Before Jeffree Star would clock in over 16.8 MILLION subscribers on YouTube, over 15.3
million on Instagram and almost 6 million on Twitter
Before Jeffree Star would build his own empire and ultra successful makeup line, Jeffree
Star Cosmetics Before Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson’s Conspiracy
Makeup Collection of ONE MILLION UNITS would sell out in just 30 minutes, setting records
Before Jeffree Star would be dubbed the 5th highest earning YouTuber both in 2018 and
2019, earning 17million or more per year
These days – Jeffree remains one of the highest paid YouTubers according to Forbes
and has made himself quite the fortune.
His net worth is an estimated 50 million and we know Jeffree’s never too shy to flaunt
that lavish lifestyle.
Jeffree is probably one of the most, if not the most, successful spawns of internet fame.
Either way he’s an original.
He’s been famous on the web since 2005 back in those MySpace days, where he was pretty
much the most popular user.
He didn’t get onto YouTube until late 2015 but it was almost no time at all before the
blew up.
I mean the dude already had a huge online fan base.
Jeffree is one unique celebrity and although he identifies as androgynous for the sake
of this vid we’re gonna say “He”.
Last time we took a shot at this I just went with Jeffree and the whole thing just turned
out a little awkward.
Plus this is a story worth taking a second look at as Jeffree has since spoken more openly
about his childhood and given us more info about his mom.
It's a bit of a tear jerker so buckle up.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Jefferee Star prior
to fame, here for you on Before They Were Famous.
Some recent drops on this channel include Brother Nauture, Shane Dawson, Ashnikko and
plenty more.
As always, be sure to let us know who is next in the comments down below and I'll see you
guys after the intro.
Jeffree Star was born Jeffrey Lynn Steininger on November 15, 1985 in Huntington Beach,
California, So at the time of this recording he’s 34 years old.
Jeffree’s father named Jeff died from suicide when he was only 6 and there was a history
of alcohol abuse in his family too which would explain why Jeffree doesn’t drink.
If you’re wondering, Jeffree prefers sipping on Redbull and smoking weed and hes never
had a sip of alcohol in his LIFE.
He said "I've never tried alcohol before which people
don't believe, I've just smoked weed…I've never tried coke, ecstasy, nothing.
I've never sipped a beer, never tried wine…
Jeffree was raised by his “mom” BUT recently we found out that the woman we thought was
his mom ALL THESE YEARS isn’t actually her.
Her name is Laurie like it says, but yep.
That’s Jeffree’s aunt.
She was like a mother to him considering he was never that close with his real mom – although
these days they are in touch after not speaking for 10 years.
Sadly when Jeffree got ahold of his REAL mom he found she had NOT been living her best
life over the years they had been apart.
Jeffree had no idea until they spoke that she was living out of her car, homeless
and had been dealt a bad hand.
But besides his family secrets, Jeffree knew who he was from an early age or at least had
a pretty good idea.
He started experimenting with makeup at the age of 12 and even as a young boy he was starting
to discover he was different.
Jeffree has never identified himself as gay and doesn’t want to be put in a box.
He told Paper magazine:
"I am attracted to both genders and I have been with transgender people and I just don't
even know if there's a name for it.
And even with all these new labels out there, I still am just like, 'I'm Jeffree, and I'm
attracted to whoever I want to be.'"
But you probably know that at the time he has a boyfriend, Nathan Schwandt.
And it’s been 4 years since Nathan slid into Jeffree’s DMs and locked
him down.
Anyways, By Junior high Jeffree was already wearing makeup and flashy outfits to school.
As soon as he finished high school he moved to LA from his hometown of Orange County,
California.
Once he was out on his own he made money through makeup, modelling and music gigs.
Not to mention he was already on the scene being social thanks to his Fake I.D.
Jeffree teamed up with Hustler [Porn] for a year and worked with bands on their music
videos.
When MySpace launched in 2003 Jeffree wasted no time and used the platform to build his
network and persona and quickly garnered a lot of attention.
It wasn’t long at all until Jeffree gained a massive fanbase being called the Marilyn
Manson of Makeup and MySpace.
It was all about the Emo/Scene culture back then… and this group was definitely looking
for someone to idolize…
Jeffree fit the bill.
In 2006, Jeffree was named the most connected MySpace personality and he had over a million
“friends” on the platform.
Jeffree was one of the first to see the opportunity of transforming an online following into a
career and turned MySpace into his 9-5.
He interacted with fans from all over the world, hanging out with bands and as a result
he too started to experiment with music.
If you go back and listen you might think some of Jeffree's music was trash but he already
had loyal listeners thanks to all of his MySpace followers who seemed to love his Electronica
and “pop” sound.
Jefferee started up Popsicile records and continued to release music including the studio
album Beauty Killer in 2009 and landed a spot on Warped Tour that same year.
