If you've spent any time on beauty YouTuber, you know Tati Westbrook, a.k.a. GlamLifeGuru. Her honest reviews, killer work ethic, and sweetly positive personality have made her one of the biggest and most influential personalities in the makeup vlogging space.
But after an extravagant collaboration with Jeffree Star, Tati's in some serious hot water. Her fans are raging — and it just keeps getting worse.
But let's start at the beginning. Tati and Star are relatively new friends, getting close around the time Jeffree broke up with Too Faced Cosmetics. Tati was the first big name to take his side in the feud.
You can relive all the Jeffree versus Jerrod Blandino drama right here.
And this online support quickly turned into a real-life YouTube collaboration — Star announced that he and Tati would be filming a video together.
As I observed at the time, though Tati is a YouTube superstar in her own right, Jeffree is on another level. He has over four million subscribers — being in a video with him can catapult a beauty vlogger straight to the top.
A couple months later, and the day had finally arrived: Jeffree Star posted a video to his channel where he and Tati get ready on a private plane.
That video, posted to Jeffree's channel, didn't raise many eyebrows. Everyone is kinda used to Star collaborating with different people and being really extra.
But the video posted to Tati's channel was a whole other story. Her viewers were FURIOUS that she was collaborating with someone as controversial as Jeffree Star.
Many of the most negative comments centered around the perception that, by working with Star, Tati tacitly approves of some of his more extreme views and negative behaviors.
"You are a reflection of the people you befriend. I thought you were the sweetest, but how can you smile and be so chummy with someone who speaks to other people, regardless of what they have said or are from, in such a derogatory, offensive and intimidating way. Its just disgusting," wrote one fan.
"disappointing… and Tati was one of the faves. EVERYONE should feel loved and accepted for who they are. People need to be more aware of the messages they are sending," wrote another.
"I love you Tati…but when you go so low as to use racial slurs against someone, there is no other side to that. [Jeffree's] apologies were crap, just like your reasoning for collaborating with him. it's so disappointing. Manny and Laura Lee, it was sad watching them join his little gang, but you, it's a whole new level."
Tati told her Snapchat followers that the problem is that not everyone knows the real Jeffree.
"I'm reading these comments, and they're a little crazy. I genuinely wish that people would have the chance that I have had […] to get to know people, and the whole behind the scenes story. Because what you see on Twitter or Snap doesn't always give you the full story."
Her husband even picked up the camera and pleaded for her fans to step in. "Guys. You gotta come help us in the comments. Tati is getting the shit kicked out of her."
There are currently 19,000 comments on Tati and Jeffree's video collab on her channel, with the majority stating disbelief that she'd work with someone like Star. Many of them have now been deleted.
Her audience was so upset that Tati had to make a statement, in the form of a pinned YouTube comment.
"I understand the frustration that some of you are expressing over deleted comments," wrote Tati. "Unfortunately there were few hundred hateful ones that were flagged for moderation (calling me a racist-bitch), a few hundred harassing ones and another few hundred hurtful ones telling me I was cancelled and / or they were unsubbing. 100% of the hateful and harassing comments and most of the ones that said they were unsubbing were deleted and blocked from my channel.
Yes, constructive criticism is welcome, but it becomes nonconstructive pretty fast when thousands of people are saying the same thing. I felt it was the wrong decision to disable the comments entirely, so instead, I took care of myself and said goodbye to everyone that was hurting me.
I don't think that most viewers understand, that with my 5 day per week upload schedule (for almost four years now), YouTube consumes the majority of my life … this is literally my home, and I'm just not okay with people making me feel bad in my home. If you're a positive contributing member of this community, I genuinely hope that you will stay."
This statement from Tati doesn't really address the primary issue her audience is having — that after building her brand as positive, respectful force for good in the YouTube community, she turned around and worked with Jeffree Star.
Jeffree is infamous for his online fights — and more troublingly, has an allegedly pretty serious history of cultural appropriation and racist "jokes." If another YouTuber works with him, yes, that video will get a lot of views… but at what cost to that person's reputation?
For her part, Tati hasn't commented on the J.Star drama any further...
...While Jeffree says he's sick of the "witch hunt" and intends to clear some things up in an honest video.
What will happen to this friendship next? Only time will tell.
Jeffree seems to be spending most of his time right now fighting with fellow YouTuber, Jackie Aina. So truly, who knows.
