Colleen Ballinger and Adam McIntyre Controversy

Overview

The Colleen Ballinger and Adam McIntyre Controversy refers to a series of allegations made by drama YouTuber Adam McIntyre in 2020 and again in 2023 against YouTuber Colleen Ballinger, known best for her Miranda Sings character. In 2020, McIntyre posted a video claiming that, when he was only 13, Ballinger "used" him to get content ideas from, discussed personal matters of her divorce with him and that Ballinger's best friend Kory DeSoto sent him lingerie. McIntyre eventually became her social media manager but was removed from the position after posting a tweet she didn't like, despite purportedly getting her approval before posting it. In 2023, YouTuber kodeerants posted a video confirming much of what McIntyre claimed, inspiring McIntyre to respond to it, sharing purportedly inappropriate DMs between Ballinger, himself and other young children that she had in a group chat. The 2023 allegations inspired people online to dig up and share problematic content about Ballinger.

Background

2020 Allegations

On April 28th, 2020, drama YouTuber^[1] Adam McIntyre, 17 at the time, posted a video titled "colleen ballinger, stop lying" in which he claims Colleen Ballinger of Miranda Sings fame "used" him when he was only 13. McIntyre describes how he was a fan of Miranda Sings and made fan pages about her that garnered Ballinger and her friend Kory DeSoto's (another YouTuber) attention.

McIntyre and Ballinger purportedly began talking and she began confiding in him, revealing personal, publically unknown details about her divorce to him. McIntyre's parents were wary of their relationship due to Ballinger being in her 30s at the time. She and DeSoto eventually sent McIntyre some lingerie that DeSoto wore over his clothes during livestream. His parents were "furious" when it arrived. In the video, McIntyre shows the lingerie as alleged proof.

McIntyre's mother allowed their friendship to continue but was protective, staying outside on the street while McIntyre, Ballinger and DeSoto had lunch on one occasion. McIntyre then explains that from 2017 on, he began helping Ballinger come up with ideas for her Sings character and her vlogs, claiming the Sings character was losing its fanbase. That year, McIntyre began running her Twitter account. In 2020, he posted a tweet about Sings "coming out" as a Meghan Trainor fan, which some fans thought was problematic and making fun of the idea of coming out.^[2] McIntyre ran the idea by her before posting it, which he purportedly proves by showing DM exchanges.

McIntyre shows messages where Ballinger supposedly claims she's happy with the tweets he's making. Then, Ballinger saw the backlash against the Trainor tweet and got nervous and deleted it. McIntyre was okay with this, reiterating that he only posted things with her approval at her request. Ballinger started to message him expressing her dislike of the reactions to the Meghan Trainor tweet, McIntyre feeling as though she was shifting the blame onto him. After apologizing to her, Ballinger left him on read and deleted all his tweets. McIntyre then claims that people in fan group chats he set up, Kory and Ballinger were talking bad about him afterward.

The video (shown below) gained over 1.7 million views in three years. It was reported on by Distractify^[3] on April 30th.

Ballinger addressed the accusations in a YouTube^[4] video posted to her Colleen Vlogs channel on May 12th, 2020 (shown below). In the video, she apologizes for sending the lingerie but says, "But in this situation, context is everything, saying she's "always given away weird stuff, and so in my mind at the time this was no different than all the other weird stuff I’ve sent to my fans as a joke."

She goes on to say she only used "a couple" of his tweet suggestions. She says his video was "hurtful" and she has "receipts" on her end that would clear things up, but she won't share them because McIntyre is a minor. McIntyre spoke about the drama again in a video on March 6th, 2021, after being included in a Vulture^[5] list of 19 "moments that defined YouTube drama’s economy" on YouTube,^[6] sharing the opinion that Ballinger "didn't address everything" in her response and also "didn't deny" any accusations.

2023 Allegations

Between March 19th and May 31st, 2023, McIntyre posted 11 videos on Colleen Ballinger, largely covering posts from the critical Ballinger subreddit /r/ColleenBallingerSnark^[7] discussing her past and current problematic tendencies. Video titles include "Colleen Ballinger is worse than you think," "Is Colleen Ballinger exploiting charity" and "Colleen Ballinger's Inappropriate Behaviour to kids" (examples shown below).

On June 3rd, YouTuber^[8] kodeerants posted a video titled "why I left the colleen ballinger fandom…" In the video, she explains how she was a big fan of Ballinger and even wrote fanfiction about Miranda Sings characters and people in the fandom. She eventually garnered the attention of Ballinger and DeSoto and entered a group chat about her 2020 Cleveland live show. She was eventually followed by Ballinger and other e-celebrities after PewDiePie shared a clip of her ranting about TanaCon.

