On May 10, beauty guru Tati Westbrook uploaded her viral “Bye Sister” video, where she exposed makeup mogul James Charles for allegedly using his fame to sexually manipulate men – but this wasn’t the end of his career, by far.
Despite effectively exposing Tati’s “lies” in a 41-minute long video a week later, Charles lost over three million subscribers due to the drama – a massive amount, considering the YouTube star had reached a major milestone of 16 million subs just beforehand.
While times seemed dark for the beauty Tuber, he has finally bounced back, surpassing 16 million subscribers on August 17 once more – nearly three months after his feud with Westbrook shocked the net.
Charles announced the news in a Tweet that same day, noting the irony of hitting the milestone again in wake of the massive blow to his previous subscriber count.
“AHHH WE HIT 16 MILLION SISTERS!!! … again,” Charles wrote. “I’m so grateful for every single one of you and am beyond blessed to be alive and do this job. Thank you for supporting me.”
AHHH WE HIT 16 MILLION SISTERS!!!… again. :skull::joyful:
I’m so grateful for every single one of you and am beyond blessed to be alive and do this job. Thank you for supporting me. :revolving_hearts:
— James Charles (@jamescharles) August 17, 2019
This latest milestone follows Charles’ impressive comeback following Tati’s “Bye Sister” video, which saw a massive upswing in subscribers for the young YouTube star in spite of the outrage that broke out due to Westbrook’s claims.
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While Charles regained his 15 million subs later than month, he is continuing to grow in popularity, thanks to his dedicated fanbase.
However, not everyone was certain that Charles would come back from the scandal: YouTube king Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg notably spoke out on the drama in a video on May 17, claiming that the debacle “could be the end” for the makeup mogul.
Although Charles’ initial apology video incited backlash across YouTube, Charles’ second video “exposing” Westbrook saw a major shift in public opinion, and now, he has once again reached his 16 million subscriber mark.
It doesn’t look like the growth is stopping anytime soon, either, with metrics from Social Blade showing that he has gained over 229,000 subscribers in the past 30 days.
With this latest milestone in hand, Charles is looking to continue to be one of the beauty community’s biggest stars.