- A former
Jeffree Star Cosmetics model is speaking out about how he felt tokenzied and was "being used as a Black boy" forbeauty CEO and YouTuber Jeffree Star's brand. - Kameron Lester, a beauty microinfluencer with over 56,000 followers, says he is cutting ties with Star, his cosmetics company, and
Shane Dawson , after he felt "manipulated" by the powerfulYouTubers . - In an
Instagram Live broadcast explaining the situation, Lester cited examples of Star confronting him about whether he liked James Charles, overhearing Dawson "curse out" Charles three months before "Dramageddon 2.0" started, and having Star dismiss Lester's request for the controversial guru to try and make amends with the Black beauty community.
A Black male beauty microinfluencer who has modeled for Jeffree Star Cosmetics spoke out against the brand and its controversial CEO in a 27-minute Instagram Live. 23-year-old Kameron Lester has more than 56,000 Instagram followers and has been name-dropped by huge beauty YouTubers like Star, James Charles, and Shane Dawson. But in his live broadcast, Lester publicly cut ties with Star, his cosmetics company, and Dawson.
Lester said he was grateful for Star featuring him in the "Magic Star" concealer and setting powder campaign that launched in April 2019, but Lester also said that for over a year he has felt that "something was off," and has undergone a lot of stress, paranoia, and fear while trying to decide whether to speak out.
"I'm literally shaking guys, this is so scary to even do," Lester said at the beginning of his Instagram Live. "I don't want to monetize this, I don't want any gain from this. The only gain I want is peace and my truth, and this is my personal truth. [...] Everyone has their own truth and they might perceive things differently and that's okay."
A member of Star's team didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.
The crux of Lester's video is that he felt like Star used him as a "token Black boy," but he also brought up negative experiences related to Charles, Dawson, and Jackie Aina.
Lester reiterated multiple times that he has "been manipulated" by Star and Dawson — Star's most frequent collaborator over the past few years, with whom he released the highly sought-after Conspiracy collection in 2019. Combined, Star and Dawson have over 41 million subscribers. Lester has 55,000 subscribers on YouTube.
"As a Black beauty boy I have fought for my spot to even just be heard and be seen in the beauty community. I have been told not to say anything just to keep the network and benefit from it. I'm just not that type of person," Lester said. "I've been processing this for months. I've never said anything on my platforms. [...] But silence is complicit."
Lester talked about a few specific experiences with Star that made him feel like their friendship was conditional, including a time he was in Houston to collaborate with a beauty commentary channel and well-known friend of Star's, Rich Lux. Lester said Star was there for work, too, and the three YouTubers plus several other people were in a Louis Vuitton store when Star first made Lester uncomfortable.
"I remember there was an instance where he like asked me if I liked James [Charles] or not," Lester said in his Live. "He was like 'Do you like James? Do you like him?' I was just so shocked and uncomfortable because he's such a big powerhouse [...] I didn't know what to say. I was so uncomfortable, there were people around me, and he was so blunt and out of nowhere."
Lester says that Charles has been supportive of him and accepting of his HIV-positive status, which Lester has talked about extensively on YouTube. So, according to Lester, he told Star that he didn't have any personal problems with Charles, and that Charles had "done a lot" for Lester.
"And he was like 'Well you don't f---ing owe him forever,'" Lester went on to say in the video. "I just was, like, taken aback when he said that, because it all happened so fast. [...] Rich Lux told me that Jeffree thought I was talking to James at the Louis Vuitton store. [...] I knew he didn't trust me."
Lester's video also sheds new light on the events that led up to "Dramageddon 2.0," the explosive feud between Star and Charles.
The Houston trip occurred around three months before the explosive "Dramageddon 2.0" scandal between Star, Charles, and Tati Westbrook erupted, Lester said. An Instagram post of Lester's of him with Rich Lux in Houston was posted in March 2019. On the same trip, Lester went on to say that he overheard a surprising Facetime conversation between Star and Dawson, during which Lester says Dawson "cursed out" Charles.
