- ♪ The mirror is a lie ♪ ♪ Numbers... ♪
- This is really deep.
- I love things with the express purpose
of starting a conversation.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- ♪ Mirror mirror on the wall ♪ ♪ Yeah, tunnel vision on the flaws ♪
- Oh, this is Boyinaband.
- Oh my god. I love this guy.
- Hey, I remember that guy, man, with the hair.
That was, like, the first one I reacted to.
- He did this video about what is school good for.
- ♪ Tried hard to correct it ♪ ♪ But nothing was effective ♪
- Oh, this was the song that Boyinaband
and Jaiden Animations did.
- ♪ Until the voice crept in ♪ ♪ "I can help you" ♪
♪ "Trust me" ♪
♪ "You're ready" ♪ - Oh my gosh.
- ♪ "The secret is to just be empty" ♪
- Be empty. - ♪ "Empty" ♪
- Ohh, let's not do that.
- ♪ First, it was working ♪ ♪ But then things were emerging ♪
♪ Cracked lips and tired eyes ♪
- Oh, is the girl Jaiden Animations?
- ♪ And I tell myself it's fine ♪ - We talking an eating disorder?
- To me, this seems like it's about an eating disorder.
- Oh. Is it anorexia?
- ♪ Need to be empty ♪ ♪ Hide from anybody
who will prevent me ♪ - Oh my god.
- ♪ No, I'm not hungry ♪ - Oh, that's terrible.
- ♪ I developed a taste for this ♪ ♪ Endure the never-ending ache ♪
- Wow. - It kind of just puts you
in her shoes and what she was feeling
during this whole time.
- ♪ Inside it's em-em-em-empty ♪ - His stuff is always so good.
It always has a message to it, and the music
is always really good, too.
- ♪ Can't trust my own nature ♪ ♪ Every calorie a failure ♪
♪ Gotta push the intake down every day ♪
♪ ‘Cause the voice comes back to say ♪
- I know guys have a problem with that too, not just women.
- ♪ ...so overwhelming ♪ ♪ And I hope no one can tell ♪
- It's a cool collaboration that kind of mixes
both of their talents.
- ♪ The mirror is a lie ♪ ♪ Numbers... ♪
- This is really deep.
- I think we all go through that, where it's like weight
is one of those things that we're really concerned about.
- ♪ Fine, I admit I'm addicted ♪ ♪ But the hunger feels good ♪
♪ How do I quit this? ♪ - This is hard to listen to.
- It's trying to help people, you know?
You could tell.
- I love things with the express purpose
of starting a conversation. - ♪ If you ask for help,
it doesn't make you weak ♪ - Nice.
- See? That's really good.
"If you ask for help, it doesn't make you weak."
- It seems like this is applicable to mental illness in general.
- See? And then that ending part.
Now it's about the healing.
- All I wanna do is just hug this girl in the video, honestly.
Like, I just wanna let her know, "It's okay."
- Thank you for solutions. Thank you, thank you.
- Aww.
Jaiden!
- Wow. That was really powerful.
- It is absolutely important.
I can tell from my own personal experience,
'cause my daughter passed through an eating disorder herself.
And messages like this are very important.
- "Asking for help doesn't make you weak."
If that is the line presented in this environment
that makes one girl go, "Hey, asking for help
doesn't make me weak," and is able to go get the help
that's needed, then this video did everything it needed to do.
- From watching her videos, for a while,
she wouldn't even show her face, 'cause it was mostly just animations.
Now, she's able to do a full on music video,
where not only is she showing her face, but she's singing,
and she was able to create this song with Boyinaband?
It's really cool to see her here.
- (FBE) Before we get into questions, we're gonna show you
a short behind-the-scenes clip of how this all came together.
- Cool. - (Dave) This is Jaiden.
She's an animator. - I thought it was Jaiden Animations!
- I know who Jaiden is. I didn't realize
that's what she looked like.
- (Dave) Until recently, she didn't show her face
on the internet. In her face reveal video,
she explained why... - Yeah, we watched that.
