Shane Dawson has figured out how to survive and thrive on YouTube, despite stardom on
the platform being a rather fleeting thing.
But this veteran YouTuber hasn't always been on the right side of the headlines.
This is the untold truth of Shane Dawson.
When he was first starting out, Dawson was told not to go by his real name if he ever
wanted to make it in the entertainment industry.
Speaking to AOL, the YouTube legend revealed that a former agent advised that he drop his,
quote, "awful" name in favor of something a little easier on the ears.
Dawson explained,
"My real name is Shane Yaw.
[My] agent at the time said no one would want to see me because my name was awful, so I
changed it, but it helped me create this other person."
Having this "other person" allowed him to deal with the darker side of internet fame.
The creator explained that keeping the Dawson and Yaw sides of him separate meant he could
redirect the abuse he would receive, some of which got very personal.
He said,
"When I get a bunch of hate comments, or people telling me, 'Kill yourself!' or 'You're ugly!'
or 'You're fat!' or this and that, I don't really process it because that's for Shane
Dawson, that's not me."
But why Dawson?
While many fans seem to believe that it stems from a love for Leonardo DiCaprio's Titanic
character Jack Dawson, he reportedly confirmed on his podcast that he actually chose the
name because he was a huge fan of the show Dawson's Creek.
At the age of 18, Dawson lost a significant amount of weight with the help of the Jenny
Craig program, and, before long, he made the transition from client to employee.
He told Forbes,
"I needed a job, so I started working there and quickly got promoted and became a manager."
However, Dawson's relationship with the company soured after he used it as part of the setup
for one of his outrageous sketches.
The YouTuber apparently found the fact that Valerie Bertinelli was the brand's spokesperson
pretty funny, considering her colorful past.
Dawson imagined a scenario in which he was trying to sell the Jenny Craig diet to a bunch
of elderly clients using passages from the actress' tell-all book.
He explained,
"She talked about sex and drugs a ton in the book, so then I was like, 'I want to do a
video of me forcing my 80-year-old clients to read filthy passages from this book.
So I did that.
I don't think she liked it, I don't think Jenny Craig liked it."
Dawson joked about getting fired from Jenny Craig when he talked to Forbes in 2017, but,
at the time, it was no laughing matter.
It wasn't only Dawson who lost his job a total of six people, his mom and brother included
were let go because of his Valerie Bertinelli sketch.
He recalled,
"It was dark.
I don't like to throw around the 'thingies' word around lightly.
But yeah.
It was that."
Dawson has made a number of videos on the topic of stuff over the years, but one of
his more memorable ones is 2013's "Dear Teens."
He made the video after news of Paris Jackson's attempt on her own life broke, imploring his
younger viewers to never consider taking such a path.
He revealed that he had a horrible childhood and that bad stuff is a road he's considered
going down multiple times.
"As many times as I thought to myself, 'Maybe I should end it,' I didn't.
Because I knew that, 'You know what, it sucks right now, but I'm gonna make it f------ better.'"
The reaction to the video was overwhelmingly positive, with the message apparently getting
through to many of his fans.
He tweeted,
"So happy my video about that helped some of you.
You guys mean a lot to me and I'm here for you.
Consider me your creepy big brother."
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call or chat online with
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Dawson has taken aim at fangirl culture in a number of his videos, but there was one
in particular that many of his subscribers really didn't appreciate.
During one of his Halloween-themed sketches, a One Direction fangirl uses a knife to carve
the name "Mrs. Styles" into her arm, and that scene apparently triggered some members of
the YouTuber's audience.
Dawson took to Twitter to address the backlash, appearing to blame the offended people for
not understanding the gag.
He said,
"The joke in my vid you guys are freaking out about isn't about 'cutting,' it's a joke
about obsessed fan girls.
Sorry some of you missed that."
Unsurprisingly, that wasn't enough for many of Dawson's fans.
A few days later, he uploaded a video titled "Depression & Cunning" onto his channel, and
he attempted to explain how he hadn't actually been making fun of cutting like people were
saying.
"If I was, she'd be crying and stuff, whereas she was excited and she was carving — giving
herself a homemade f------ tattoo of Harry Styles."
He went on to explain that the way that he chooses to deal with difficult things in life
is through comedy.
For a while, Dawson recorded videos of himself eating new foods.
He would pig out on everything from Panda Express to prison food, with the views usually
hitting the millions.
They were big earners for Dawson, but, one day, he just stopped making them.
When a fan asked him about his lack of foodie vids in December 2017, the YouTuber revealed
that performing food challenges was having an effect on his mental health.
He tweeted,
"Honestly, it triggered my eating disorder issues and bulimia and I wanted to stop having
so much food around."
Dawson spoke about his eating disorder in more detail back in 2014.
"I have pretty severe case of body dysmorphia"
The YouTuber explained that he had to have fifteen pounds of excess skin removed after
he lost weight quickly, leaving him unable to move.
"I was left with a lot of scars, and I couldn't move for about a month and a half.
