He has 4.5 million YouTube fans and his soon-to-be-bestselling book came out today.
Here's his (oddly overproduced) coming-out video:
Apparently these YouTube stars are for the next generation what Nickelodeon and MTV stars were to the previous generation and reality-show stars are for the current generation.
(And REAL stars were for my generation...they had TALENT then!)
Grace Helbig...who? (2.4 million YouTube fans)
Connor Franta...who? (4.5 million YouTube fans)
Miranda Sings...okay, she comes from a theater background (but she has 4 million YouTube fans...FOUR MILLION!)
Tyler Oakley...WHO? (he has 7 million YouTube fans...SEVEN MILLION)
The only reason I knew who he was (after Googling him) was because he was on The Amazing Race. I thought it was pretty obvious on there that he was gay. Not sure why an announcement was necessary.
"Pardon my prior Mcfee slip. I know how to spell her name. I just don't know how to type it." -Talulah
He looks stoned in that message after the video. He is cute. I had no idea who he was and probably won't remember any time soon. But very cute... and good for him.
He was on two seasons of the Amazing Race (including an "All-Stars" edition). Watching him on those, it would never even have occurred to me that he wasn't already out. But good for him!
While everyone likes to tease that this news seems obvious there were a lot of female fans who were in complete denial for years and now they know the truth. It does seem like he waited to come out until he could monetize it with a book deal, music video and itunes song download but I guess he did have some demons to deal with on his own before he came out. If his book, video or song helps one person then I'd say this is a good thing.
I found him to be extremely annoying the first time he was on The Amazing Race, but he was more likable on his second season, though denoting him as an "All-Star" was a bit of a stretch.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
"He was in the closet? Really? Willam ran him through the ringer calling him a faggot On Beat down."
In fairness, Willam called lots of people a faggot on beatdown.
I dated someone for a while who was very into YouTube and trying to establish his own channel (don't ask) so I did actually know who this guy is. Like everyone else has said, it's no great surprise, but good for him either way.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.