Colleen Ballinger: Cancelled YouTuber tries to clear her name
Reading Time: 2 minutes Colleen Ballinger returns to YouTube after being cancelled in June 2023, becoming the first Youtuber to apologize for their apology video.
Colleen Ballinger is a 37-year-old YouTuber that has been creating content since 2008. She became famous for her quirky, family-friendly character she named “Miranda Sings.” Popular among kids, Miranda Sings would awfully sing, dance, and react to current events. Since 2009, Ballinger would tour as Miranda Sings. In 2019, Miranda Sings got her own Netflix show, titled “Haters Back Off.” Since then, she gained a following of 12 million subscribers on TikTok and 10 million subscribers on YouTube.
Ballinger also ran a second channel called “Colleen Vlogs.” This channel has gained 3 million subscribers. Fans would follow Ballinger as she got remarried and had kids. Ballinger would also announce projects related to Miranda Sings. Her most popular videos contain her pregnancy journey with Flynn, her first born son.
In April 2020, a 17-year-old fan, Adam McIntyre, accused Ballinger of grooming him. On the Internet, grooming is known as an adult knowingly forming a relationship with a minor and attempting to prepare and make them commit sexual acts. In this case, Ballinger sent him lingerie when he was 13 years old. Ballinger responded, saying that McIntyre asked for the lingerie and apologized for sending underwear to him. Fans forgave Ballinger while McIntyre was sent hate for trying to create drama.
This all changed when in June 2023, a YouTuber, Kodee Tyler Dahl, showed screenshots of a group chat that Ballinger was a part of. The group chat was full of minors, including a 15-year-old McIntyre. Ballinger would ask disturbing questions to the minors, such as whether they had ever participated in sex and what their favorite positions were. McIntyre, now 21 years old, then rose to fame, posting more screenshots of Ballinger grooming the young minors.
Ballinger suddenly disappeared from YouTube, until she released a video titled “hi.” This video immediately surpassed all her popular videos, becoming the most viewed video on her channel “Colleen Vlogs.” This video began with a serious tone, until she pulled out a ukelele. Thinking that she was being quirky, she addressed the allegations through song. She said all the allegations were lies, providing no evidence that she was innocent. The song, titled “Toxic Gossip Train” blew up on all social media platforms. People were quick to make fun of the song and its lyrics, such as “I’m not a groomer, just a loser.”
After her apology, big Youtubers such as Trisha Paytas and Jojo Siwa talked about Ballinger. Paytas was against Ballinger, as she had been sending nude pictures of Paytas to fans. Siwa, on the other hand, defended Ballinger, saying that everything shown was a lie and was made up by fans of Ballinger to become famous.
Ballinger disappeared from social media and cancelled all her Miranda Sings 2023 tours. Until Nov. 18th, where she made a video called “fall vlog.” She finally addressed her hilarious apology and apologized to her fans for disappearing for a long time. Fans seemed to welcome her back with open arms, however they still make jokes about the apology, saying that they were expecting Ballinger to pull out a ukelele again.
Colleen Ballinger has claimed to change, while McIntyre and Paytas responded to her new video, saying how she is not truly sorry for what she has done to them, but only sorry for leaving her fans. Something that they also noticed is that Ballinger never denied her actions. As of today, the three are all thriving on their respective social media.
Kenna Seegmiller is a current freshman studying Theatre Education at Utah Valley University. In her free time, she loves to play video games, write stories, and listen to music.