| “ | It sucks and it is ridiculously embarrassing to admit this, but I think I have to, and that is that I'm desperate | ” |
―James Charles | ||
James Charles Dickinson (born: May 23, 1999), formerly known online as JaysCoding and JCharlesBeauty, is an American YouTuber, makeup artist, model, and vlogger. He became the first male spokes-model for cosmetic brand CoverGirl, working alongside brand ambassador and singer-songwriter Katy Perry. He also appeared on TheEllenShow on November 14, 2016.
Personal life
James is from Bethlehem, New York, United States, and was a student of Bethlehem Central Senior High School. Before he developed his interest in makeup, he often did hairstyling. After having his career in makeup, his father helped him change their basement into a makeup studio where he practiced doing it on his friends.
Controversies
Offensive Tweets & Jokes
In February 2017, James tweeted an offensive joke about Africa and Ebola. An apology was later issued with him saying I am extremely sorry for what I said. There are no excuses. No one owns me forgiveness, but I've learned a lot from the experience. I hope that people who might look up to me will be able to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.
High School Photo
A month later, James was exposed when another YouTube make-up artist named Thomas Halbert posted screenshots of previous conversations online with him where his rise to fame story was falsified. He claimed that his high school prom photographs were retaken with a ring light. However, it was revealed that they were actually edited which led the photographer being contacted.
Transphobic Comments
In April 2019, Charles clarified that he was not fully gay, being a 5.5 on the Kinsey scale, revealing that "there have been girls in the past who I've thought were very, very beautiful. There's also been trans guys in the past, too, that I was really, really into for a moment in time." These comments created controversy and were called transphobic. Charles apologized shortly after, releasing a statement saying that his comments were unintentionally transphobic, though that was not his intent, and that he should have chosen different words to convey what he meant.
Met Gala
More controversy arose after Charles’ appearance at the Met Gala, with people making fun of his outfit, which didn't fit the camp theme, and him being a YouTuber, attending a prestigious event.
Catfishing/Predatory Behavior
After the Met Gala controversy, multiple classmates coming forward with how he had cat fished his high school's soccer team. This follows Gage Gomez coming forward and admitting Charles’ manipulative and predator-like nature towards straight men, threatening to expose them if they reject his advances.
Tati Westbrook Drama
While James had a fair share of controversy, it all paled out when Tati decided to upload a video confessing and castigating all the wrongs James did. This controversy was so viral to the point it nearly ended James' career. During Coachella 2019, James came under fire for promoting a Sugar Bear vitamin on his Instagram, which the Sugar Bear vitamin was a direct competitor for Tati Westbrook's Halo vitamins. Westbrook posted an Instagram story being upset that James would promote her competitor, even though they were friends. James later issued an apology on his Instagram story, saying he didn't intend to upset Westbrook, and stated he did the advertisement to secure security during Coachella.
On May 10, 2019, Tati posted a video titled BYE SISTER, explaining all her problems with James, including having a massive ego, childish behavior, manipulating and predator behaviors towards straight men, embarrassing her at a party, promoting the Sugar Bear vitamins despite his beliefs on not promoting supplements to his young fans, and feeling betrayed due to all the help Tati provided for James before he was famous. Tati stated that she severed all ties with James and wants nothing to do with him.
Swedish singer Zara Larsson then made a Twitter post in defense of Westbrook, saying “I’m cackling cause he hit up my boyfriend in the dms several times knowing damn well he’s straight". However, after the tweet got 100 retweets, most of which were negative, she then made an apology post on Instagram, saying that “When I wrote my tweet saying you hit up my boyfriend, I never in a million years expected it to blow up the way it did,” she wrote. “I feel extra bad considering the fact that I later on corrected myself and took down the tweet after my boyfriend talked to me and showed me the DM. It really wasn’t that bad.”, she also said.[1]
As a result, in just three days, James lost over 2.5 million subscribers from the controversy. James made a response apologizing to Tati and the fans, the day after Tati's video. The video negativity arose as the video surpassed over 2 million dislikes and fans accused James of scripting the video.
Many people even assumed that Dolan Twins and Emma Chamberlain ended friendship with James and permanently disbanded the Sister Squad due to them unfollowing James.
As his reputation dwindled at a fast pace, James ultimately broke his silence and uploaded a video called No More Lies. In his video, he talked about all the allegation Tati made and refuted all her statements, especially his sexual behavior towards a waiter. He also pointed out that he attempted to apologize to Tati and her husband and explained his reasoning behind signing the contract with her rival company. In the end, he also addressed Jeffree Star's merciless treatment towards James after the scandal. He revealed that Jeffree called James via text message a "danger to society" and that he should be "locked in a jail for a very long time". James then criticized Jeffree for not only sending hurtful messages, but also for not trusting him in the first place.
