YouTuber Colleen Ballinger has addressed ongoing allegations of grooming her young fans in a bizarre video where she sang a song about “toxic gossip” while playing a ukulele.
36-year-old YouTuber Colleen Ballinger, also known as Miranda Sings, has been coming under fire amid accusations of engaging in inappropriate behavior with some of her young fans.
As a result, several sponsors have dropped their partnerships with the influencer, including skincare brand OneSkin and Telemedicine company Zocdoc.
Although the accusations against Ballinger first surfaced back in 2020, they returned in June 2023 after former fan Adam McIntyre once again exposed inappropriate conversations he’d allegedly had with the YouTuber when he was 14.
In a tell-all video, McIntyre claimed that Ballinger had purportedly bullied and manipulated some of her young fans into doing free labor, claiming she would make comments about their appearances and ask them inappropriate questions.
Other fans also came forward to share similar experiences, leaving fans looking to Ballinger for a response.
Miranda Sings creates bizarre song to address grooming allegations
Ballinger has been coming under fire on all sides as a result of these accusations — and after weeks of fans waiting for answers, she finally responded to the situation in a June 28 YouTube video.
However, viewers didn’t exactly get the response they likely expected. Instead, Ballinger created a song to address the issue, claiming her management team “strongly advised” her not to “say what I want to say,” but “realized they never said that I couldn’t sing.”
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Thus, Ballinger went on to sing a ten-minute-long ditty about hopping on a “toxic gossip train” headed for “manipulation station.”
“Many years ago, I used to message my fans,” she explained. “But not in a creepy way, like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more of a loser kind of way, where I was just trying to be besties with everybody.”
She went on to call herself the “weird aunt” of her fanbase and expressed that, at the beginning of her career, she didn’t realize there “should have been some boundaries” between herself and her fans.
Ballinger claimed that she has since changed her behavior and taken “accountability” for her actions — but went on to lash out at the allegations against her on the “toxic gossip train,” which is “fueled with hateful accusations.”
At the time of writing, commenters appear less than pleased by the YouTuber’s reaction to the situation, with one saying, “You have no shame. This is just mocking people that you’ve hurt at this point.”
“You should have listened to your team, girl,” another said.
This is just the latest news to come from Ballinger’s situation after more fans spoke up share their own experiences with the YouTuber leading up to her most recent statement.