Okay, so I had no idea who the hell James Charles is. I can vaguely remember him from memes that show him wearing arse-less leather tight jeans and turning straight men gay. Other than that I didn’t have any clue on what he’s been up to or that he was caught up in some feud making him lose thousands of YouTube subscribers.
Last year, when I woke up the morning, and just like any other self-conscious social freak I was scrolling down my Twitter feed. I remember something like this pop-up–
James Charles blah-blah…
I was like ‘meh’, on to some English Premier League News, but then again–
James Charles- Tati Westbrook blah blah…
Me– Another scroll– again–
James Charles (more) blah blah blah
And then I snapped.
I had to find what the deal was and why social media was creating a huge ruckus on this. So after some digging, I had to write about this in the shortest way possible to get this out of my system so that I can get back to listening to some World news podcast like a civilized man.
This post, I am going to talk about the unexpected, over-exaggerated drama that has been doing the rounds in the beauty-influencer world. And speaking of beauty and make-up, I’ve never used sunscreen before.
Makes me the least qualified person to write about this, but seriously WHO CARES. I am going to break this feud down in the laziest way as possible and no one can stop me.
There are two prime characters of this drama you have to know:
James Charles,19 — the millionaire vlogger, and YouTuber. Dazzled us with his (or her?) Met Gala look and costume. Rose to popularity with him explaining make-up stuff for teens. Addresses his fans as ‘Sisters’.
Tati Westbrook, 37 — influencer, vlogger.The real mother of YouTube make-up, beauty lessons, and classes. She’s been doing this for 9 years and is really good at it. She also happens to be the mentor and God-mother of James Charles, nurturing him and making him who he is today.
Apparently, back on April 22 at Coachella, James Charles knowingly or unknowingly (as if I care) endorsed Sugar Bear Hair Care vitamins, posting it on his Instagram story.
But Sugar Bear Hair vitamins happens to be a direct competitor to Tati Westbrook’s hair supplement company, Halo Beauty.
So you see, it’s the classic master-disciple scenario where the disciple thinks he’s too much and goes about showing off that he’s the real deal.
And that’s all the fuck it really is. Congratulations, you now know more than half of the story. It’s just that simple.
Now, before you pat yourself on your back, let me indulge you in some tears and drama. Here we go again.
So having realized his mistake, James apologized to Tati in a tear-jerking Instagram video. He said he posted the story of Tati’s rival’s vitamins company without accepting any money and explained that the brand helped him with security when the crowd at Coachella became unsafe and unmanageable.
Tati replies with a video that basically says “You’re an ungrateful wretch James”, and that he’s a liar. She drew on nostalgia and good old memories claiming how she arranged brand deals, contracts for the 19-year-old makeup maestro. If you’re so jobless and have loads of free time, here’s the video–
One issue leads to another, and so in her 43-minute rant, Tati also brought up how James expressed his intent to hurl himself at straight men, without consent. Now I know where the memes of James trying to turn straight men gay came from.
This is what Tati meant when she called out james charles as a sexual predator which is disgusting pic.twitter.com/HeldcCGibh
— lémon (@beycarters) May 11, 2019
All this took a toll on the reputation of James and he started bleeding YouTube followers in counts of millions (3 million followers and counting). On the other hand, Tati Westbrook gained about 4 million followers. You can keep tabs on the live YouTube subscriber count.
James Charles responded to Tati Westbrook on Saturday in an 8-minute video, apologizing for everything. The video now has about 40 million views.
Doesn’t matter which side you’re on. I’ve got this out of my system.
I am in no mood for world news podcast anymore. Maybe I’ll listen to some J Cole and take a nap.
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