If you're out of the loop on what the kids are watching on YouTube these days (well, besides Baby Shark), I am right there with you. When it comes to older tweens and teens who have graduated from mindless unboxing videos and weird musical cartoons, they apparently love getting lost in the lives of social media influencers who share their every waking moment. Stars like Danielle Cohn, a 15-year-old who, according to Buzzfeed, rose to fame on the Musical.y app before it was rolled into TikTok. She's since channeled her fame into burgeoning accounts on Instagram and YouTube, where she's amassed millions of followers. But this week, many of those followers are seriously PO'd over rumors recent videos announcing her marriage and pregnancy may have all been faked.
First came a series of videos on Cohn's YouTube page over the weekend, which showed her "marrying" her boyfriend in Vegas.
Cohn, who has been dating 16-year-old Mikey Tua for just 10 months, posted the videos on April 13, along with the caption, "The Day I Committed to My Best Friend!"
In it, the couple can be seen posing for photos inside what appears to be a Vegas chapel, as friends happily look on.
But in Part 2, as friends are awkwardly interviewed on camera, one teen drops a bit of a bombshell.
"So, if you didn't know," the friend begins, "this dumb guy and that dumb female over there are getting married because they decided to go and get pregnant."
(Aren't teen boys so eloquent?)
Next, they're "married" by an Elvis impersonator (because after all, this is Vegas), and the video ends in a slideshow of images from the day.
But in a follow-up video posted by Tua, the couple filmed themselves heading to their first ultrasound appointment, which raised a few red flags.
"Dani and Mikey claim they are 4 months pregnant," wrote one YouTube user. "But, about 2 weeks ago, their 'Our First Time' video with Dani’s mom was posted. In there, they mentioned they have never done it. Dani also mentioned about a month ago she still had never done it in her 'Reading your Assumptions' video."
Other fans claimed they could read "D.D.S." (AKA the acronym for Doctor of Dental Surgery) on the doctor's office door, and that several other parts of the video felt suspicious. Others claimed that the ultrasound image seen in the video thumbnail could be easily found on Google, and depicts a pregnancy much further along.
But statements made by Cohn's own mother are only serving to fuel public outrage even more.
“It was a YouTube video like most YouTube people do for clickbait,” Jennifer Cohn told Buzzfeed News. “She committed to her best friend in Vegas … legally they can’t get married."
She did not, however, comment on whether the pregnancy news was real.
Cohn, who reportedly manages her daughter's career and social media pages, may not see what all the fuss is about, but considering the teens have millions of followers and both videos are monetized by paid ads, it's hard for fans not to see it all as one big money-making scheme.
"If this is a prank, it’s so disrespectful for the women out there who cannot have kids," wrote one YouTube user in the comments. "So hurtful, disrespectful, and just plain up terrible."
Others criticized both teens for being poor role models, and called upon others to unsubscribe from their channel.
For now, only time will tell if the YouTubers' videos are for real or if fans' suspicions will be proven right.
