| “ | You don't encourage people to take care of their body by telling them to hate it. | ” |
| ―Laci Green | ||
Laci Green (born: October 18, 1989) is an American YouTube vlogger, educator, and feminist activist. She has hosted online sex education content on behalf of Planned Parenthood and Discovery News.
In 2016, Time named her one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet and she won a Streamy Award for Science and Education. Her YouTube channel has more than 1,400,000 subscribers.
YouTube
Laci created her first YouTube channel gogreen18 in 2007. Her videos were originally focused on atheism. Later, she took more interest in the effects of her experience with religion and she started her social justice project called "Sex+".
Laci was one of the hosts of DNews, a YouTube channel with short science-based shows, launched by the Discovery News website. She hosted Braless, the first MTV YouTube channel, as part of a 12-week deal with MTV. The first episode aired November 4, 2014.
Activism
As a sex educator, Laci has given lectures at several universities and on behalf of Planned Parenthood. On January 18, 2013, she appeared on Dr. Phil in an episode titled "Girls Who Bash Girls Who Dress Sexy". She spoke about why she believes that slut-shaming is wrong and how it is used to degrade a woman's sexuality.
Laci advances the sex-positive movement in her videos and lectures. She has said that she wants to "get people to talk about sex in a way that isn’t shameful, awkward or weird. People are uneducated and this creates so many stigmas that don’t need to be there."
After fellow YouTuber Sam Pepper posted a video of himself grabbing women's bottoms, Laci wrote an open letter, co-signed by several other YouTube vloggers, asking him to "stop violating women". Channel 4 and the BBC interviewed her about sexual harassment in the YouTube community.
Harassment
In 2009, Laci made a parody of Chris Crocker’s “Leave Britney Alone” video in which she urged haters to “LEAVE THE TRANNIES ALONE”. She removed the video after less than a day due to the negative backlash. Laci apologized, stating that she had been ignorant about the pejorative nature of the term, but she continued to receive harassment and even death threats. Years later, three activists confronted her in a parking lot after a conference and threatened her with violence.
After sharing her weight loss journey, Laci received negative backlash and accusations of fatphobia. She has also been prosecuted by religious communities for her criticisms of Mormonism and Islam. As an outspoken feminist, Laci has also been subjected to harassment from anti-social justice warriors.
In 2017, Laci reached out to some of her critics on Twitter. Soon after, she released a video titled "TAKING THE RED PILL?" in which she stated that some of the points made by these critics were more valid than they’d previously seemed and she announced her intention to have live stream debates with critics of identity politics, gender identity, and modern feminism. This decision was met with heavy criticism from the feminist community on YouTube some of which focused on her private life rather than her support for open dialogue.
Personal Life
Laci was born in Utah into a Mormon household. Her mother is from a small American town and her father is from Iran. When she was two years old, her family moved to Portland, Oregon. When she was 12, her family moved to California for her father's job. Growing up, Laci was interested in theater and was supported by her mother who owns a theater company.
As she grew older, Laci began to question the Mormon faith because of its strict gender roles and expectations of her as a woman. Soon after leaving the church, she fell into a state of deep depression and struggled with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. She began to work with a therapist who helped her through her depression. Laci is now an atheist, though occasionally attends the Unitarian Universalist church.
In 2011, Laci graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in legal studies and education. Laci now lives in Los Angeles. She identifies as bisexual and is in a relationship with fellow YouTuber Chris Ray Gun.
