Belle Delphine is a pink-wigged 19-year-old cosplayer, gamer, and social media star who
made headlines by selling her used bathwater to her fans online.
Who is she, really?
Did this so-called "gamer girl bathwater" really make people sick?
What does this all mean?!
This is the untold truth of Belle Delphine.
"Let's begin!"
The bathwater business
Selling "gamer girl bathwater" to "thirsty gamer boys" on the internet is bizarre, but
Delphine didn't hatch the plan entirely on her own.
She was inspired by her followers.
In an interview with Newsweek, the Instagram star, called perhaps "The Greatest Troll on
the Internet" by Rolling Stone, admitted she came up with the idea after her fans kept
commenting on her photos, claiming they wanted to drink her bath water.
Delphine said,
"I wondered if I actually were to take the joke seriously and sell my bathwater if there
would be people out there that would buy it.
I sold around 500 units, far more than I expected, and I had to rebuy containers as I didn't
have enough!
And I was very surprised at the huge response I got, I didn't think my bathwater would get
this much attention."
At $30 a pop, the self-proclaimed "weird elf kitty girl" made around $15,000.
Some YouTubers who supposedly purchased the bathwater drank it on camera - one guy claims
he even made make mac and cheese and instant ramen with it.
Delphine's stunt went viral in more ways than one.
Shortly after it made headlines, dirty rumors surfaced claiming the bath water gave more
than 50 people herpes.
According to Snopes, the whole STD story turned out to be a hoax launched by a fake Daily
Mail Twitter account.
Delphine herself also personally refuted the herpes claims on Instagram...
Who is she?
The online influencer who tacked googly eyes onto a dead octopus and called it her best
friend rarely dives into her origin story, but she did reveal a little about her background
in an Instagram post in February 2019.
She claimed she was born in South Africa with a dislocated hip that required extensive surgery.
Luckily, the surgeries worked, and now, at age 19, she can even fit into a mini-fridge.
According to popular YouTube celebrity profile series Before They Were Famous, Delphine's
real name is Belle Kirshner.
She moved to the U.K. when she was 9 years old and revealed that she feels like she's
lived two lives from growing up on two continents.
In South Africa, she spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the gorgeous mountains and beaches.
In the U.K., she discovered the internet and everyone knows how that went.
Delphine had a difficult time during her early teen and pre-teen years.
She kept switching schools, then eventually dropped out at age 14.
By the time she was 15, she had reportedly moved out of her parents' house into a so-called
"shared home" where she spent a year.
Delphine has been a hustler from an early age.
She claims to have worked since she was 13, holding down a number of odd jobs.
According to Before They Were Famous, the star was a waitress and worked at a coffee
shop.
When she was 17, she spent six months babysitting.
The teen eventually raised enough money to get a camper van and travel through France
for a month.
Now, the bath water mogul probably has enough cash to in the very least upgrade to a luxury
bus.
Following the influencer formula
Belle Delphine launched her career on the internet just like many a social media star,
posting selfies on Facebook and Instagram.
In 2016, she launched her YouTube channel with a makeup tutorial.
It's a go-to move for aspiring influencers but as of the making of this video, she's
only posted three videos on that channel, despite amassing nearly half a million subscribers.
Around this time, Delphine exploded on Tik Tok, which is what really made her internet-famous.
For some mysterious reason, she eventually got banned from the platform, but not before
she garnered millions of views across her unique posts and various compilation videos.
According to Rolling Stone, she managed to monetize her fame when she launched a Patreon
in 2018.
As of the making of this video, she has more than 4,280 patrons who each pay between $1
and $2,500 per month for various prizes, such as access to her private Snapchat account,
which she claims is her, quote, "naughtiest" social media platform.
What does this all mean?
So what's Delphine's deal, really?
Well, as for her cringeworthy, performance art-like stunts, tech writer Lux Alptraum
tells Rolling Stone,
"It feels like a really fascinating commentary on what it means to be a woman on the internet
and how you manufacture an audience, and what is and isn’t rewarded.
She’s saying, ‘I’m gonna be a sexual commodity, but I’m not gonna deliver on
that."
YouTuber Vito Gesualdi, who pretended to vape Delphine's bath water in one video, sums it
up to Rolling Stone like this:
"It’s clear Belle Delphine is playing a character: the empty-headed gamer girl ditz
who floats around spreading love and magic wherever she goes.
And she’s incredibly good at playing that character, because most people seem to have
fallen for it almost completely."
What's it all worth?
According to Rolling Stone, Delphine has caused a, quote, "significant amount of controversy"
among those who work in the adult entertainment industry, because she's profiting off of their
marketing tactics, but distancing herself from adult content creators.
It's not rare for adult entertainers to sell bath water or bodily fluids, for example,
but Delphine is the one who's going viral for the stunt.
She's also been accused of ripping off adult entertainers and appropriating Japanese culture.
Regardless of what ideas Delphine has or has not co-opted, we can all agree that she's
made a killing.
At a minimum, she receives around $50,000 a year via her Patreon alone and that's if
everyone who subscribes pledges just $1.
Considering Patreon users spend an average of $12 per month according to Vox, this bathing
beauty with a fixation on raw eggs could be on her way to making upwards of $500,000 per
year.
Whatever you think of Delphine's persona, the lesson is clear: Don't throw out the baby
or the bathwater.
That bathwater might be worth something.
"Bye!"
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