• Retail is changing rapidly, and companies must innovate to keep up.
• Customers are increasingly demanding that the shopping experience be bespoke, eco-friendly, and immediately gratifying.
• Business Insider rounded up 17 companies that are meeting those demands with creative technologies and paradigm shifts, and, in the process, revolutionizing the retail industry.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The mall may be dying, but retail is still thriving.

In an increasingly automated and online retail world, companies must evolve ahead of the curve in order to avoid getting left behind. Today's customer wants instant gratification and personalization, all while doing minimal damage to the environment — a tall order.

We've rounded up 17 companies who are meeting those demands in creative ways, and, in the process, revolutionizing retail. In no particular order, here they are:

Amazon

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Year founded: 1994

Why it's revolutionary: In spring 2019, Amazon announced that it would start making one-day shipping the default for Prime customers. Amazon continues to make online shopping faster and more convenient, giving consumers the instant gratification they desire. It's been a massive success on many fronts, but a labor and logistical challenge. As the supply chain smooths out, Amazon's one-day shipping offering promises to set a new precedent for online retailers — one that many may find hard to match.

Walmart

Headquarters: Bentonville, Arkansas

Year founded: 1962

Why it's revolutionary: Walmart has been able to hold its own and build an e-commerce empire. It's also doing a lot to maximize the efficiency of its physical spaces, pushing automation and adding robots to its stores. Walmart's willingness to innovate has kept it ahead of the pack.

Starbucks

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Year founded: 1971

Why it's revolutionary: Starbucks is putting mobile ordering and pick-up at the forefront of its business. Starbucks' new Pickup stores are designed to get coffee lovers in and out as quickly as possible. Customers can either order ahead through the mobile app or order in-store. With Pickup stores, Starbucks has made it even easier and faster to get coffee to go, setting a precedent for the fast-food industry that is sure to make waves.

Instagram

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

Year founded: 2010

Why it's revolutionary: In 2019, Instagram fully embraced its role as retail's new aspiration-to-gratification machine, adding an in-app checkout feature. This addition was a long time coming, as Instagram's influence on the way people shop has only been growing. Instagram puts a story and a face to products in ways brands haven't been able to do before, and that's something that will continue to define successful retail brands in the future.

Shopify

Headquarters: Ottawa, Ontario

Year founded: 2004

Why it's revolutionary: Shopify's stock soared over 200% in 2019 as direct-to-consumer retail grew in popularity. Shopify's e-commerce platform allows small and big companies to build online-based retail businesses. It allows almost anyone to turn almost anything into a money-making enterprise, thereby democratizing e-commerce to an unprecedented extent.

Rent the Runway

Headquarters: New York, New York

Year founded: 2009

Why it's revolutionary: Shoppers' priorities have shifted over the last decade. Secondhand shopping is on the rise as shoppers want quality, luxury, and minimal environmental impact. Rent the Runway hits on all three of those desires, and it also provides an appealing, accessible alternative to fast fashion. The company's vision of a large-scale consumer shift from clothing ownership to renting may be a long way off, but it is an alternative system that's proven viable for the company's target market.

Peloton

Headquarters: New York, New York

Year founded: 2012

Why it's revolutionary: Peloton is changing the definition of "home fitness." By bringing the community of a gym to the comfort of home, Peloton has redefined what it means to purchase exercise equipment. Its dual purchase-subscription business model is the natural next stage in the home fitness evolution: more connected, convenient, and profitable than ever. Peloton's success has proven that traditionally physical spaces can be digitalized, and that opens up a lot of possibilities beyond just fitness.

ThredUP

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2009

Why it's revolutionary:  The trendiest new clothes are often old clothes these days, and ThredUP is making trendy old clothes more accessible to shoppers. Experts predict that online resale will grow up to 10 to 15 times faster than fast fashion in the future. ThredUP has taken the charm of a thrift store treasure hunt and scaled it for an online community of thousands of shoppers. Poshmark, founded in 2011, provides a similar resale platform, while The RealReal, also founded in 2011, is a comparable platform for the luxury market.

Taco Bell

Headquarters: Downey, California

Year founded: 1962

Why it's revolutionary: Taco Bell's most revolutionary move recently has nothing to do with food. Rather, the chain's decision to test a six-figure salary for its managers might transform the landscape of fast-food labor, forcing other major chains to offer higher salaries as well. Retailers and fast-food chains have been struggling with worker retention as jobs in retail become less desirable. Perhaps Taco Bell has figured out a simple solution: pay workers more.

Nordstrom

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Year founded: 1901

Why it's revolutionary: Nordstrom has jumped on two of today's most defining retail trends: online-oriented infrastructure and luxury resale. The department store chain has been proactive in pivoting away from the dying department store format, diving into tests of its pickup-only store, Nordstrom Local, and introducing resale at its New York flagship and at Nordstrom Rack. Partnerships with trendy fashion startups like Everlane and Rent the Runway are a smart way for the company to stay relevant.

TJ Maxx

Headquarters: Framingham, Massachusetts

Year founded: 1976

Why it's revolutionary: TJ Maxx isn't really doing anything new. In fact, the off-price retailer is doing what it's been doing for years: selling the same things other stores sell, but for lower prices. As America's once-robust middle class continues to shrink and retail continues to splinter into two segments — value and luxury — TJ Maxx has found itself conveniently positioned. It offers its customers the treasure hunt experience, promising department-store quality for thrift-store value.

Glossier

Headquarters: New York, New York

Year founded: 2014

Why it's revolutionary: Springing from a blog founded by beauty editors, Glossier swiftly got to the core of what women really want from makeup. Its natural-beauty aesthetic is also a popular Instagram aesthetic: it's the glowy, effortless allure of the VSCO girl. Glossier is primarily direct-to-consumer, with a limited number of stores focused on enabling customers to try makeup before ordering it online. This model is also used by many other popular DTC brands like Casper, Mejuri, and more.

B8ta

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2015

Why it's revolutionary: B8ta was built to revolutionize retail. The high-tech store design company has pioneered innovative tracking technology, RFID-equipped dressing rooms, and more. Its experimental stores have two purposes: showcase direct-to-consumer brands, and test out retail design and technology that could improve both the shopping experience and the feedback a brand receives about its product.

Impossible Foods

Headquarters: Redwood City, California

Year founded: 2011

Why it's revolutionary: Impossible Foods made big waves when Burger King launched the Impossible Whopper nationwide in August 2019. Its plant-based burger also hit grocery store shelves later that year. But Impossible Foods was just getting started. With the reveal of Impossible Pork at CES 2020, the company is poised to take on an even bigger market. Plant-based "meat" went from obscure to mainstream in the course of pretty much one year, and the change is only beginning.

Beyond Meat

Headquarters: El Segundo, California

Year founded: 2009

Why it's revolutionary: While Impossible Foods is slower to partner with brands to create specialized menu items, Beyond Meat has been more willing to adapt its products to chains' specific needs. Beyond's flexibility has landed it major partnerships with chains like Dunkin', KFC, and Carl's Jr., bringing the plant-based "meat" movement to a wider audience than many imagined would ever be possible.

StockX

Headquarters: Detroit, Michigan

Year founded: 2015

Why it's revolutionary: A resale platform for sneakers may seem too niche to have a broader impact, but StockX isn't just any old resale platform. It's a stock marketplace where sneakers are the commodity. There's no fixed pricing for any of the products sold on StockX's platform. This model has worked swimmingly for the sneakerhead community, and its success in that niche could open the door for this model to expand into other markets.

TikTok

Headquarters: Culver City, California

Year founded: 2016

Why it's revolutionary: TikTok is redefining the game for retailers in two ways: by opening the door to new influencer partnerships and by changing how brands are able to connect with their customers. The video sharing app allows for brands to connect with customers on a personal level by putting faces and personalities at the forefront. For brands seeking to understand and woo Gen Z, TikTok is the love language they need to learn.

• Read more in our Revolutionizing Retail series:
• Retail is evolving faster than ever before to keep up with the changing desires of consumers in the digital age
• The retail apocalypse has forced stores to abandon the mall and transform into a destination where shoppers can take a 'vacation from reality'

• Tana Mongeau is one of YouTube's superstars with over 5 million subscribers.
• She's built up a following in her five years on the platform thanks to her candid storytelling and unfiltered thoughts and feelings.
• Mongeau spoke to Insider about what it was like to have her career explode in the past year, and how she has learned to take care of her mental health.
• She also talked about dating fellow YouTuber Jake Paul, and how having a relationship in the spotlight is something she would probably never do again.
• Something Mongeau thrives off authenticity, and it's clear to both her and her fans when she's not being true to herself — for better or worse.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tana Mongeau never believed she'd be writing a book, starring in an MTV show, and would win Creator of the Year at the Streamy Awards when she started her YouTube channel five years ago.