- (Jaiden) I would go the entire day eating as close to nothing
as possible, then eating a bunch at the end
to stop the pain... - Wow.
- (Jaiden) ...followed by erasing it.
This whole awful cycle went on for several months.
- Ah. - (Jaiden) This isn't as simple
as just getting thinner. - Accurate.
- (Dave) She struggled with anorexia and bulimia,
both eating disorders, and that video really hit me
for two reasons. Firstly, because I know
eating disorders are the most deadly mental disorders...
- It's awful, 'cause not only is it just the mental disorder of it,
but the fact that society just favors smaller people.
- (Dave) I would often turn to music as a kind of coping mechanism.
So, I DMed Jaiden and asked her if she wanted to make a song together
on this issue... - Okay, so that's how they met up.
- (Jaiden) It's, like, the visual thing... - (Dave) Oh, interesting.
- (Jaiden) ...of body dismorphia. This is my thigh.
- (Dave) Yeah. - (Jaiden) And then it's actually
this much, so... - Wow.
- Ohh. So kind of how you see yourself
versus how you actually are.
- (Jaiden) I see myself as this, and then the rest of the world...
- Look at that. Jeez Louise.
- (Jaiden) It's more real than I thought it would be.
- This is fascinating. - (Dave) What was your mind
back then? If you had to describe it. - (Jaiden) It was a lot more toxic
than I thought it was. You're in the problem,
and then people around can see it. - That's the exact message.
- (Jaiden) I was like, I'm sick of doing this.
I'm tired. I don't feel good ever. I'm not happy.
- This can definitely give other people hope.
- (Jaiden) I wanna not do this. I wanna be normal again
and not worry about it. - That's cool. Good for you.
- I've been following her for a while on YouTube, though.
She makes me laugh. I find her stuff very interesting.
It makes me sad. I didn't realize
that she was struggling with that.
- For someone that's gone through that myself,
it really kind of takes me back to that time when I was unhappy
with myself about my body image. People can smile and say
that everything's okay and stuff and whatnot,
but then it can really affect you.
- It's such a cool collaboration,
'cause I've seen Boyinaband's past videos.
I've always thought he was super talented.
And Jaiden Animations, her videos are fantastic.
She puts so much effort into them. So, seeing these two
absolutely creative people work together like this
on a more serious music video is so cool.
- (FBE) So, that was "Empty" by Jaiden Animations and Dave,
also known as Boyinaband.
- Okay. Never heard of them.
- I actually got introduced to him here,
and then I went back and I started googling his work.
And I'm like, "Oh my god. He's such a pretty talented artist."
- (FBE) What type of feelings come up after hearing and seeing
the music video for this?
- It makes me sad to know that someone
whose work I really enjoy is suffering or going through that.
- This is a very important message. I hope this reaches people
that need to be reached.
- The video shows understanding the pain of it
and then also showing the solution of how to come out of it
and what you can do tangibly to help yourself.
- I feel inspired, because... I mean, even if we're not all dealing
with, you know, an eating disorder, we all go through something.
We all can be vocal about whatever struggles
we're going through to let other people know
that, you know, they're not alone.
- My daughter herself passed through the same kind of problem.
She started, you know, talking to people
who had similar problems, and some of them were actually one
of, you know, her best friends. And by talking and by reflecting,
you can turn things around.
- I know a lot of campaigns are trying to get better
with body movements and things like that,
plus-sized models. But, I mean, we still can't help
but see that society is still favoring thinner people,
skinnier people, so it's almost like this feeling.
Like, even I've thought about it. I'm probably what? Like 110 pounds?
And there have been moments where I'm like, "Okay,
I have a little bit too much fat on my stomach."
It's good that Jaiden Animations started talking about this,
'cause it sort of prevents people from going down that road.
- (FBE) So, as you heard, Jaiden struggled to reveal
her face for a period of time, in part due to her self-image issues
in her life. For you all personally,
you come here and put your opinions as well as your image out to the world
in a very public way. Do you ever find yourself
having similar feelings on this show?