After McIntyre posted "colleen ballinger, stop lying" in April 2020, she turned on Ballinger and the community in defense of McIntyre. Ballinger told Kodeerants that McIntyre was sharing things out of context. Kodee then shows a message purportedly from Ballinger to her "weenies" group chat, which she is in with fans of Miranda Sings, who are largely minors, asking them about their favorite sex position. She then shows numerous problematic tweets supposedly from Ballinger, including multiple tweets in which she jokes about rape, posts where she jokes about being mentally disabled and racist jokes about Mexican people.

Kodeerants claims that after Ballinger explained to her that McIntyre's video was out of context, Kodeerants tried to stay on her good side because she was such a big fan and was in a parasocial relationship with her. She then apologizes to McIntyre for "being mean" to him in defense of Ballinger. She then shows DMs from Kory criticizing McIntyre and shares inappropriate messages sent by Kory to the group chat.

Kodeerants originally made a video exposing Ballinger for her problematic content in May 2020 (shown below, left) and Ballinger apologized to her for offending her and being a "disgusting" person in the past, which Kodeerants accepted until she saw Ballinger's response video to McIntyre, inspiring her to post the "colleen ballinger, stop lying" video in 2023. The video gained over 39,000 views in five days (shown below, right).

On June 4th, 2023, McIntyre posted a video to YouTube^[9] reacting to Kodeerants' video, titled, "I was right about colleen ballinger," in which he reacts to all the DMs Kodeerants shows and expands on them, explaining how hurt he has been by the whole situation because he was such a big fan of Miranda Sings, garnering over 248,000 views in four days (shown below). In the video, McIntyre claims Kory and Ballinger would make fun of members of their group chats behind the scenes.

Developments

On June 7th, 2023, McIntyre posted a nearly two-hour long video further discussing the controversy. At the start of the video, he explains how, following the "I was right about colleen ballinger" video, he's seen posts and DMs from ex-Miranda Sings fans sharing their negative experiences with Ballinger. He then goes on to share numerous inappropriate messages from the "weenies" group chat, largely consisting of minors, from Ballinger and other members of the chat.

McIntyre reiterates how she would make fun of "cringey" fans behind the scenes. He also shares inappropriate messages purportedly from Kory sent from another group chat, "Kory's Klit," including a voice memo in which he tells the chat he "loves them all so much" and considers them his best friends. The video largely acts as an expansion of the claims he has already made against her, delving deeper into DMs between himself, Colleen and the group chats, gaining over 97,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below).

Colleen's Response

On June 28th, 2023, Colleen Ballinger released a video on her Colleen Vlogs YouTube^[13] channel titled "hi." where she responds to the controversy through song while playing a ukelele. In the song, she sings about the "toxic gossip train." She admits that she made a "mistake" by having the group chat with her fans but calls the accusations largely "misinformation." She says she used to message her fans but "not in a creepy way" but more in a "loser" way where she was trying to be "besties" with everyone. She also sings that Miranda Sings is suitable for a PG13 audience and always has been. She sings that she realizes her song won't change anyone's mind and that she's hurt that people believe she's a groomer, saying the only thing she's ever groomed is her cats. The video gained over 25,000 views in under an hour (shown below).

The response inspired notably negative reactions on Twitter,^[14][15][16] with some finding the format of her apology inappropriate (examples shown below).

Online Reactions

Following the release of Kodeerants' June 3rd, 2023, video "why I left the colleen ballinger fandom…" and McIntyre's response, people, including Miranda Sings and Colleen Ballinger fans, began sharing evidence of Ballinger's problematic behavior on Twitter and on the /r/ColleenBallingerSnark subreddit. People also began sharing similar incidents with Ballinger. On June 6th, YouTuber Colbie u posted a video of comments asking about the situation on Ballinger's live podcast with Trisha Paytas being deleted in real time, seemingly in an attempt to avoid addressing it (shown below). That same day, Kory DeSoto deleted his Twitter account.^[11]

On June 7th, 2023, Twitter^[10] user @lomlgraperry started a long-form thread sharing numerous examples of Ballinger allegedly acting inappropriately with her fans and in her content over the years, garnering over 2,400 likes in a day.

On June 21st, YouTuber^[12] the H3 Podcast hosted a live episode where the cast member Olivia gives a detailed presentation diving into the controversy, garnering over 1.3 million views in a week (shown below).

Search Interest

External References