Beginning her online journey as a 16-year-old girl without any idea of what to do with her life, she soon became known on YouTube for her candid, over-the-top storytime videos, including one featuring the now infamous line, "He f---ed me with a toothbrush."

"I never really had a purpose or anything that I thoroughly enjoyed," Mongeau told Insider. "So watching YouTube, I think that I was inspired by the idea of making other people laugh through things that I've been through."

She grew up watching Shane Dawson — now her good friend who she believes she owes much of her success to — and wanted to be another person people could turn to for some humor in their daily lives.

"I think that I was always really enamored by the idea of being able to distract someone else from their own day, their own pain, their own darkness, even if it's just for like 10 minutes on my YouTube channel," she said.

"So I just started talking to the camera like a f---ing weirdo, and here I am."

Tana lets her fans into the good, the bad, and the crazy

Part of the reason Mongeau's 5.2 million fans have stuck with her for so long is her outspoken attitude to life. She's unapologetic, loud, and has little to no filter.

She has pretty much grown up online since she was 16, showing every twist and turn to her audience, for better or worse. Although she said that it "isn't always pretty."

She would rather let her fans in on the tougher times to show she's human, rather than living "some highlight reel, cookie-cutter" perfect life, she said.

"I've just kind of been authentically living my life, doing me, which obviously means making a lot of mistakes, some big, some small, some crazy," she said. "So I think that people are really just seeing that trajectory of my entire life, whether that's good or bad."

Mongeau, now 21, has been invited to YouTube's VidCon London this year as a featured creator, which feels like the peak of a career that has completely skyrocketed recently.

She's been a major part of the growing movement of merging digital and mainstream entertainment, where YouTubers have changed what it means to be a modern celebrity.

"It's very weird to be blasted to such a big audience across both platforms," she said.

"But it's really cool to be a part of that millennial movement of showing people that digital media can be just like traditional media and being a part of that transition and history in a way."

It's definitely been a "roller coaster" for Mongeau to get to where she is today, though. She's had her fair share of controversies over the years, most notably with TanaCon in 2018, an event she put on to rival VidCon where fans ended up in danger because of the intense California sun and overcrowding.

More recently, the focus has been on her turbulent relationship with fellow YouTube superstar Jake Paul.

'I don't know if it's something I'll ever do again'

The pair got together in April 2019 and held a whirlwind wedding ceremony just a few weeks later in July. After about eight months of everyone guessing about whether it was all "for clout,"they broke up in January.

While the world was watching and waiting for clues about Paul and Mongeau being a real, authentic couple, Mongeau was doing the same thing. She said starting a relationship like that and working things out in front of everyone in real-time was "really weird."

"I don't know if it's something I'll ever do again," she said. "I think having the whole world watch your relationship and spectate on every ounce of it is insane."

On the one hand, the partnership definitely boosted Mongeau's profile. She increased her following by 33%, recently released a perfume that sold out in 76 minutes, and increased her worth to online brands by as much as 25%, according to online marketing experts.

But despite all the success and the benefit of navigating the online world with someone else who understands exactly what you're experiencing, a relationship in the public eye can quickly turn toxic and draining, Mongeau said.

"When you start off it's fun and innocent and making the videos are really fun," she said. "But as a relationship gets more serious, and things escalate, if there are any trials and tribulations and stuff, airing all that out publicly can be very difficult."

The pressure from both fan bases also starts taking its toll, especially when they have two different agendas. Paul's following generally wanted the relationship to work out, while many of Mongeau's fans suspected she was unhappy and urged her to break up with him.

"When the whole world is obsessed with you two together, all you want to do is be able to deliver that," Mongeau said. "All this commentary I think was clouding my head and there was a point where [I thought] I can't maintain this image of what I'm not, you know?"

'I definitely learned like five years worth of relationship-ing in one year'

At the end of December, Mongeau posted a raw, emotional video which she called "the truth about everything."

She hinted that her and Paul's relationship had gone downhill since their wedding night and talked for 40 minutes about how severely her mental health was being affected by faking her happiness.

Mongeau said that video was probably her favourite one she made in the whole of 2019, even though she and Paul called time on their relationship a few days later.

"It was very much the rawest honesty I felt like I'd provided to my fans in a really long time," she said. "And I think the biggest learning lesson throughout all of that is that I'm not the type of person who can be anything other than authentically me."

Pushing aside her true feelings for the sake of videos, felt like a good way for Mongeau to start completely burning out, so she decided to stop hiding behind a happy face.

"Making a video like that was amazing for me," she said. "It was therapy for me. That's why I made my YouTube channel, and that's really all I want my YouTube channel to be in 2020.

"If I can't say by the end of this year that every single video I post is as honest as that one, then I've failed myself."

Mongeau said she's going to reveal more of what she was going through around this time in the second season of her MTV "No Filter" series, including some of her darker moments. But overall, even after losing herself for a while, she said she also wouldn't change anything about her time with Paul.

"I definitely learned like five years worth of relationship-ing in one year," she said. "But doing it all publicly is definitely an adventure to say the least."

'No matter what I do, people are going to pick it apart'

Mongeau said her "brutally honest" fans are her favourite part of being an online star, and how sometimes they know her better than she knows herself. 

"I could come online and be like, 'I'm so happy,' and they would be like, 'bitch, no the f--- you aren't, shut up,'" she said.

"I think it's awesome because, in a way, I built that. I built this family of people who keep it so real with me and that's so beautiful."

But getting more famous every day also comes with downsides, as she is scrutinized whenever she leaves her house, and receives heavy criticism for misleading young fans when she posts edited photos on Instagram.

"No matter what I do, people are going to pick it apart," she said. "I can't even set foot outside without people picking apart the socks I chose to wear to the drug store."

Like many online celebrities, Mongeau is hyper-aware of what she shares online, and whether it is portraying the image she wants. But she said she said sometimes she just has to step back and tell herself: "That's one-tenth of who you are."

"I think that's a constant battle with yourself to show all of it, and show all of who you are," she said. "Because you can't get this 10% of amazing without the 90% of chaos Tana."

Despite feeling the pressure sometimes, Mongeau never forgets how lucky she feels to have her career going so well right now. Taking over VidCon London this month, for instance, is a dream come true, even though she's "freaking out" a bit over it.

"At the end of the day all of it is what makes my career and is what allows me to do all the beautiful things I get to do," she said. "So I think that it's just one of the things that you deal with in order to have so much of the greatness."

Read more:

The life and controversies of YouTuber Trisha Paytas, from public feuds and breakups to identifying as 'a chicken nugget'

Meet Kurtis Conner, one of YouTube's most popular commentators with big dreams of one day having a Netflix comedy special

YouTube's resident exotic animal expert explains why he feels most alive when working with reptiles that 'could potentially kill' him

A former 'SNL' assistant turned YouTuber with millions of followers tells all about vlog-life — from eating toenails to burnout

YouTube stars rarely break into mainstream entertainment despite being worshipped by millions of fans. Here's why they might be better off online.

SEE ALSO: Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau's break-up was worth more than $600 million in media value — here's how their careers benefited from the whirlwind romance

Join the conversation about this story »

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• While "jewelry giants" like Jared and Zales have reported weak sales, millennial-run businesses with vibrant Instagram presences are shaking up the engagement-ring market and reshaping the multibillion-dollar industry.
• The platform has both created and responded to a demand for an immersive, personalized, and instantaneous shopping experience.
• Celebrities' and influencers' Instagram posts about their rings have affected shoppers' preferences and determined designers' marketing strategies.
• Mom-and-pop retailers have struggled to keep up as e-commerce surges.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The photo on Stephanie Gottlieb's Instagram features the 32-year-old jewelry designer's perfectly manicured fingers in front of a blurry cerulean Pacific Ocean. In focus are her rings — most notably, a large cushion-cut diamond piece.

"Picture perfect," she captioned the photo, adding the ring and seashell emojis. The snapshot from her anniversary vacation is one of many out-of-office moments that Gottlieb shares on her high-end jewelry brand's account.

Stephanie Gottlieb Fine Jewelry, which began as a one-woman operation in 2013, has grown to employ 11 people who operate out of a New York City showroom. Gottlieb says the company's success and proliferating sales are largely due to leveraging Instagram.