Because if I moved, the doctor said my body could split open."
He went on to explain that he gained back around 25 pounds, which sent him into a depression.
Dawson's weight has been up and down in the years since, but we're happy to say that he
looked in good health in his first big project of 2019, "Conspiracy Theories with Shane Dawson."
In January 2018, YouTuber Logan Paul was facing a torrent of criticism from both the YouTube
community and mainstream media for his now-infamous Suicide Forest video.
While all that was going on, Dawson became embroiled in a controversy of his own.
He was accused of being a pedophile by a since-terminated YouTube channel called Pop Blast, which claimed
to have proof, as reported by NME.
This so-called proof was an audio recording of some jokes that Dawson had made on his
podcast six years earlier jokes that were in very bad taste.
The shady Pop Blast channel was shut down by YouTube, but not before the owner uploaded
what they claimed were receipts that proved Logan Paul's manager had paid for their video
about Dawson to be made, according to Metro.
Dawson later said in a tweet, in part,
"I don't believe Logan's people had anything to do with it.
It seems almost scripted.
It's all very fascinating.
Gotta love the internet!"
Just like he's always done whenever he oversteps the mark, Dawson took to YouTube to address
everything head on.
His video titled "Regarding the rumors about me today," was a little more passionate than
your regular apology video, with the visibly rattled content creator clearly angry that
the jokes had, in his opinion, been taken out of context.
"I cannot believe that I am having to make this video, I cannot believe that this is
happening."
Dawson went on to firmly deny the allegations Pop Blast had made.
"I am sorry that I used to make really s----- f------ jokes."
In 2014, British prankster Sam Pepper was caught up in a firestorm of hate after he
released a video in which he pinched the bottoms of unsuspecting women on the street, as reported
by the BBC.
The YouTube community came down on him hard, and Pepper was reportedly told he was no longer
welcome at VidCon.
But some YouTubers noticed what they perceived to be double standards.
YouTuber and blogger Franchesca Ramsey pointed out that, while Pepper was being thrown under
the bus for alleged sexist behavior, Shane Dawson had been getting away with racist content
for years.
Dawson has used "blackface" comedy in his videos on multiple occasions, including during
what The Washington Post described as an "uncomfortable segment" at VidCon 2012.
The YouTuber reportedly invited teenage girls to join him onstage for what he dubbed "ghetto
pranks," which reportedly included "booty dances" and tasteless jokes about chicken.
Ramsey said,
"Sam was banned from Vidcon over ONE video.
Shane has done his modern day minstrel show act AT VIDCON and faced no repercussions.
It'd be nice if he'd acknowledge why these thing are problematic, apologize to his audience
and stop doing them."
Ramsey was reportedly subjected to racist language and even death threats after calling
Dawson out, with one person even threatening to call her job to try and get her fired.
They have said all different types of things about my appearance, compared me to Hitler,
compared me to plantation owners, told me I should kill myself."
Ramsey asked Dawson to apologize for his racially insensitive content and he did just that,
but not everyone was convinced that his apology was genuine.
"First of all, I'm not racist,"
"This video is me apologizing, because I understand why some people think that."
He went on to admit that he actually didn't really know what blackface was.
"I knew the term, but I didn't quite know any of the historical background — any of
that."
After doing his research, the YouTuber admitted that wearing black makeup for the purposes
of comedy was, quote, "cruel and horrible," and he claimed to be heartbroken after reading
all the tweets and blog posts about him.
However, not everyone was buying it.
A Bustle article criticized the apology, saying,
"His 11-minute diatribe reads as a thinly-veiled attempt to look like the good guy, and doesn't
own up to what made his video racist in the first place.
[...] Meh, sorry Shane."
Dawson was at a low ebb following the backlash he'd faced in early 2018, but, by the end
of that year, he was back on top, thanks to an all new video format.
Dawson began making documentaries about fellow YouTubers, and the feedback was overwhelmingly
positive.
Following the release of his series on YouTube beauty guru Jeffree Star, Polygon said,
"Shane Dawson's new series of investigative documentaries has become YouTube's Game of
Thrones: appointment television for more than a billion people."
Dawson followed that up with a docu-series about controversial YouTube star Jake Paul,
the first installment of which was viewed by 500,000 people in less than an hour, according
to TubeFilter.
As of February 2019, "The Mind of Jake Paul" has been watched more than 24 million times,
but many commentators have found it to be deeply flawed.
The Verge took issue with Dawson's attempts to diagnose Paul as a sociopath, saying,
"On a platform like YouTube, mental health stigma is primed to spread faster and more
dangerously."
The publication also criticized Dawson for not pushing Paul hard enough about his racism
scandal.
In 2017, Spanish YouTubers Ivan and Emilio Martinez claimed that they left Paul's influencer
group Team 10 because he would make fun of their heritage and use racist language, which,
as noted by The Verge, was something Dawson failed to properly address.
Still despite all the controversies, Dawson continues to create new content.
It will be interesting to see what the future brings.
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