Three days ago, James Charles was a YouTube star with 16,553,579 subscribers.
Today, he’s a YouTube star with 13,866,723 subscribers.
13,866,722…
13,866,721… The number’s falling as we speak… but why?
That’s more than 2 million people who’ve clicked ‘unsubscribe’ on his beauty tutorial channel since Friday, according to social media stat tracking site, Social Blade.
Meanwhile, his mentor-turned-nemesis, fellow beauty YouTube star Tati Westbrook, has gained more than 3 million. On the 9th May, she had 5,908,733 subscribers to her channel. Today, she has more than 9,072,957. You can watch it climb live on Social Blade if that’s what you’d like to do with your day.
To understand the complex shifting loyalties of the beauty YouTube community, you really have to watch the 43-minute video Tati posted to her channel last week. Titled “Bye, Sister”, it’s a detailed explanation of why she has chosen to terminate her friendship with James. 33,863,971 people have watched it so far, including journalists around the world who’re now desperately scrambling to understand the power dynamics between people who post makeup tutorials on the internet.
Look, you’re in charge of how you spend your time in this life – if you’ve got a spare hour and you don’t know what to do with it, here’s the vid. Knock yourself out.
If you’d rather have the whole drama explained to you in a mercifully brief manner, please, allow me. First, know that Tati and James used to be tight. They met three years ago and Tati invited James to do the makeup on her wedding day. She’s 37 and he’s 19, so she says she feels like she’s taken a “parental” role towards him. They’ve been extremely supportive of one another.
Until James Charles dared to endorse the wrong hair supplement.
Tati has her own range of vitamins that allegedly enhance your hair, you see. While he was at Coachella, James made a video thanking her number one rival product for taking care of him. It was, as she says, an unthinkable betrayal.
“When you paired up with my number one competitor it was embarrassing for me and you know that,” she said in her video. “You kept saying you can’t be bought, but you just were.”
Tati accused James of being “disloyal” to her and then she called him out for his allegedly “problematic” behaviour. According to Tati, James has made a hobby out of “manipulating” people’s sexuality. She says he would regularly boast about turning straight men gay.
“You are using your fame, power and money to play with people’s emotions,” she said. “I don’t want to be friends with you. I don’t want to be associated with you.”
James has posted an apology to Tati on his YouTube channel. He has also responded to her allegations via Instagram story and Twitter. “I’ve been involved in a lot of very unique situations that have left people confused or upset,” he said. “I have learned the hard way about boys that I am interested in, and also ones that I should or shouldn’t be talking to. This is a conversation I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with and it’s something that I should have been far more careful with bringing into the public, especially with the last situation.”
Thankfully, his response is a swift 8 minutes 24 seconds long.
This statement, which James released last week on Twitter, appears to address rumours about his behaviour towards men.
Tati has said that her “heart is too heavy” to continue to post about this whole drama. Maybe it is lightened, ever so slightly, by the sight of her follower count skyrocketing. Maybe not.
No, but truly, it is always devastating to end a friendship. Tati and James may have a combined 25 million followers, but they’re still human and this whole drama has probably left them both feeling exposed, vulnerable and hurt.
And that’s where we’re at. For now.