"Year after year, our sales have grown in correlation with our social-media following," she told Insider, noting that Instagram is the business's only marketing to date.

A 328,000-user following and occasional shout-outs from influencers like Girl with No Job (aka Claudia Oshry) and the "Real Housewives of New York City" alum Bethenny Frankel suggest continued momentum for the business.

Gottlieb is not the only jewelry entrepreneur adapting to an increasingly Instagram-dependent world.

Nicole Wegman founded her luxury-jewelry business, Ring Concierge, six years ago, with a millennial audience in mind — and a marketing strategy to match.

"Social media has been instrumental in the growth of the company," she told Insider.

Wegman said her goal to create an engagement ring for millennials extends beyond the product itself — she aims to provide the shopping experience she believes her generation would want.

Wegman knows her online audience's aesthetic. The designer's Instagram posts, which receive thousands of likes and comments, typically feature engagement rings and Wegman's signature deep-red nail polish against a background of travel hot spots and a 'gram-worthy showroom. The Ring Concierge account has accrued 285,000 followers and even celebrity clientele, including the "Bachelorette" stars Joelle "Jojo" Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers.

The strategy and growth of both businesses, in contrast to jewelry giants like Kay, Zales, and Jared that last year reported weak 2018 holiday sales, point to how Instagram is reshaping the multibillion-dollar engagement-ring industry — an industry where, as Wegman says on her website, the line between retailer and influencer is blurring.

Prospective engagement-ring buyers are learning through Instagram.

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Retailers say Instagram now serves as a primary search tool for people in the market for an engagement ring. Beyond that, the platform has become a bottomless source of information and inspiration for prospective buyers.

"What we see now is people are starting their journey by searching inside of Instagram," Johanna Tzur, the chief marketing officer of the diamond bridal retailer James Allen, told Insider. "So we create differently today knowing that someone might start there and it's a first impression.

"Our posts and stories need to vibe with the other posts appearing in their personal feed, be it a friend's breakfast plate or an influencer's showcase of his or her favorite goods," she said, "so we feature our own customers' content as much as possible."

Shane O'Neill, vice president of the jewelry-marketing firm Fruchtman Marketing, said he advises his clients to take advantage of the platform's power to educate followers.

"The big draw to social in the first place is access to information," he told Insider. "Instagram allows people to search for inspiration and see things they like and engage with, things they may not have been previously aware of."

As a result, O'Neill said, the more educated consumer is turning to custom design and high-end brands.

Lab-grown diamonds are on the rise.

One trend that shoppers on Instagram are learning about is the lab-grown diamond, an alternative to a mined diamond that can come along with ethical baggage at a steep price.

Companies like Brilliant Earth are cultivating massive Instagram followings — the company's account has 634,000 followers — and are educating prospective customers about the financial and moral benefits of pursuing a lab-created option.

"Lab-created diamonds have become a large and growing part of our base," Tzur said, "because people understand that the technology has gotten so good that visually and optically these diamonds that are made in a lab are the same in chemical composition."

Kate Austin, an influencer who developed an extensive YouTube and Instagram following for her LGBTQ activism and content — and who appeared on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" after a tweet about her engagement went viral — has used her platform to tell followers about lab-grown diamonds. Austin posts frequently about her partnership with Reeds Jewelers and its diamond-concierge service, which she said sourced diamonds for her and her fiancée that fit with their values of sustainability and social consciousness.

"I'm still able to get my diamond and not feel bad about it," Austin told Insider. "That was a huge thing for me."

Celebrities and influencers are dictating trends.

While designers try to prioritize their individuality in the jewelry space, there's no denying the impact of social media on their engagement rings.

"If a celebrity or a major blogger gets engaged with a really specific style, we will see demand for that immediately," Wegman said, citing the model and actress Emily Ratajkowski's Instagram post of her distinctive two-diamond engagement ring as an example.

"It's a super-specific ring that isn't the type of ring we would normally design here, but we definitely got requests for it right away — like, right away," Wegman said.

The obvious power of influencers is evident in retailers' prioritization of developing organic partnerships with Instagram personalities.

"We have a team that is basically, like, all day long watching what's going off on [social media] within a certain demographic set which reflects ours," Tzur said.

James Allen, she added, has developed a formula assigning a value to an influencer's following and engagement rate to determine what, exactly, the influencer can be gifted.

An important part of the influencer relationship, Tzur said, is providing an authentic experience.

"We try to give them the exact same experience that someone would have coming on our site," she said — adding that, of course, influencer status comes with extra perks like VIP access to one of James Allen's founders.

The ring-selection process, however, is virtually the same. "We're starting with the consumer and asking, 'What would you want?' 'What's your dream ring?' or, if it's working with an influencer's partner, 'What is she like?'" Tzur said. "And these are exactly the questions that our customer-service team would ask."

Austin, who has 148,000 Instagram followers, recalled a similar process when partnering with Reeds for her fiancée's ring. "We never discussed a discount to begin with; I never knew what it was going to be until they told me the final price," she said. "I think that we just created such a good relationship between the two of us, and we enjoyed working together."

Wegman said Ring Concierge chooses partnerships carefully, working only with influencers who are likely to engage with the brand outside of a partnership and have followings that mirror the business' target audience.

"You can blow through huge budgets on an influencer campaigns and not see a return," she said. "We're finding more benefit in influencers that may have smaller followings but their followers are more in line with our customer base in terms of life stage and taste level."

Instagram is helping partners stay informed about their preferences.

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Buying an engagement ring has become a collaborative process for many couples, aided largely by Instagram.

"The vast majority of appointments are couples coming in together," Tzur said.

Brent Neale, another jewelry designer, said she increasingly sees men who know what their partners are interested in — often because of Instagram content their partners alerted them to.

"I always wonder how they found out about us," she told Insider. "They tell me, 'She sent me DMs of these things of yours that she likes.'"

Gottlieb recommended showing photos of desired ring styles to a significant other before starting the purchasing process. In a recent Instagram Story Q&A, she recalled saving images to a folder on her computer to help nudge her now-husband in the right direction.

Shoppers want a personalized, immersive experience — and they want it fast.

Retailers are facing a challenge to appeal to many millennials' preference for experiences over things while catering to their expectation of immediate "shopability" of products. Thus, they have to marry experiential shopping with seamless customer service via social media.

"When we create, we're creating things that can be immediately shopped and learned about and done in a way that's distinctive," Tzur said. "On the one hand, people want experience, but on the other hand, they just want 'click, buy, cart, comes to me now.' And I think that's only going to continue getting more pronounced."

Offering an authentic experience largely determines James Allen's Instagram account's aesthetic. "We favor posts that we think will make our followers want to be there, in that precise moment, wearing our jewelry and experiencing our products," Tzur said. "This calls for genuine moments in natural settings, perfectly imperfect snapshots in time, where our product is part of the action."

Wegman described Ring Concierge's social-media strategy as inviting her followers to experience her lifestyle through the brand. Her styled Instagram posts, shot on an iPhone, chronicle her daily appointments and travels.

"We show what I'm doing day to day, where I am. If I'm in Italy, all the pictures that week are real-time taken from Italy," she said. "And so our followers feel very connected to me, and it also helps them connect with the brand. It's also a way for them to almost see themselves in the brand."

The second branch of her strategy caters to buyers' need for expediency — which largely means answering Instagram DMs to create an in-store experience via a virtual setting where the shopper is most comfortable.

"If that's the way they're wanting to connect with us, we certainly want to be able to get back to them in real time," she said. "And we want to get back to them on the channel they're comfortable chatting on."

Mom-and-pop retailers are disappearing.

The explosion of e-commerce — and the social-media literacy required to run a business — has damaged many of the smaller, independent retailers in New York's historic diamond district, the stretch of 47th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue.

Todd Ingwer, a designer who works for his family business, Leo Ingwer, on 47th Street, credits social media with the industry's largest changes.

"If you haven't stayed up on it and you haven't taken it seriously, well, you walk down 47th Street and you see a lot of empty booths," he told Insider.

The fine-jewelry industry appears to be suffering beyond the diamond district. The Jewelers Board of Trade reported last year that 852 US jewelry retailers closed in 2018. By the jewelry-industry analyst Edahn Golan's calculations, fine-jewelry retail sales amounted to $63.8 billion in 2017, with a 60% drop in annual growth since 2000.

By contrast, Ingwer said, some entrepreneurs are taking advantage of changes in the market.

"You're seeing a lot of new companies create what I think is almost an entirely new genre of retail in this industry," he said. "And those who do it well are definitely reaping the benefits, especially those who did it well and got on board early."