In the end, his video proved to be a success as many of his friends apologized to him, and eventually regrew his original subscriber loss within four months.
Grooming Allegations
New allegations in 2021 have surfaced that James has groomed and sent sexually explicit text messages to a total of at least 3-6 minors on multiple platforms and tried to deny the allegations by stating that they lied about their ages (despite it being in their bios), but it slowly became more aggressive with each allegation.[2] One of these allegations came when a 15-year-old boy accused him of aggressive grooming and James blocked him for spreading his word. James finally made a video addressing the allegations and admitting to these mistakes by stating, "he was desperate", but really messed up on trying to get a thorough explanation together. in the wake of these allegations YouTube would demonetize his channel for an entire month and his show instant influencers would have him replaced with fellow Youtubers ZHC For season 2 and on word, as well as fellow YouTuber and friend of his PewDiePie unfollowing him on Instagram.
Events
MC Championship
MC Championship is a Minecraft Tournament for YouTubers and Streamers run by the Noxcrew, in which 10 teams of four compete in a series of 8 minigames decided by the participants. A point multiplier makes each game worth more as each round passes, incentivizing teams to vote for games they might be bad at early on in the event. In the end, the two teams with the most points face off in a round of ‘Dodgebolt’ to decide the winner of the tournament. This makes it possible for a team to win despite potentially having fewer points than the runner-up.
- MC Championship 1-3: Did not participate.
- MC Championship 4: Team Lime Llamas.
- Teamed with Dangthatsalongname(Smajor1995), Shubble, and Joey Graceffa.
- MC Championship 5-10: Did not participate.
- MC Championship 11: Team Green Goblins.
- Teamed with ConnorEatsPants, King Burren, and Sylvee (Filled in for PeteZahHutt).
- MC Championship 12: Did not participate.
Subscriber Milestones
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
James Charles
- 1 million subscribers: May 14, 2017
- 2 million subscribers: November 8, 2017
- 3 million subscribers: February 22, 2018
- 4 million subscribers: April 14, 2018
- 5 million subscribers: May 28, 2018
- 6 million subscribers: July 1, 2018
- 7 million subscribers: August 5, 2018
- 8 million subscribers: September 4, 2018
- 9 million subscribers: October 14, 2018
- 10 million subscribers: November 13, 2018
- 11 million subscribers: December 7, 2018
- 12 million subscribers: December 24, 2018
- 13 million subscribers: January 7, 2019
- 14 million subscribers: February 5, 2019
- 15 million subscribers: March 15, 2019
- 16 million subscribers: April 12, 2019
Decline
- Below 16 million subscribers: May 10, 2019
- Below 15 million subscribers: May 11, 2019
- Below 14 million subscribers: May 12, 2019
- Below 25 million subscribers: July 25, 2021
- Below 24 million subscribers: July 9, 2022
Regrowth
- 14 million subscribers: May 19, 2019
- 15 million subscribers: May 21, 2019
- 16 million subscribers: August 16, 2019
- 17 million subscribers: March 6, 2020
- 18 million subscribers: April 14, 2020
- 19 million subscribers: May 16, 2020
- 20 million subscribers: July 12, 2020
- 21 million subscribers: August 22, 2020
- 22 million subscribers: September 22, 2020
- 23 million subscribers: October 21, 2020
- 24 million subscribers: November 22, 2020
- 25 million subscribers: January 1, 2021
Video View Milestones
- 1 billion views: December 29, 2018
- 2 billion views: March 28, 2020
- 3 billion views: December 11, 2020
Trivia
- James Charles has the record of most subscribers lost in a single day, of over 1.2 million lost in May 11, 2019.
- In January 2019, he was invited to Birmingham, England, to open Morphe Cosmetics' second UK store.
- He refers to his fans as "sisters".
- He started his own clothing line.
- He has a brother known as Ian Jeffery, who is also a popular internet personality.
- He is a fan of video games, especially Minecraft and Mario Kart.
- He participated in the gaming tournament "Minecraft Monday" a couple of times.
- He is a mix of Polish and Irish descent.
- He has played Minecraft with PewDiePie and LazarBeam where LazarBeam uploaded a video.
- He has played Mario Kart Wii with TWD98.
- He collaborated with JoJo Siwa by making full makeovers to each other.
- He was featured in REACT for his fans to meet him.
- He owns two dogs named Finnegan and Theodore.
- He calls his Haters his "step sisters".
- His parents share the same birthday.[3]
- James Charles was nominated for the 2020 Streamy Awards in the Beauty, Creator of the Year, Show of the Year and Unscripted Series categories. The Streamy Awards took place on December 13, 2020. He won awards in Show of the Year and Beauty.
- He is the most popular member of the beauty community on YouTube, passing the previous record (Yuya) on December 22, 2020. He is also the first and only one to have surpassed 25 million subscribers.
References