His first and only studio album Beauty Killer from 2009 featured a collab with Nicki Minaj
and it even charted at number 7 on the Billboard’s Electronic Albums chart… but with songs
titled We Want C*nt, Eyelash Curlers & Butcher Knives, or Legs Up I guess that might be part
of the answer as to why he didn't go mainstream?
In 2010, Jeffree even signed to Akon’s label Konvict Muzik and Akon described him as the
next Lady Gaga.
But after a little while Jeffree left the music biz all together while Akon was facing
some legal issues.
Later, Jeffree would call signing to Akon’s label “the biggest mistake” he’s ever
made.
Despite the flop music career, Jeffree continued to leverage his online fame into more mainstream
appearances.
Nowadays Jeffree is pretty versatile and wears many hats such as makeup artist, beauty YouTuber,
entrepreneur, singer / song writer, model, DJ and more.
But years back he was still trying to get his name out there, appearing on shows like
LA Ink with Kat Von D who was one of his best friends at the time.
Ultimately, Jeffree and Kat Von D’s would go onto have a famous feud that became so
public and sever that it severed all and any chance of the two ever being friends again.
According to Kat Von D their feud was due to Jeffree’s drug use, racism, and bullying.
But that’s just Kat’s side of the story and Jeffree says she detached from him after
he launched his own cosmetic line.
Speaking of his which, this was the next big chapter in Jeffree's life.
In 2014 he launched his online makeup store and brand, Jeffree Star Cosmetics for which
he spent his life savings to get it off the ground.
With no more music career, and no money at the time, Jeffree had no idea where his future
was heading.
And he certainly had no idea that Jeffree Star Cosmetics would soon be a multi million
dollar company.
His first cosmetic release was a collection of velour liquid lipsticks which he’s known
for now, then highlighter palettes, lip scrubs, eyeshadow palettes, and eventually branching
off to accessories and other merch.
Although Jeffree’s YouTube Channel says he joined in 2006, he didn’t start using
the platform consistently until 2015, so he was technically a late bloomer.
For someone who’s now one of the highest earning creators and banking over 17 million
annually from YouTube ALONE you probably wouldn't have guessed that.
A year later in 2016 the channel already had surpassed daily views of over 1million and
over 2 million subscribers.
Jeffree used his videos to promote his cosmetic line and also for what he does best: Makeup
tutorials.
Jeffree still does these, as well as his infamous product reviews, vlogs and more.
These days his channel boasts over 16 million subscribers and over 2 BILLION views.
Jeffree’s considered one of the richest and most successful beauty influencers of
all time and Bustle magazine called him "a musician and onetime MySpace celeb that reinvented
himself in the YouTube makeup tutorial space."
Well you already know one of the other uber rich beauty influencers out there is Kylie
Jenner which reminds me of all Jeffree’s drama.
His beef with Kylie was that she copied his product packaging and also dissed one of her
makeup brush
sets that was bad quality.
Over the years, Jeffree list of celebrity feuds has become pretty long.
Aside from Kylie and Kat, he’s butted heads with the likes of Nikkie Tutorials, Laura
Lee, Kim Kardashian, James Charles and those are only a few.
But as they say in show business any publicity is good publicity and these headline making
feuds have only further spread his notoriety.
He continues to reach new levels of fame every year.
In 2018, Jeffree was featured on Shane Dawson’s docuseries and the episode was titled “The
Truth About Jeffree Star.”
This led to The Secret World of Jeffree Star, a 5 part docuseries created by Shane himself.
It followed the life and career of Jeffree, as Shane got familiar with his “world”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUf2-sjGqQw&t=2s 7:52-8:54
Well it was a
hit considering this year in 2019 the two embarked on second YouTUbe docuseries together.
The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star again created by Shane followed Jeffree’s life,
and as documented Jeffree and Shane designing their makeup collection together.
The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star ran for seven episodes from October 2019 til the end
of November 2019.
The series generated a total of 130 million views and the trailer ALONE got 10 million
views within the first week.
And That makeup collection Jeffree and Shane were working on?
Well that was the Conspiracy Collection which ended up selling out 1 million units of product
in only 30 minutes.
This set new records for both Jeffree Star Cosmetics AND the beauty industry altogether.
It’s obvious Jeffree has come a long way since being bankrupt and starting his cosmetic
line.
Now he makes the list of top few highest paid YouTubers every year it seems.
Jeffree has worked hard to build his empire worth like 50 mill, so I’m sure he’s only
gonna keep climbing.
As for the rest of the story, well we will have to wait and see because this is Before
They Were Famous.
My name is Michael McCrudden and I know that this video was a little different from the
bio's we usually do in this channel but this YouTube game is only getting bigger and I'll
continue to share my spotlight with those who are famous.
Check out these other videos, hts subscribe and I'll see you in another video.