Leo Ingwer has effectively adapted to the social-media era by leveraging platforms' space for storytelling, he said.

"Through social media, I can communicate our company story directly to the end consumer," Ingwer said. "So that they understand who we are and what we're about and what makes us remarkable."

• Read more:
• An engagement-ring store is paying a couple to travel Europe in search of the most romantic proposal spots
• The engagement-ring styles everyone will be wearing in 2020, according to jewelry experts
• A jeweler who makes custom engagement rings took me behind the scenes of a workshop in NYC's Diamond District, and I finally understand why people drop 6 figures on rings

• Facebook said it will allow US political candidates to sponsor branded content on Instagram, as long as they follow certain guidelines that brands currently have to adhere to.
• In a statement to Business Insider, Facebook said "there's a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms," and that it will allow content as long as the influencers who post the sponsored content disclose it through specific tools on the platform.
• The policy comes after The New York Times reported that Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign was paying meme accounts to post campaign ads in the form of self-deprecating memes. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook will allow influencers on Instagram to post sponsored content paid for by political campaigns, as long as they clearly label the posts as branded content, the company said in a statement. 

Influencers who post content on Instagram that is sponsored by political campaigns will have to use the platform's "branded content tool" to clearly label the post as sponsored, Facebook told Business Insider. 

"After hearing from multiple campaigns, we agree that there's a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We're allowing US-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content, provided the political candidates are authorized and the creators disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools."

The change comes after The New York Times reported that Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign was paying meme accounts to post political ads poking fun at the billionaire candidate. 

Bloomberg, whose net worth is over $61 billion, is not accepting political donations to his campaign. He has spent over $200 million in ads as of early February. In comparison, Bernie Sanders' campaign spent over $9 million.

The memes paid for by Bloomberg's campaign recently did not use an in-app label that posts were a "paid partnership with" the campaign, like the labels used when influencers post content sponsored by companies. 

Instead, the memes said in captions that "(Yes this is really sponsored by @mikebloomberg)" or "(paid for by @mikebloomberg)." 

Facebook said it is asking those meme accounts to "retroactively use the branded content tag." 

But, Facebook said it won't store sponsored political content in its "Ad Library" unless those ads were promoted. Instagram only makes money from promoted posts and advertising; branded content like Bloomberg's is posted by independent influencers who are paid by brands, or in this case a political campaign. 

Elizabeth Warren, who is also running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, took issue with Facebook's policy.

"Refusing to catalogue paid political ads because the Bloomberg campaign found a workaround means there will be less transparency for the content he is paying to promote," Warren said in a tweet on Friday. "Mike Bloomberg cannot be allowed to buy an election with zero accountability." 

The Bloomberg campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Facebook also told Business Insider that this won't change its policy that prohibits fact-checking politicians, a position that it has received criticism for in the past. 

The company said it will tell third-party fact-checkers that politicians' speech in sponsored content can't be fact-checked, but that if the content is the voice of the independent creator or influencer, that speech would be eligible for fact-checking. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Traditional Peruvian restaurant in NYC serves beef heart skewers

• Camille Demyttenaere and Jean Hocke travel the world taking daring photos together.
• The married couple went viral thanks to a photo they took on a train in 2019, which they told Insider looked much more dangerous than it actually was.
• The couple told Insider that their tricks for capturing daring photos including scouting locations in advance, practicing their poses, and using a wide lens.
• "For us, creating a picture like this is a form of art," Demyttenaere told Insider.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Camille Demyttenaere and Jean Hocke are a married couple and Instagram influencers who travel the world together.

The couple is originally from Belgium, but they're based in London and spend the majority of their time traveling.

When Insider spoke to them recently, they were spending a month in Switzerland.

The couple got married at the end of 2017, and the photos they took on their honeymoon at the beginning of 2018 gave them the travel bug.

"We were posting about very unique and special places because we like adventure," Demyttenaere said.

Demyttenaere and Hocke went viral in 2019 after they posted a photo of themselves hanging out of a train.

The photo makes it seem as though Demyttenaere and Hocke could have fallen to their death if they lost their grip, but the couple told Insider's Rachel Hosie that the post, which had over 70,000 likes at the time of writing, was actually an optical illusion.

In reality, the couple would've fallen onto the tracks, which are quite wide, if something had gone wrong during the shoot.

The camera's angle and the turning train hide the track.

The train photo isn't the only picture the couple has taken that looks dangerous, and they said that's intentional.

"Whenever we were posting something that was looking a little bit more daring, we could feel that people were getting very excited, in both positive and negative ways," Hocke said of their followers' responses to those kinds of pictures.

The couple also said they "will try to prepare the pictures to get a cool end result" whenever they find something that looks "a bit daring."

"The focus of our pictures is to make them visually appealing," Demyttenaere said, and if they are able to get a photo that appears somewhat risky, that's an added bonus.

But Demyttenaere and Hocke have a set procedure that keeps them safe, even during their more daring photo shoots.

"The first very important part is the preparation," Hocke said.

Although Demyttenaere and Hocke's photos have a natural look, they're actually carefully planned, particularly in terms of where the shoot takes place.

The duo told Insider that they look to Pinterest, Instagram, and even magazines for places to take interesting photos. 

"It's always something prepared," Demyttenaere said of the locations for their photo shoots.

After they pick a spot, the couple works out the timing for their photo shoot.

"Once we know the spot, it's very important to know when to take the pictures," Hocke told Insider.

"In Brazil, where we're hanging off the rock, you have the sun exactly in your face if you go there in the morning," Hocke said of this picture, taken on the Pedra do Telégrafo in Brazil. "So you have to come in the afternoon."

"You have to know when and in what conditions to take the photo."

They appear as though they could fall to the beach in this shot, but there's actually a surface below them that the angle doesn't show.

"And that means sometimes you have to come back several times," Demyttenaere said of the timing of shoots.

Demyttenaere explained that the conditions were not exactly right the first time around for many of their photo shoots. 

"So we have to go back a second time to get it right," she added. 

This photo, taken on a bridge in Jaipur, India, had to be shot at sunrise.

The bridge becomes crowded with tourists during the day, so the couple had their photo shoot at sunrise to avoid people.

Demyttenaere said she also always goes barefoot during their shoots, as she has a better grip and it makes her less likely to fall.

"The third point is to have the right lens," Hocke said of setting yourself up for success with photo shoots.

"Typically, when you want a lot of the background behind you, you need to work with the wider angle lens," Hocke said.

"It means you can take a photo from pretty close up but still have the effect of the person looking kind of far away. And you can capture a lot of the surroundings."

"That's especially good when you want to do some optical illusion type of photo," he added.

The couple told Insider they also practice their poses in advance of their photo shoots.

"We try to position ourselves in a way that looks very cool," Hocke said. 

They often practice their poses, so they can get the shot they want with ease when it's time to click.

"We always try to do it in a safe spot before to make sure we nail the pose," Hocke told Insider of their practice sessions.

They said it's also important to take multiple photos.

Demyttenaere and Hocke make sure to have several options for shots, even if they're not the ones in control of taking the photos. 

Having more photos increases the likelihood they'll get a shot worth sharing.

"The angle and the way the picture is taken is always very important," Demyttenaere told Insider.

"For instance, in the train picture, it was very important to take the photo while the train was turning," as that created the illusion there were no tracks to catch them if they fell, she explained.

Likewise, in the photo of the couple posing on the edge of a cliff, they positioned the camera below them to make the shot look more dramatic.

They also told Insider they take the majority of their photos with a tripod, as they prefer taking their own pictures since third parties can't know exactly what they want.

Hocke said people often think capturing a viral photo mostly requires luck, but he believes a lot of planning actually goes into getting a daring shot.

"We knew exactly what we were doing, and we almost hoped it would go viral in a way," Hocke added, speaking of the train photo.

"We put a lot of effort into it," Demyttenaere added.

"We would never put ourselves in a situation that could potentially be life-threatening," Demyttenaere said.

"The problem we face is that these kinds of riskier photos go over well, so where is the limit?" Hocke said.

They said they wouldn't put themselves in a life-threatening situation, though they do put themselves at risk of injury, like breaking a bone.

"We make it look much more dangerous than it actually is," Hocke said of their photos.

Some people criticize the couple's dangerous photo shoots, but they said that won't stop them from taking daring pictures.

"For us, creating a picture like this is a form of art," Demyttenaere told Insider. "We want to create a certain feeling or emotion in our followers, and it's part of what we do."

"We don't think we should restrict ourselves to non-dangerous pictures," Hocke said.