- Well, it's hard being out there. You're gonna get some, you know,
reactions, you know, positive, negative, whatever.
You know, it is what it is.
You get a little nervous, but you just go for it.
- When you first end up on React and stuff like that,
at first, it's excitement of, like, holy [bleep],
I get to be part of FBE and on React and things like that.
And then you read the comments, and, of course, there's always people
that don't like what you're saying.
- It's an honor and a privilege to do this.
For me to be able to just voice my opinion
and then have so many people in the world watching
that kind of have the same mindset as me,
it's like, okay, you know, maybe I can be a voice
for some people that aren't able to say these things.
But then sometimes, it's kind of scary,
'cause it's like, if you say things on there
that people don't agree with or that people are like,
"Oh no. Why would he say something like that?"
then it kind of comes back. It's happened, where people
come up to me, and they're like, "I don't agree with anything
that you said," blah, blah, blah, this and that.
"It must suck to have a bad opinion."
And it's like, hmm. You know, so it's kind of like--
it's tough to deal with it sometimes.
- I have struggled so much with my own self-image
and self-confidence that it's really only been maybe the past two years
where getting comments like, "Oh, you're so fat,"
or whatever doesn't affect me as much as it used to.
When I'm coming in to record, I make sure, for the most part,
that I'm wearing stuff that flatters,
that makes me look thinner, so I don't get as many comments
about, like, "You're so fat," or whatever.
And it's a whole thing of trying to not let that affect me.
Love out to everyone trying.
It's a battle, but know it gets better.
And you'll feel every day that you feel better
about yourself, it's a win.
- I grew up being called the N word by white people.
And so, from an early age, I really had to learn
how to know exactly who I was.
This is a fun, you know, thing. This is awesome.
If anything I can say to help someone,
connecting, or understanding where they're coming from, cool.
But all the trolls and all that kind of stuff, psht.
That ain't nobody. I don't have time for all that.
- There's always gonna be, you know, one comment you read,
and you're like, "Ah." Like, "That gets to me."
And it's gonna kind of make you feel worse,
and it's gonna ruin your day a little bit.
So, if you've been through something that they may be also going through,
it's important to share your perspective,
because you were there, and you should try
to be the person you needed.
- (FBE) So finally, obviously, we all go through
our various hardships and struggles,
and we all cope with it in different ways.
What do you think that Jaiden and Dave are trying to do
with their platform like this? - They are reaching out for teens,
for youth, who think that they are alone.
- Going on the internet can be a great coping mechanism,
and I think that they're trying to reach people in that way,
and, again, let them know that they're not alone,
and they can seek help.
- (FBE) For the two of them to go public with it,
it helps bring healing for people, and for her specifically,
I think, because she's able to be on camera and talk about it.
- People, you know, they feel alone.
They feel like they're the only people going through it.
The world can just close in.
But when you have a shining light, that's like, "No,
I'm going through the same thing," then that's just gonna help.
- It's so critical to have a tribe around you.
You have to have somebody that you know is gonna help you
get to the top of this mountain that we call life.
Being vulnerable is scary as [bleep]. It's scary, but it's also one
of the bravest things that you can do.
- When we have an issue, we don't wanna be a burden
on somebody else, or we don't wanna feel like,
"Oh, okay, my problem's not important enough
for you to really be concerned about, so I'll try to do it all on my own."
Just to have somebody else there so that you know
that you're not alone going through this
makes it so much easier to deal with.
- One of the biggest problems is not communicating
and trying to hide how you feel, because you think
that it's gonna have a negative impact to you,
or someone's gonna judge you for it, because we are all going through
so much [bleep], and why do we need to do it alone?
- Thanks so much for watching this episode of Adults React.
- Subscribe and hit the bell, so you never miss an episode.
- Thanks so much, guys. See you next time.
- Hi, guys. JC here. Producer here at FBE.
Thanks for watching, and a big thanks
to Jaiden and Dave for creating this very important video.
If you wanna check them out, make sure to check out the links here
and the links down below. Bye, guys. Thanks.