Jenna Marbles’ career as YouTuber quits platform over past problematic videos

This week Jenna Marbles, one of the OG icons of YouTube, announced she was stepping back from the platform as she addressed past problematic videos overnight.

The 33-year-old star, who rose to prominence on YouTube in 2010, and has amassed more than three billion views during her time online, addressed numerous clips including videos from 2011 in which she donned blackface to impersonate Nicki Minaj, and made derogatory comments about an Asian man, and a 2012 video where she describes herself as ‘slut-shaming’.

But for those who aren’t too sure how Jenna – real name Jenna Mourey – amassed the career she has, here we go…

In February 2010, Jenna – who, in late 2019 hit 20million subscribers – posted her first video to YouTube, titled Charles Franklin Marbles Is a Sad, Sad Man.

Jenna shot to fame not long after with her arguably most well-known video, How To Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking, which has more than 69million views today.

In it’s first week alone, the satirical clip, which explained to people ‘born ugly like her’ how to be ‘attractive’ and ‘look nothing like yourself’ was viewed by 5.3million people.

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Thus the cult of Jenna Marbles was born.

From there the vlogger, who was rumoured to have moved from Cambridge Massachusetts into a million-dollar Santa Monica abode after finding YouTube fame, posted every Wednesday and Thursday, as her subscriber count grew.

The YouTuber was the most subscribed female on the platform from late 2011 to 2017 when she was surpassed by Yuya.

Still, dubbed the ‘queen of YouTube’ she was known for her videos What Girls Do in the Car and How to Avoid Talking to People You Don’t Want to Talk To. Oh and her Drunk Makeup Tutorial, which has more than 23m hits.

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Over the course of her career, Jenna’s videos evolved, as she made changes to the format and addressed her past behaviour – after she was called out for problematic clips.

She ended up putting together video Reacting to My Old Videos (300th Video) in which she said she realised she’d made offensive comments in her previous posts and ‘said words in the past that just aren’t okay’.

A few years ago Jenna’s content began to move more towards beauty videos (still with the Jenna Marbles twist, as seen in the video where she covered her face in Rhinestones) and in February last year she collaborated with beauty YouTuber James Charles.

Her clips were also more reflective and life-based, such as 2016’s 30 Life Lessons I Learned In 30 Years.

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Not just uploading YouTube videos, the star appeared in 2014 TV series Smosh Babies and the 2015 mini-series HeyUSA.

Appearing as herself, she’s graced the screen in Road Hard and Natural Born Pranksters and in 2016, she also served as an executive producer for Maximum Ride, a film based on James Patterson’s novels.

Oh, and there’s podcasting, with Jenna also turning her attention to the audio world in 2014, alongside partner Julien Solomita, with the Jenna Julien podcast (as well as hosting SiriusXM Hits 1, YouTube 15).

On the podcast, the pair – who began dating in 2013 – cover everything from growing up, conspiracy theories, and other YouTubers, bringing on her fellow vloggers, including Shane Dawson.

Diving into the commercial world, Jenna (who has spent many a video showing off her menagerie of pets) has also released a brand of dog toys called Kermie Worm & Mr. Marbles.

However, she revealed to Larry King she had turned down many lucrative endorsements, not wanting to sell out.

She said: ‘I think that with the internet, the most important thing that you have is that you’re a genuine person and that people trust you. … I think that working with brands and things can be great and a lot of people do it really well, but for me, it feels very much like stuffing my own pockets with money and taking advantage of the people that are there to see me.’

Fast forward to now, the YouTuber addressed her past on the platform on Thursday and said she wasn’t sure if her departure would be just for now or forever.

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In a video titled A Message, she said: ‘There’s a couple things people want me to address and apologise for, and I’m happy to do that.’

Adding she was ‘moving on’ from her channel, she said: ‘I don’t know if that’s forever, I don’t know how long it’s going to be.

‘I want to make sure the things that I put into the world are not hurting anyone.’

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