The couple also shares behind-the-scenes tips for their shoots on their Instagram stories, showing others how to be as safe as possible if they choose to replicate any of the photos. 

You can follow Demyttenaere and Hocke on Instagram here.

• Creator and controversial YouTuber Jake Paul is launching a movement for like-minded young people called the "Financial Freedom Movement." 
• The movement kicks off with a rally in California this Saturday, and continue with a video series taped by Paul in collaboration with "business experts."
• The videos will apparently "teach young adults about credit, jobs, insurance, loans, dealing with roommates, co-workers & bosses as well as social media, saving money and how to make extra money with apps, skills, brains & hustle."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jake Paul is launching a "movement" in the name of forgoing a college education, and after "months of preparation," it begins this Saturday, February 15, 2020. 

In a promotional video for the event, Paul expressed sympathy with young people who are grappling with the pressure to "go to college, get a job, and retire at 65."

"There's over one trillion dollars in student loan debt," Paul warns, "and people with outdated educations who can't even get a job for the student loans they took out that now haunt them for life."

Declaring that he's "had enough of it"— "it" being conventional notions of success, perhaps — Paul insists his generation is "smarter" and "deserves better."

His proposed solution to this dilemma? 

"We need to create a movement for our generation," Paul said. "One that inspires people to take action, to achieve their dreams, not the dreams our parents have for us or our society...A movement that anyone who's courageous enough to follow can have a much higher chance of becoming financially free."

In an announcement shared to Instagram, serial entrepreneur and fellow event organizer Dan Fleyshman offered additional details on the movement. 

"Jake created video content with business experts to teach young adults about credit, jobs, insurance, loans, dealing with roommates, co-workers & bosses as well as social media, saving money and how to make extra money with apps, skills, brains & hustle," Fleyshman's caption continued. "It's all the things we wish we learned about in high school, instead of Trigonometry & other subjects that don't prepare us for the real world."

Fleyshman then invited followers to "rally" alongside Jake, "create picket signs," and "voice their opinions on the $2 trillion in college debt." On the registration page for the seemingly "free" event, which is set to take place at Hollywood Sports Park, a paintball and airsoft park in Bellflower, California, participants are instructed to bring "picket signs, colored markers, and posterboards." 

At the moment, it's difficult to discern what, if anything, Paul hopes to achieve with this venture. But his pitch for the project will sound incredibly familiar to those who remember Edfluence, the now-defunct educational platform and media course Paul launched in 2018. 

• Read more:
• Jake Paul says he and his brother Logan are the 'big bad wolves' of YouTube that everyone wants to see fail

• Jake Paul says his controversial influencer squad Team 10 would be lost without him: 'I'm the special secret sauce'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 31 coolest jobs in the world

• Seán McLoughlin, also known as Jacksepticeye on YouTube, has a massive following of 23 million subscribers.
• He started making videos in 2012, which have now racked up over 12 billion views. His massive following has helped him raise millions of dollars for charity.
• McLoughlin spoke to Insider about how these numbers have never felt real, and the importance of still being close to his audience.
• He's also learned over the years to take a step back from YouTube and not share everything online because that only leads to burnout.
• YouTube is "a very emotionally and mentally driven thing," he said, so it's important to remember your self worth comes from more than your channel and numbers alone.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Seán McLoughlin originally wanted to be a voice actor because he was obsessed with the characters in TV shows and games while he was growing up in County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland.

After a few years of casually commenting about them on YouTube videos, he tried filming some himself in 2012. This ended up being the start of his journey to becoming one of the biggest online creators in the world.

"I just wasn't really doing anything else with my time back then," he told Insider. "I was pretty miserable, so I wanted to do something with my time and my life, and I didn't have the motivation to do anything."

McLoughlin only made around $10 every couple of months when he first started, but back then "it was kind of a pet project to figure out how to edit and play games at the same time."

"I thought, 'Great, I'll just put that towards lunch,'" he said. "It was about a year and a half before I was making decent revenue I could actually rely on and could think about getting my own place and doing [YouTube] full time."

Jacksepticeye has one of the biggest audiences in the world

Now, eight years later, McLoughlin has just turned 30 years old and his channel Jacksepticeye has over 23 million subscribers and 12 billion views — numbers, he said, that haven't ever felt real.

"I was talking to friends about this a couple of times — after about 6 million, it all starts to feel like the same," he said. "I don't know why it's that number ... After that, you realize the number gets bigger and the views might grow, but the sense of doing it and how you feel kind of stays the same."

He said it's a bit like doing a presentation in front of 20 people versus 1000 people, then 15,000 people, and so on. Similarly to his friend PewDiePie— YouTube's biggest creator with 103 million subscribers — McLoughlin isn't enamored with the idea of being famous.

"It's gone beyond where I ever thought it would," he said. "So I just blanked out the numbers after a while and kept making videos because the numbers get scary very quickly."

McLoughlin's subscribers watch him play video games, vlog about his life and what's going on in the world, and even occasionally act. It's easy to see why they like him so much they've created an extensive collection of fan fiction, with his infectious positivity, lively "Top of the morning to ya laddies" and high fives to greet you at the start of his videos.

He even manages to make playing bizarre mobile life simulator games entertaining.

'If I can't get to everybody that doesn't mean I shouldn't get to anybody'

McLoughlin still feels connected to his fans even though they make up such an unbelievably massive group.

"I've been to conventions a few times over the years and I always see the same faces come back and see the same names on Twitter," he said. "Maybe [the connection] is not as strong as when the channel was smaller, but I still try and connect to at least someone.

"I always said that if I can't get to everybody that doesn't mean I shouldn't get to anybody."

Many creators fall into the trap of over-sharing on YouTube

McLoughlin has gone through a transition over the years about what to share with his growing audience. At first, he didn't think anyone would be interested in him as a person because "I personally didn't care about my self on a personal level that much."

"So [I] just tried to be entertaining and show people the best side of me," he said.

"Not in a fake fashion or made-up fashion, but this is me at my best when I'm recording these videos, and everything outside of that, I didn't think there was anything else people cared about."

He soon found that his fans did want to know more than simply the game he was playing that day, and started to open up more. He now does regular Q&As where people can learn more about him.

He's also experienced the pitfalls of sharing too much, though, and realized the more he was giving to his audience the less he had for himself, like spending time with his girlfriend, fellow YouTuber Evelien Smolders, or playing games without the pressure of filming them. He thought he would end up "conceding endlessly" sharing more and more, and there was no limit.

"I've kind of held back and kept some more stuff to myself lately because I don't think the internet should know every single tiny thing about me," he said.

"I think a lot of creators fall into wanting to share everything with your audience because they mean so much to you."

'I am more than Jacksepticeye, I am my own life outside of that'

All YouTubers slowly learn the value of balancing their work and private lives, and that balance is different for everyone, McLoughlin said. At one point he was uploading twice a day, but it started to take over his whole life.

"A lot of YouTubers and a lot of people in the community don't have a work-life balance," he said.

"Because your life kind of is your work, and it's so easy to just go home and get lost in the hours where you spend all day every day working on it, and making new content."

It was through therapy that McLoughlin realized he was working himself to the bone and took a step back so he didn't burn out completely. He took a break while he was in LA last year, and that meant no videos and no social media at all.

He returned a week later with an energy he didn't realize he'd been missing.

"For a lot of people, whatever you're passionate about, as soon as you start not liking what you're doing, and as soon as you're just doing it for the sake of doing it, it's probably time to figure out you're burnt out," he said.

"Your mental health is arguably more important than your physical health sometimes, and doing YouTube as a job is a very emotionally and mentally driven thing."

YouTubers can easily start getting their self worth from their channel and their numbers, he said, "so you realize that, when you step away, you are not your numbers."

Apart from the obvious complaints about YouTube like the ever-changing algorithms, and problems with monetization, McLoughlin said his biggest challenge has been overcoming the pressure and anxiety to keep uploading — something he's much better at now.

He's also learned to distance himself from what strangers say about him in the comments.

"It's easy to take it very personally," he said, "It's taken a long time to cope with that and realize that I am more than my channel — I am more than Jacksepticeye, I am my own life outside of that."

The community is everything

After joking that his favourite part of his job is "all the parties," McLoughlin said it's definitely connecting with his audience and talking to the people who love all the same things he does.

"Before I did YouTube I liked being in the community, it made me feel like I belonged and I was a part of something bigger than myself," he said. "I feel like if the audience wasn't there I would enjoy it probably 75% less."

