A 17-year-old claimed that YouTuber Colleen Ballinger AKA 'Miranda Sings' sent him lingerie and had him ghost-write her tweets with no payment

• A 17-year-old boy alleged in an April 28 YouTube video that he had ghost-written social media content for Colleen Ballinger, the creator of Miranda Sings.
• Adam Mcintyre alleged that he first formed a relationship with Ballinger, a YouTuber and performer who is now 33, in 2016, when he was 13 years old.
• Their relationship took a turn in March 2020 when Ballinger received criticism online for a series of tweets that Mcintyre had pitched and posted.
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In an explosive YouTube video, a 17-year-old boy living in Ireland alleged he ghost-wrote content for Colleen Ballinger's satirical "Miranda Sings" character from December 2017 to March 2020.

Adam Mcintyre alleged in the April 28 video that he was never paid for his work, which included video ideas and social media content.

Mcintyre said he first formed a relationship with Ballinger, a hugely popular YouTube star and performer who is now 33, in 2016. At the time, Mcintyre was 13.

Starting in March 2020, Ballinger, according to Mcintyre, gave him the account password for the Miranda Sings Twitter account, so he could post content and keep up with fan conversations for Ballinger without needing approval. "I spent my entire day and night talking to fans on the Miranda Sings account," Mcintyre said in his video.

But things took a turn after Mcintyre pitched one controversial idea for the Miranda Sings character, which is a satirical caricature of a musical theater-obsessed girl that Ballinger created and has been playing online, in stage performances, and TV shows since 2008.

According to screenshots he shared in his video, Mcintyre explained to Ballinger over direct messages his idea that Miranda should "come out" as a fan of singer Meghan Trainor. Eventually, Ballinger said she was alright with the idea, and Mcintyre tweeted it out from the account.

Ballinger began to receive heat online for the Trainor content, with many writing that she was queerbaiting her fans and making light of the LGBTQ community. On March 27, Ballinger tweeted an apology, writing "this shouldn't have been tweeted." She also deleted the tweets.

In a direct message to Mcintyre that day, according to screenshots he showed in his video, Ballinger said she didn't know what to do after receiving "an overwhelming amount of hate." Later that day, she wrote to him again. "I would never post something like that and now everyone thinks I'm homophobic," Ballinger said, despite the fact that she herself had approved the content via direct messages before Mcintyre tweeted it. Ballinger added that she was "really upset."

Mcintyre said he felt Ballinger was trying to "guilt" him. "At this stage, I had enough, and my parents had enough," he said. He sent her a message of support and said he logged out of the account. Ballinger allegedly read the message and never responded, and Mcintyre says he was never paid for his work.

"This is someone that I loved so much, and seeing not only someone I would have called a friend go out of my life like that — someone who was my idol for years. It's weird, and I don't really know the words to say," he said. "I just feel awkward whenever it comes down to talk about it. That's why I don't talk about it. That's why nobody knows about it."

Ballinger did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In an email to Insider on Thursday from Mcintyre's account, a person who said they were his parent wrote that Mcintyre is currently taking a break from social media due to death threats and harassment in the wake of his video.

The email confirmed that Mcintyre helped Ballinger with content from December 2017 to March 2020.

Mcintyre alleged Ballinger began a friendship with him when he was 13 years old in 2016.

According to Mcintyre's account, Ballinger first took notice of him when he was 13 years old and tweeted during her livestream with friend Kory Desoto. In the livestream, which Mcintyre showed clips of during his video, Desoto was wearing a matching bra and underwear set over his clothing. Ballinger read Mcintyre's tweets aloud and said he was so "funny" that she had to send him something. She and Desoto laughed at the idea that they should mail 13-year-old Mcintyre the lingerie, and how his parents would respond to such a gift.

Eventually, Mcintyre said, Ballinger mailed the lingerie set to his home address. His mother confiscated the package.

"Looking back as a 17-year-old, I'm just really disgusted by the situation," Mcintyre said in his YouTube video. "That was a big warning sign."

From then on, Mcintyre said, he and Ballinger would message on and off. Soon, she divulged private information about her divorce from Joshua David Evans. "This information was always hard to hear and digest as a 13 to 14-year-old," Mcintyre said.

Then, Mcintyre said Ballinger asked him to find gossip about her ex, Evans, on gossip websites and through social media.

They continued a friendship on and off through 2018, when Ballinger asked Mcintyre out to lunch in Ireland. "I was so excited to see my friend again. My mom on the other hand was really cautious," Mcintyre said. "She made it very clear that she didn't trust Colleen."

When Ballinger started to fear the Miranda character had "passed its time," she asked Mcintyre for even more help. In March 2020, Ballinger allegedly told Mcintyre he was her "social media intern."

Mcintyre alleged that in 2017 and 2018, he and Ballinger messaged about how people weren't so interested in Miranda Sings anymore. "She was aware that the Miranda character had passed its time, and that she didn't really enjoy doing it anymore, because she couldn't really be problematic as the character anymore," Mcintyre said. The off-color jokes Miranda Sings is known for are certainly less than politically correct— they often involve pedophilia and incest. A 2017 Affinity Magazine article criticized the character for being harmful towards disabled people.

According to screenshots of the conversation shared in Mcintyre's video, Ballinger directly asked him for help, so he started sending her tweet ideas for the character and in some cases, for her own personal social media accounts. Then, in March 2020, she gave him the Miranda Sings Twitter password to post his own content.

According to screenshots of the conversation, Ballinger asked him to be her social media intern in March, and said if things went "well" she would consider hiring him "part time for an hourly rate." "I don't like using your creativity and insight for free," Ballinger said, according to a screenshot of her message. "I'm not planning on taking advantage of your help and plan on making it more official."

But then, the Trainor incident happened. "Instead of checking in on how I was as well, I was just getting short, snappy sentences to guilt me even more," Mcintyre said.

Many viewers of Mcintyre's video called Ballinger's behavior "grooming" on Twitter.

While Mcintyre didn't use the term "grooming" in his video, many viewers online said Ballinger's yearslong relationship with Mcintyre appeared in line with the tactic. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children defines grooming as a type of abuse, in which "someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them."

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