “Hey, you clearly need therapy and maybe stop creating trauma in others with your stupid act?” or just “This is offensive. Grow the f up.”
I believe she once shared that the Miranda character was modeled after a cousin of hers who is deaf. If true, that’s appalling.
I first saw her on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld and was surprised that her act was in any way successful.
Then I learned of her behavior.
Then, that stupid, insulting, dismissive video with her singing. That was no apology. It was plain horrible.
I hope her career tanks!
I still can’t believe that show was greenlit
career tanks AND she goes to jail. sounds like some of what she was doing may well be illegal.
That’s the only way I know of her too and I remember thinking she was painfully unfunny and it seemed like Jerry didn’t get it either. I think she stayed in character the whole show when the point of his show is it’s comedians being themselves and chit-chatting not trying to perform.
I never heard of this woman, but wow.
All I have to say is Ewww. Just eww. This woman is creepy.
All of her content seems to be of the insulting, inappropriate, bullying style.
It’s almost like actors or performers are not so capable of maintain separation from self and character.
But also, like, mean spirited comedy is still mean spirited. Punching down, using children and teens for material (let alone sexual material) is not OK, regardless of who does it is not OK.
She needs to be gone. Apple needs to remove her ‘song’ too. She shouldn’t be able to profit or control this situation using her platform.
When you first start working with kids, you really don’t grasp how trusting and open they are until you first meet them. Kids are just right there with you. Stuff like this destroys that. I am afraid for the Youtube “Iceberg” of tween and Teen programming that I have never seen that includes this trash and more of her kind. God help us.
I just started hearing this name the past few days/weeks. Now that I know who she is I wish I didn’t.
I have no idea who this is but my first thought on looking at the photo was why does this 40-year-old woman have her pants so far up into and displaying her vag at the Kid’s Choice Awards of all places?! And now it makes sense on reading the post. Ick.
Everything I have learned about this awful person has been against my will. There are videos of her being inappropriate with under aged kids too. People saw this and did nothing. Horrible.
💯 agree. She has obvious personality deficits and is maybe just pure evil, but how were the other hundreds of adults ok with this?
Because she is a woman. If this was a man he would have been cancelled along time ago, women seem to get a pass. I used to listen to a local radio and every time a woman would get caught sleeping with a male student the host which was a man and his female co-host would say wow I wish my teacher came on to me….. callers would call in with the same attitude like its a big joke and when others who spoke up against sexual abuse they were called sissies and the like
I saw the tiktok where the former fan Becky describes that bad situation Colleen put her in onstage when she was a young teen. She addressed it so clearly, then in that horrible ukulele video she minimized Becky’s and the other young fan’s experiences like it was nothing! I couldn’t believe it. She must be pretty messed up to have that kind of view and to double down like she was the victim getting all this “toxic gossip” internet hate.
How did she get away with this stuff for so long? Right out in the open with it. I’m pretty sure this girl is in an Ariana Grande video. She’s the pregnant cheerleader in “Thank you next”.
Yep that is her. Yikes times 100
Also, not a drag queen
This is why I have a phobia of clowns.