His fanbase has helped him raise millions of dollars for charities like Child's Play. In one fundraiser stream for brain injury recovery in 2019, he was joined by "Game of Thrones" superstar Emilia Clarke.

McLoughlin said he likes to shine a light on causes that don't always get much attention because he didn't have much when he was growing up in Ireland as the youngest of five, scraping the money together to buy games.

"I was kind of a failure in that regard in my own head," he said. "I never felt like I amounted to much myself because I didn't really have a whole lot, so now that I have done a whole bunch on YouTube, I always want to try and give back and kind of make the world a better place if I can."

That's his take-home message: to stress out less and not get worked up by what people on the internet think when they don't know you in real life.

"Just be nice to each other online," he said. "There's so much s--- online these days and everyone's mad at each other and commenting. But everyone should not take things so seriously and just have fun with what we have."

Jacksepticeye will be attending this year's VidCon London as a featured creator, along with Hannah Witton, Tana Mongeau, and more.

Read more:

Meet the 'most underrated' creator on YouTube, who fooled a stadium with an Ed Sheeran lookalike and hatched a quail from a grocery store egg

Meet Kurtis Conner, one of YouTube's most popular commentators with big dreams of one day having a Netflix comedy special

Tana Mongeau's authenticity is the secret to her skyrocketing career, but she'll probably never date anyone in the spotlight again

From PewDiePie to Shane Dawson, these are the 26 most popular YouTube stars in the world

THEN AND NOW: How 30 of the world's most famous YouTubers have changed since their first videos

SEE ALSO: Teenagers are discovering that the world of YouTube fan fiction can have a dark, sexual, and violent side

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Over the weekend, YouTuber Jake Paul launched an online platform designed to teach "young adults" practical skills outside of a typical education and how to monetize their creative pursuits.
• The launch event for the $20-a-month platform, called the Financial Freedom Movement, featured cannons shooting $1 dollar bills into the crowd and a meet-and-greet with Paul, who was reportedly"casually double-fisting different flavors of White Claw."
• However, the new platform draws similarities to a project Paul attempted two years ago, Edfluence, which has since went defunct.
• Edfluence was a series of educational courses designed to teach people how to become social media famous. It cost users $64 to take advantage of all its perks, and teased a chance to become a part of "Team 1000," an offshoot of Paul's Team 10 creator squad.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Controversial creator Jake Paul is turning to his young fanbase to help launch an online course on how to be social media famous for the second time in two years.

Paul, 23, has launched the Financial Freedom Movement, an online platform offering an education from Paul and other influencers on how to monetize their creative interests. For $20 a month, Paul tells young adults they can be"financially free from the 'societal cookie cutter life' 9-5 jobs we are all told to have."

With more than 20 million YouTube subscribers, Paul has garnered millions of fans and attracted notorious fame over his eight-year online career. Paul's "Financial Freedom Movement" is undeniably targeted at his younger fanbase, and its website even includes a template for a letter for parents whose kids want funds to "invest" in Paul's course.

The launch of Paul's new platform was celebrated with a wild event over the weekend hosted at a California outdoor paintball arena, Variety reports. The event included Paul and his friends reportedly shooting $1 dollar bills out of money guns into the crowd of teens, as well as the YouTuber double-fisting White Claw hard seltzers. Attendees at the event were invited to create picket signs and "rally" alongside Paul against college debt.

"I'm sick of our education system and how it's teaching kids 0 real life skills for them to secure there (sic) on future," Paul wrote on Twitter the day of the launch. "I'm creating a movement for everyone who wants to take life into their own hands and learn real life skills from actual professionals."

It's unclear how extensive the series of education videos are, although the website teases videos from influencers and "top millionaire instructors," many who appear on YouTube doing entrepreneurship seminars and motivational speeches. The website also says users get "weekly coaching calls" with Paul, and teases a "top prize" of flying out to film a vlog with Paul and his creator squad.

Paul never completed high school; he dropped out before his senior year to move out to Los Angeles with his older brother, Logan Paul, to pursue a career that was just taking off on now-defunct app Vine. However, this isn't the first time that the younger Paul brother has tried to capitalize on his stunted education to sell instructional courses to fans.

It's only been two years since Paul launched Edfluence, a series of videos teaching fans "how to be social media famous."Paul promised to teach users "things that have taken me years to master" for just $7 — then an additional $57 to actually unlock all 74 videos in the course. The $64 fee also gave users entry into "Team 1000," seemingly an offshoot of Paul's collab group of creators called Team 10.

It's unclear whether Paul's "Financial Freedom Movement" will garner any more success than Edfluence, whose website no longer exists.

Just two months into 2020, Paul has already had an eventful year. Following in the highly publicized steps of his older brother Logan, Paul took on YouTube gamer AnEnsonGib in a boxing match in January and was handed the victory midway through the first round. Days before the new year, Paul and YouTuber Tana Mongeau announced they were "taking a break" after a nine-month whirlwind relationship and a $500,000 Las Vegas wedding.

Paul is also no stranger to controversy. He's been accused of turning his Los Angeles neighborhood into a "living hell", and he was fired from a leading role in a Disney channel show. The collective of creators he runs, Team 10, is a constant source of drama from former members who leave with stories to tell.

"The Paul family is sort of notorious," Paul told Business Insider earlier this year. "Everyone wants to see the big bad wolves fall."

Join the conversation about this story »

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• While YouTube stars profit from broadcasting their lives and relationships to millions of subscribers, they're forced to reveal painful changes in their personal lives — like breakups with their fellow vloggers.
• The majority of YouTuber couples seem to prefer announcing their breakups via videos, usually titled "We Broke Up."
• Some of the platform's most visible "power couples" have paved the way for influencers breaking up in the public eye.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you type "we broke up" in YouTube's search bar, you'll find an endless list of videos, featuring thumbnail images of forlorn couples sitting side by side and gazing hopelessly into the camera.

It used to be only celebrities would need to release a joint statement about their uncoupling, but breakup videos on YouTube are a glaring reminder that when you're an influencer, your love life requires a public declaration.

Here are 15 YouTuber power couples that made waves online for their very public and very dramatic breakup videos. 

February 2020: Scotty Sire and Kristen McAtee said they weren't "growing together" anymore.

YouTubers Scotty Sire and Kristen McAtee announced their breakup in early February via a six-minute video uploaded to Sire's channel, appropriately titled "we broke up."

Sire, whose YouTube channel boasts 2.9 million subscribers, met McAtee, who has her own 1.2 million-subscriber following, in 2015. For the next five years, the two produced content together and separately — from cooking vlogs, to relationship update videos, to imitations of friend David Dobrik's content. 

"There's no right way to do this, and we might look like goofs right now," a teary McAtee joked in the video. "But we broke up."

"It's difficult," Sire added, "but we know it's the right thing."

Ultimately, McAtee said, the two had outgrown the relationship. "I think it just got to a point where we just grew apart. We weren't growing together anymore," she explained. 

The exes assured viewers that they will remain friends, perhaps even reuniting for a cooking video. And McAtee will be keeping the couple's beloved dog, Link. 

The video, at the time of this post, has received nearly 3 million views. 

January 2020: Jason Ethier (also known as JayStation) and Alexia Marano waged a social media war after Ethier faked Marano's death.

Jason Ethier, known by his 5.5 million subscribers as JayStation, caused an online uproar in January during his tumultuous split with girlfriend and fellow YouTuber Alexia Marano. 

On January 21, Ethier uploaded a now-deleted video to his channel, claiming that Marano had been killed by a drunk driver. In the following days, he uploaded additional vlogs of himself visiting Marano's supposed memorial and communicating with her via ouija board. 

Ethier's subscribers, who viewed his behavior as suspect and tasteless, expressed outrage in the comments section of the videos and demanded a response from the 29-year-old vlogger.

On January 27, Ethier posted another video admitting that Marano was, indeed, alive. The scheme, he said, was the couple's joint effort to boost the following of their prank channel Dream Team. He also claimed that Marano had left him and was accusing him of assault with a weapon. 

"Alexia is trying to ruin my life because of videos that she helped me make," he said in the since-deleted video, which received over one million views. 

Marano responded to her ex's claims with a video of her own, in which she denied wanting any involvement in the hoax and accused Ethier of being controlling and manipulative throughout their relationship. 

On February 3, Ethier was arrested on charges of assault and assault with a weapon, according to a statement from Toronto Police. He is expected to appear in court on March 16.

 Marano continues to post videos to her personal channel where she has 61,000 subscribers. 

January 2020: Jeffree Star and Nathan Schwandt split over the pressures of viral fame.