"I was kind of taken aback, because I've never seen Shane Dawson like that. And he was just going in on James," Lester said. "I knew Shane wasn't the person that he was perceived as online. But I don't record things, I don't have hard facts. This isn't about receipts. [...] This is from my mouth, there's three sides to every story."
Lester said that, in retrospect, having known something "was brewing with James" with Star and Dawson, he wishes that he had let Charles know — especially since, Lester said, Charles went on to lose 3 million subscribers in a matter of days. Despite "Dramgeddon 2.0" happening over a year ago, Star has continued to bring up the scandal.
Lester says he regrets not warning Charles about the conversation he overheard between Star and Dawson, although he didn't disclose any details about what the conversation was about specifically.
"I stayed silent because I wanted to protect myself," Lester said. "I wanted to protect my platform. Everyone told me not to say anything. Everyone was like 'It would be a crazy move, it would destroy your career, every brand he works with you're not going to be able to work with. You're not going to have money,' this and that. I was scared."
Lester also recalled a conversation with Star when he encouraged him to "make amends" with Jackie Aina, and Star refused.
Lester said there was another time that his conversation with Star left him feeling disappointed and "used." At an event for Mmmmitchell, a makeup artist who works closely with Star, Lester says he talked to Star about Jackie Aina, a Black makeup YouTuber who has publicly confronted Star about Star's racist behavior in the past.
In October 2018, Aina addressed an open letter to Star, in which she said she would no longer overlook his racist actions. Star has a history of saying controversial and racist things, including using the "n word" slur multiple times.
"I brought it up to him and said 'It would really say a lot if you could apologize to Jackie and the community' and all that kind of stuff," Lester said in his video. "He kind of shut it down and said 'She doesn't deserve a spot on my platform.' Which is understandable, and it is his platform, and he has all rights to do whatever he wants to do on his platform. I just left it at that, but I was definitely hurt as a Black boy and as a Black influencer who loves Jackie, that he was not trying to grow or amend that disconnect or wrongdoing he has done."
From there in his video, Lester said he "got to a point" where he felt like he was "being used as a Black boy." On Twitter, Lester said he would defend Star, but that Star would not defend Lester in return, even when he liked tweets and saw Lester getting attacked for "supporting a racist person."
"Even recently, I spoke up about Fenty and was like 'Oh, Fenty needs to pull up,' and everyone is coming at me like 'Aren't you a Jeffree Star stan?'" Lester said, referring to the "PULL UP or SHUT UP challenge" started in the beauty community during recent Black Lives Matter protests, which encourage beauty brands to reveal the diversity statistics of their employees.
"It's overwhelming as a small influencer. To get hate online is a lot, because you're putting yourself on the line when you're going against these brands," Lester went on to say. "You don't have that much power. And I just felt like it was never a friendship, it was always something like I was the token Black kid."
Lester also said he was cutting ties with Dawson for a similar reason, because Lester feels like Dawson promoted him on his platform as a "token Black person" and as a way to earn Lester's silence.
"I was grateful, but I felt like it was kind of to silence me and to say 'We're going to keep giving you bread crumbs and manipulate you and hold you by a string so that you stay quiet and you never speak your truth and talk about that situation in the hotel,'" Lester said. "Now I just want to move on with my life and have peace and not constantly think 'OMG, did I do the right thing? Is this the right move?'"
The day before Lester made his Instagram Live video, he said a member of Star's team reached out to him and asked if Lester knew any Black creators that will support Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Lester says he told the member of Star's team that "in this climate," Lester doesn't know if any "Black beauty boys" will support Star.
"I felt like this continued to be a game," Lester said. "He fake supported me. He talked about how he loved me and it was all superficial love. It was very fake."
Lester said he wasn't trying to "bring Jeffree and Shane down," but he felt like he needed to apologize to the Black beauty community for ignoring what Black creators "have been saying all this time" about Star. Lester also said that Star claimed he would change Lester's career and collaborate with him on a YouTube video, and that never happened.
"I am not saying he is racist, but I do feel that race is involved in it," Lester said. "I benefited him and I benefitted from him, so it was a tic for tac situation, but moving forward I will no longer be the token Black person."
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