**There will be sensitive content discussed in this article for some readers.**
Within the past few months, several problematic events have happened involving celebrities. It has involved sexual harassment, rape, lying or people playing the victim. There have also been events that aren’t problematic; they’re just out of the ordinary and have been the “elephant in the room.”
1. David Dobrik, Dominykas Zeglaitis and Most of the Vlog Squad Face Rape Allegations
Vlog Squad is a known YouTube group that posts different videos on their channels. The squad consists of roughly ten men and women and others who have since left the group. David Dobrik, one of the group members, is known for his four-minute and 20-second videos, pranks, surprises and Tesla giveaways. His videos are typically inappropriate for a younger group of viewers as there are many sexual sayings, which has led to a problematic view of Dobrik and the other members.
On March 25, an article on Insider’s page had described the allegations that a woman who appeared in one of the vlogs in 2018 mentioned group sex with some squad members. The woman said she was raped by Vlog Squad member Dominykas Zeglaitis (Durte Dom).
After the allegations came out and people started giving the members backlash and hate about this, Dobrik’s three YouTube Channels were suspended. Dobrik posted an apology on his main channel on March 22. Most of the members have spoken about the allegations and have decided to distance themselves. Zeglaitis has avoided the allegations, until recently he posted his apology on April 17 on his Instagram story. He is now private on his Instagram account.
Dobrik has lost his sponsors after this, including Honey, Doordash, Hello Fresh and his most known sponsor, Seat Geek, which has helped him get the cars for his friends.
2. James Charles Alleged Sexual Harassment and Pedophilia
James Charles is a known beauty YouTuber who has multiple videos of makeup tutorials and collaborations with celebrities like Kylie Jenner. He is also known for his problematic actions, which there have been a few. About two years ago, Charles made a video about promoting SugarBearHair. That led to beauty YouTuber Tati Westbrook being upset and making a video on how she felt upset. She has her own hair vitamins brand and she then felt betrayed because they were close friends. After this video came out, Charles received A LOT of backlash, and people who owned his makeup palette threw it out or destroyed it.
Recently, and really for a while, Charles has been accused of sexual harassment and pedophilia towards younger men. In October 2018, he commented under Shawn Mendes’ Instagram, “Can you juggle me like that?” and no one was happy with his sexual comment. In 2019, Westbrook said that Charles had sexually manipulated and used his fame against those who refused his sexual advances. Gage Gomez, a 20-year-old (now 22) Instagram model, claimed Charles pressured him into a sexual situation. Coming back to now, Charles started the new year off by receiving backlash after defending two TikTok stars that were accused of grooming underage boys.
In February, a 16-year-old boy claimed that Charles had groomed him and pressured him to exchange sexual photos on Snapchat. Charles did speak out against the allegations and said that he was unaware of the boy’s age. After this altercation, Charles continued his life like it was all normal. As the plot thickens, three more boys came forward and shared their inappropriate interactions with Charles. Screenshots were shared by a 17-year-old where it showed Charles continued to flirt even after knowing the boy’s age. A 15-year-old boy then used TikTok to share screenshots with Charles, who then blocked and accused him of lying after he was charged with this sexual allegation.
In April, Charles posted an apology video on his YouTube channel. He gave his “reasoning” on why it happened and apologized to the boys who came forward. You can watch it on his channel.
In March, Charles was fired from hosting “Instant Influencer”- a YouTube competition. He was then suspended by Morphe from his Morphe X James Collection. YouTube recently temporarily demonetized James Charles’s channel.
These two events have happened over the past few months, and it seems some of it will continue as more people may come forward. With Sexual Assault Awareness Month over, it was time to hear more information about these two “influencers” and keep them off our timelines.
Now to ease the craziness of the two events, here is some not-so-heavy news.
1. Taylor Swift’s New Album Fearless
Taylor Swift posted on her Instagram on April 3 with the songs on her new album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” with Keith Urban.
2. Selena Gomez AND Billie Eilish have Blonde Hair Now
Who doesn’t love a new look? They both look GOOD!
3. The Hype House is Getting a Show on Netflix
The Hype House is a group of boys and girls that live together and make TikToks.
Now don’t get me wrong, shows and movies that were on Netflix were removed because of this. People on social media say that not to watch it and dislike the show to lower its rating, so Netflix can remove it.
4. New Bachelorettes
Even though the controversy that ABC’s Bachelor franchise held during the previous Bachelor season, they announced that there would be two bachelorettes this year, starting with Katie Thurston in the summer and Michelle Young in the fall.
5. Kim and Kayne’s Marriage is Over
It’s sad, and it may make you question what love is —just joking. I’m not surprised, especially after what all went down a year ago.
6. Zac Efron has a new face.
A photo of Zac Efron’s face has been talked about for the past few days because he looks a little different after getting surgery. The images had people mock his new appearance by comparing him to Squidward when he had that manly face, Shrek when he was a human and Thanos. In 2019, he had a near-death accident after developing a deadly infection when he was filming his new show in Papua New Guinea. He also suffered from a jaw injury in 2013.
The fact that we’re not even halfway through the new year and there have been so many controversies, canceled people, new songs and new hair has been shocking to read. Let’s hope nothing gets worse as we continue down the road of 2021.