Makeup mogul and YouTube phenom Jeffree star announced his split with boyfriend Nathan Schwandt in a YouTube video titled "We Broke Up," posted on January 11. 

"I never thought the day would come where I'd be sitting here talking about this," Starr told his 17.4 million subscribers, confirming the rumors that began weeks earlier when Star disappeared from social media and removed all mentions of Schwandt from his profiles. "I'm starting this year off alone."

The YouTube star explained that Schwandt, who appeared in multiple videos with Starr over the course of their five-year relationship, struggled to adapt to the pressures of viral fame. "It's difficult because Nathan never wanted to be in the spotlight," he said.

The pain of the split, Starr said, was compounded by betrayals from family.

"We've had family try to reach out to the media to make money off of me and Nathan's breakup," he said. "I don't even know how to process that. We're over here heartbroken, dealing with our emotions, dealing with things behind the scenes and off-camera, and there's family trying to tell the media fake stories, get money out of it."

 Throughout the 17-minute video, Starr referred to Schwandt as his "soulmate" and his "one and only love."

Starr closed out the video by thanking his subscribers for their support and promising to return soon with makeup content. 

The video, at the time of this post, has received over 30 million views. 

January 2020: Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau broke up to focus on their careers.

YouTube royalty (and arguably, the most controversial creators on the platform) Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau took to Instagram to announce their split on January 2, just six months after their Las Vegas wedding.

The couple went public with their "relationship" in April of 2019 by posting videos of their hangouts to their respective channels — simultaneously cuddling, admitting the videos were just to stoke the flames of YouTube gossip, and kissing. Paul even referred to the pair as "two of the biggest sociopaths on the Internet."

Two months later, Paul proposed to Mongeau on her 21st first birthday, fueling ongoing confusion about the legitimacy of the relationship.  The couple's lavish July wedding — costing a reported $500,000 — involved private jets, a mansion, multiple wedding cakes, a replica of Jon Snow's sword from "Game of Thrones," and even a mid-ceremony fistfight. 

The YouTube stars never actually made their union legal; the couple didn't sign a marriage license because, as Mongeau stated in a video about the wedding day, saying legally-binding paperwork "takes away the love."

Paul's Instagram post announcing the "break" from the relationship, posted on January 2, featured a photo of the couple snuggling with their dog, Thor. 

"As Tana and I sit next to each other writing captions about taking a break we're literally laughing at how crazy and stupid the past couple months have been," he wrote. The 22-year-old insisted that he wouldn't "change anything that happened" and that two remain "best friends."

He joked that while he would retain custody of their dog, Tana would be keeping his prized Lamborghini. 

Ultimately, Paul said, the two needed to step back to focus on their own lives and careers. "luv u mongeau," he closed out the post, which has since received 690,000 likes. 

Mongeau posted an identical photo and echoed her ex's sentiments.

"i'm happy to still be able to sit with Jake and laugh as we do this," she wrote. "i''ll never know what the future holds and i will always love Jake and everything we did."

The 21-year-old expressed excitement for the new year, also joking about her "new Lamborghini."

"i love u Jakey. thank u for this past year," she closed out the post. It has since received 860,000 likes. 

The split came in the wake of an emotional video Mongeau posted to YouTube titled "the truth about everything. (the wedding, jake, alissa, erika, mtv, mental health, drugs, etc)." In the clip, the YouTube star suggested that her relationship had been struggling since the wedding. 

Finding out that Paul met up with his ex-girlfriend YouTuber Erika Costell just a month after their vows, she said, rocked their already-fragile relationship. Paul releasing a new song about ex Alissa Violet, then posting an old photo of them kissing to his Instagram, only compounded the newlyweds' problems.

"I felt like I was opening my phone every day to something that just broke me further," she said.

July 2019: Alissa Violet and FaZe Banks sparred on Twitter over his alleged infidelity.

After almost two years of dating, FaZe Banks and Alissa Violet — known as "Balissa" to their combined 9 million YouTube subscribers — ended their relationship, confirming rumors that began circulating days earlier when Violet unfollowed Banks on Twitter.

Before the split, the model and Chief Operating Officer of e-sports organization FaZe Clan frequently appeared in each other's vlogs. In 2017, Banks even confirmed the relationship with a YouTube video titled "My New Girlfriend." Later that month, Violet posted a cryptic tweet that read "Alissa Violet Marie Banks," causing fans to speculate that the two were engaged. 

Rather than opting for the traditional "We Broke Up" video, Violet posted a simple tweet announcing the split. 

"single violet thrives," she wrote, receiving over 80,000 likes.

Banks' tweet confirming the split required several extra sentences.

"Love that girl to death and always will," he wrote. "I'll never say a bad word about her." The tweet, to date, has received over 165,000 likes. 

While Banks insisted the breakup was "mutual" and that the two would remain friends, Violet took to Twitter months later to clarify the circumstances of the split. 

In a tweet that received over 155,000 likes, the vlogger wrote that she caught Banks cheating on her in the guest wing of their house. 

Banks, in between thousands of comments on the post, wrote, "I love you," in response to the allegations, to which Violet replied with a screenshot of the former couple's text messages (with Banks listed as "scumbag" in her phone). 

December 2018: Lance Stewart and Lizzy Wurst ended their relationship to "find themselves" as individuals.

High school sweethearts and former Vine stars Lance Stewart and Lizzy wurst, who have a total of 7.1 million subscribers between their respective YouTube channels, posted a joint video to Stewart's channel titled "we broke up" in December of 2018. 

"We are no longer together," Wurst said through tears.

"It's a buildup of things over time," Stewart added, explaining that the couple had been "bickering" for the last 6 months. 

The exes assured their subscribers that there was no bad blood. 

"I will always have a love for him," Wurst said, reminding viewers that the two began dating when she was just 14 years old. "I believe that us separating is going to help us find out who we are as an individual."

The two followed through on their promise to remain friends, even reuniting on Wurst's channel in 2019 for an "ex-boyfriend tag" video. To date, the breakup video has received over 4 million views. 

November 2018: Jake Paul and Erika Costell were "heartbroken" that they couldn't fix their relationship.

Jake Paul and Erika Costell, referred to as "Jerika" by their combined 24 million YouTube subscribers, dated for seven months before Paul announced their split on Twitter.  

Over the course of their relationship, the vloggers frequently featured each other in videos and kept their audiences guessing about the status of the relationship. The couple even posted a YouTube video in 2017 in which they appeared to get married, although Paul claimed in an interview months later that the two were not married — or even dating. 

The relationship, it seemed, became legitimate earlier in 2018 when Costell was featured in Shane Dawson's "The Secrets of Jake Paul" documentary. The two were filmed holding hands and Dawson commented that the relationship "didn't feel fake."

In his tweet announcing the split, Paul admitted to "barely holding it together" and called the split "heartbreaking."

To date, the tweet has received over 52,000 likes. 

September 2018: Laura Riihimaki (also known as LaurDIY) and Alex Burris (also known as Alex Wassabi) said they weren't "on the same page."

Laura Riihimaki, known as LaurDIY to her 8.9 million YouTube subscribers, and vlogger Alex Wassabi announced the end of their three-year relationship in a video posted to Riihimaki's channel in September of 2018. "Laurex," as the couple was referred to by fans, insisted the relationship wasn't over for good — just "taking a nap."

"Basically, we just feel like we both need specific things and we're not fully on the same page and we need to take time apart," Riihimaki said. "So for us to come back better and stronger, we have to take time and focus on ourselves."

To date, the video has been viewed over 12 million times.

June 2018: Liza Koshy and David Dobrik said they grew "distant" in their relationship.

Over the course of their two-year relationship, vloggers David Dobrik and Liza Koshy had become one of YouTube's most beloved couples, posting content chronicling their joint Target runs and disastrous vacations. The Dobrik & Koshy content, however, came to an end with a video titled "We Broke Up," posted to Dobrik's channel. 

The split, they said in the emotional six-minute video, actually happened six months prior, but the pair was planning to remain friends and re-evaluate their relationship in the future. 

"Liza broke up with me because she felt like we've been kind of distant because we've just been so busy. Period," Dobrik said. "And, as much as I hate to admit it, I was feeling that on my side, too."

The exes made an effort to keep the video light.

"How's my hair?" Dobrik asked Koshy.

"Receding," she joked. 

The viral video has received 60 million views to date. Koshy, thanks to the widespread interest in the couple, even appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to discuss the split. 

The vlogger-turned-actress explained that she and Dobrik needed six months to process their breakup before broadcasting it to their combined 33 million subscribers.

