Beauty YouTubers are surfacing again after their pandemic-era cancellations — but the influencer landscape has changed so much since that it doesn't really matter
- James Charles is staging a comeback with a new makeup line after getting "canceled" in 2021.
- Controversial beauty mogul Jeffree Star just opened a makeup and meat store in Wyoming.
Some of the biggest names from beauty YouTube's halcyon days are reemerging after pandemic-era "cancellations," — but whether or not their reputation is salvageable isn't of much consequence — the era is over regardless.
Twenty-four-year-old James Charles, previously one of beauty YouTube's biggest names and one of the first young influencers to begin to cross over into the realm of traditional celebrity, recently sat with Cosmopolitan to address his cancellation and attempt a comeback.
Back in 2021, a 16-year-old fan accused Charles of sending nude photos and sexual messages to him. Charles denied allegations of "grooming," saying that the fan had told him that he was 18 years old. The fallout and further allegations led to his YouTube demonetizing his channel and the loss of brand partnerships.
"I don't want to sit here and fucking mope and whine and cry, because nobody wants to hear it," Charles told the outlet. "I had to do a lot of thinking. Like, Okay, babe, this is your fault. No, you're not a pedophile. No, you're not a fucking groomer. No, you're not a predator. But you made a big mistake."
Jeffree Star, one of Charles' beauty YouTube predecessors, also quietly staged a comeback of his own this month. In 2020, Star all but disappeared, moving to Caspar, Wyoming, to breed yaks after multiple sources accused him of sexual assault and physical violence (through his attorney he denied the allegations). But on Friday, he opened his combination makeup and yak meat store in Caspar.
Charles and Star have had their fair share of rebounds over the course of their careers — in fact, at one point, Charles seemed to have recovered from being "canceled" (separate from the 2021 allegations) to transcend Star's popularity, a 2020 Insider analysis showed. And even given their current tenuous popularity, they still manage to garner invites to major movie premieres and events.
But the game is different now. TikTok has ushered in a new class of influencer royalty, for one. But the 2020s have brought about successive reckonings with the legacies of YouTube's old guard, including stars like Shane Dawson, David Dobrik, and most recently, Colleen Ballinger. The bombastic feuds and drama that ballasted beauty YouTube's cultural relevance just a few years ago, don't happen anymore, and aren't appealing to younger audiences.
YouTube itself isn't dead — creators still embrace the platform and make plenty of money. But just as public judgment of stars like Charles or Star may have passed, so has the moment that built them.