YouTube superstar Bunny Meyer, better known as Grav3yardgirl, hit the vlogging scene seven years ago and quickly built a cult following thanks to videos catering to the quirky, cool, goth teens of the world. Her channel had ouija boards, ghost stories, shopping hauls, you name it. Plus, her personality was/is entertaining AF.
But despite an 8-million-subscriber-strong empire, Meyer's channel threatened to head straight to, well, the digital graveyard. Where she used to command tens of millions of views on a single video, her uploads over the last year rarely eclipsed 500,000 and even plummeted as low as 150,000 views. People noticed the drop off — and her fallen channel became the butt of cruel internet jokes.
Fellow YouTuber Shane Dawson hopped on a mission to help Grav3yardgirl revive her dying channel and uncovered the REAL reason behind her heartbreaking disconnect with fans.
Once viewed as one of the most successful creators on the platform, Meyer suddenly joined salacious lists about the most boring, unsuccessful, and newly irrelevant channels on YouTube.
Her channel landed on lists with titles such as "Who Is The Most Boring YouTuber," "10 YouTubers Who Are Dying," and "5 YouTubers That Lost Their Fame."
Shane Dawson and his team took a trip to Meyer's home to help her out and discovered she has A LOT to hide. For starters, she was terrified to even show the entrance to her home.
"We were asked not to film in [or around] her house," Dawson shared in Part 1 of the vlog. "We were asked not to film the downstairs area specifically. It felt like she was hiding something but I wanted to be respectful. But I knew later I would have to get to the bottom of it.
I could tell she was nervous and panicking about doing the video. I asked if we could talk without cameras so we could get to know each other. I found out why she was so secretive and nervous. I realized this series was going to get more real than I expected."
After some probing from Dawson, Meyer revealed it isn't dead bodies she's hiding in her home. She's just hesitant to reveal evidence of her financial success for fear of backlash. Exhibit A: this treasure chest of a closet.
This closet is freaking GOALS — but Meyer believed showing off a closet full of diamond Gucci slides, elaborate chandeliers, and a floor-to-ceiling mirror would look too bragadocious.
To Meyer's credit, a number of YouTubers such as Jaclyn Hill, Jeffree Star, and even Jackie Aina have been accused of becoming materialistic after achieving success. Hill specifically was dragged to high hell for posting a closet tour video. Such a reaction can understandably scare people away from wanting to share more.
"I just don't want people to think that I'm unaware of the privileges that I have and I don't want to come across as bragging," Meyer revealed. "I know that rubs some people the wrong way. There's an on- and off-camera me because I don't want people to think that I'm an asshole… I don't want to flex on YouTube. [But] I love watching other people do it."
More importantly, Meyer is afraid to truly enjoy the things she's earned during her YouTube career in case she loses it all.
"Did you come into money or did you do this all yourself?" Dawson's friend and fellow YouTuber Garrett Watts asked her.
Meyer responded, "No, I did all this myself. I'm scared if I ever admit it, it's going to go away. I'm scared that I just said that statement and now it's going to become real. I feel like the moment I enjoy anything that I have, it's gonna die."
Meyer also got real about days where she doesn't feel as confident as her followers know her to be.
"It’s almost like there’s two people. There’s one person that feels so bad about myself. Like, 'You let everybody down. You stopped being fun.' At the same time, I’ve been so broken myself," Meyer shared.
“I’ve been in a really dark place and I don’t even like getting dressed in all these cool, funky outfits like I used to. Like, I’ve been feeling so bad about myself."
Dawson clarified the issue with Meyer's channel: Her confusion over the YouTube algorithm paired with her personal struggles was the ultimate recipe for the decline of her channel.
Caps only headlines, "As Seen on TV" labels, and Meyer's signature "surprise" face filled up the video thumbnails on her channel — all images that register as click-bait to YouTube. Thus, YouTube naturally pushed her content farther from the views of her followers and the general public.
Meanwhile, she shied away from the *real* content her fans would have gobbled up — for instance, tours of her closet, her in-home arcade, and the chic convertible she bought after a lifetime of wanting one.
After spending time with Dawson, Meyer seems ready to bless her longtime fans with the REAL her, and it looks like it's already paying off.
In a video titled, "Why I've Been Lying About My Life," she promises to share more with her viewers.
"I need to get over it and not keep watering down my personality so much because I'm scared to share so many things with you guys," she shared.
In her following video titled "Why I'm So Scared (being myself and crying too much)," Meyer shows more of her vulnerable side. Both videos have over 3 million views — a HUGE jump from views she accrued just one week ago.
And there you have it! Grav3yardgirl is BACK like she never even left.
And this time, she's determined to be her quirky, cool, and SUCCESSFUL self, haters be damned.