"We wanted to heal first," she said. "We wanted to give ourselves some time to come to an understanding and be able to be best friends and be in each other's lives still without being in a romantic relationship and still be able to create online."

Colbert offered his sage advice on the couple's continued friendship, calling it a "terrible idea."

May 2018: Jaclyn Hill and Jon Hill said they "grew apart" over the course of their nine-year marriage.

Beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill and her husband of nine years, Jon Hill, announced their divorce via matching Instagram posts in May of 2018. The announcement followed months of speculation from fans after the two unfollowed each other on social media and the makeup guru was noticeably absent from her channel, where she has 5.9 million subscribers. 

In her Instagram post, Hill stressed that choosing to divorce was "one of the hardest decisions" of their lives, but they were confident that they'd made the right move. 

"My heart is broken by this, but I still believe in love," she wrote.  

The post has received over 660,000 likes to date. 

Jon echoed his wife's sentiments. 

"This is obviously not the future we envisioned," he wrote, citing "growing apart" over the course of their decade-long relationship as the impetus for the split. 

February 2017: Jake Paul and Alissa Violet waged a months-long social media war over their ill-defined relationship.

YouTubers Jake Paul and Alissa Violet, who once collaborated on videos through creator coalition "Team 10," opted out of a joint breakup video, choosing to air split drama over Twitter. 

"Jalissa," as the pair came to be known, never officially confirmed a relationship, although they appeared together in videos beginning in August of 2016. The vloggers also lived together in a house with fellow social media stars Neels Visser, Alex Lange, AJ Mitchell, and twins Lucas and Marcus Dobre.

In February of 2017, however, Violet dropped hints on Twitter that things were rocky. 

"Jake rhymes with snake," she wrote, receiving 13,000 likes. 

The cryptic tweets continued, and Violet ushered followers to her Snapchat story for more information.

In her Snapchat video, Violet alleged that Paul had moved her belongings into the Team 10 house foyer and changed the locks, effectively kicking her out. 

Paul took to Twitter to defend himself, writing: "Predicted this is what she'd do. Jalissa WAS real. The problem is she cheated on me. I am the victim, not her," in a since-deleted post. 

Violet fired back that the relationship wasn't real, citing Paul's flings with "girl after girl."

The vlogger also posted a note accusing Paul of emotional abuse, explaining that she would cry herself to sleep while living in Team 10 House.

In response, Paul tweeted his admiration for Violet, calling her "super talented" and promising fans that the two would "work it out."

Violet, however, was not impressed and shut down the possibility of any reconciliation. 

Months later, Violet uploaded a video titled "What you've been waiting for," in which she shared her side of the "Jalissa" relationship and breakup. 

"I never thought someone could be so malicious and evil," Violet said of Paul's decision to remove her from the level 10 house. 

"I lost all my friends," she said. "When all that happened, everyone kind of went to Jake's side because they're in contract with him."

The pain of the split, Violet added, was compounded by a negative encounter in which Paul's father told her to "go f---" herself. 

Years later, in 2019, Paul would go on to produce a nostalgic song about Violet titled "These Days," which he cited as a contributing factor in the breakup of Violet and then-boyfriend FaZe Banks. 

October 2016: Colleen Ballinger and Joshua David Evans said their marriage had some "terrible times" that subscribers never saw.

YouTube icon Colleen Ballinger, known for her online persona Miranda Sings, devastated fans in an emotional YouTube video announcing her divorce from husband Joshua Evans. The couple, who chronicled their entire relationship online, from their first date to their wedding vows, developed a devoted online following. 

The image the couple created online, Ballinger said in the now-deleted video, was not the full picture. 

"We have always had a rocky relationship since the beginning, we've always butted heads, we've always fought ever since we met. It's never been a perfect relationship," she said through tears. "We've chosen to share our relationship online. You've watched us date, get engaged, get married. We've shown you everything because we wanted to and I don't regret any of that but, you know, we chose to not share with you the hard parts of our relationship and there were a lot of hard parts of our relationship.

Evans posted a video of his own titled "Heartbroken," in which he suggested that the relationship had been rocky. "We've had some great times and terrible times over the past eight years," said. 

He clarified that the divorce, however, was not a mutual decision. 

"I do not want this divorce," he said. "I want her but I truly believe she thinks she's making the right decision right now and I can't make her decisions for her."

May 2016: Jesse Wellens and Jeana Smith said working together was "not healthy" for a relationship.

YouTubers Jesse Wellens and Jeana Smith, known for their PrankvsPrank and BFvsGF videos, announced their split in 2016 with a video posted to Smith's channel titled "A NEW CHAPTER."

Working together to constantly produce content, the couple said, strained their partnership.

"Don't make daily videos," Smith advised her 8.8 million followers. "We both can agree it's not healthy, it's not good for your relationship."

Several days after posting the breakup announcement, Wellens told his followers in a series of now-deleted tweets that he believed he had a long-lost teenage daughter — and he planned to move to New York City where the girl lived with an adoptive family. 

March 2016: Hannah Hart and Ingrid Nilson decided to go their separate ways while remaining friends.

"My Drunk Kitchen" star Hannah Hart and fellow YouTuber Ingrid Nilson, dubbed "Hangrid" by their subscribers, shocked fans by announcing their split via Twitter in March of 2016. 

The vloggers, who appeared on each other's channels and walked red carpets together over the course of the relationship, appeared to be smitten.

"To have a peer who is also my partner, who does what I do and gets this world, this world that we live in, but also gets the world inside ourselves? Oh my god. I couldn't be happier," Hart said in a feature in DIVA Magazine's October 2015 issue. 

The split, Hart insisted in her tweet confirming the breakup, was amicable. "Ingrid is an incredible woman," she wrote. "She remains my personal hero in more ways than one."

The tweet, to date, has received over 10,000 likes. 

Nilson posted a now-deleted tweet of her own in which she said that she would always "love Hannah beyond words" and that the two had broken up months earlier, but delayed a breakup announcement while they took time to process the split and worked on "building a friendship."

July 2015: Shane Dawson and Lisa Schwartz said they felt both "joy" and devastation over their decision to split.

Over the course of their 4-year relationship, YouTubers Shane Dawson and Lisa Schwartz solidified their place as one of the internet's favorite power couples. The pair, who frequently posted videos together, shocked fans in July of 2015 when they announced their split. 

Days after the announcement, Dawson posted a coming out video titled "I'm Bisexual." 

In the 14-minute video, which has since received over 10 million views, Dawson discussed his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and how Schwartz fully supported him when he opened up to her. 

"I dont know who I'm gonna end up with, and I don't know what my life is gonna be," he said, "but I just wanna be honest about it."

Schwartz uploaded a video of her own to address the split, titled "Explaining My Breakup."

"I feel a lot of joy for Shane," she said through tears, "because for years I watched him suffer. And for years I hurt for him. And at the time, I didn't know why he was suffering."

Despite the pain from the split, Schwartz explained, she knew the decision had given both her and Dawson a chance to live a happier future.

"I was able to help give him this opportuntiy to be himself," she said, "and now I'm also able to help myself and give myself the best chance of being free, of having the ability to find someone who's able to love me fully."

Schwartz added that she would repeat the relationship "in a heartbeat" and would always love Dawson. 

The video has since received over 5 million views. 

Years later, in July of 2019, the couple would revisit their breakup in a video titled "What Really Happened (with Shane Dawson)," posted to Schwartz's channel. 

In the video, the former couple addressed some of the misconceptions surrounding their split — mainly, the rumor that Dawson's sexuality caused the breakup. In reality, the two said, they were grappling with emotional and mental health issues.

"That period of time was quite dark because I think we needed each other because we were both lost in so many different ways — career and so many different things," Dawson said in the clip. "It was very much a family bond and trauma bonding, almost."

Schwartz recalled just how bittersweet the split was and how she forced to confront conflicting emotions.

"Breakups are awful and the one with you was so painful. But then at the same time, I was so proud because once we got past that stuff, then I was proud for you," she said. 

Since the split, Schwartz has gone on to write a book titled "Thirty-Life Crisis" and has gotten engaged to comedian Jeff Galante. Meanwhile, Dawson has grown his massive online following and gotten engaged to fellow YouTuber Ryland Adams. 

Read more:

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The whirlwind romances and breakups of YouTube stars fuel our appetite for increasingly extreme and dramatic online entertainment

• As 'primary season' rages on, candidates are not just seeking the endorsements of political figures, Hollywood stars, and publication editorial boards; they're hoping to win over influencers.
• Over the last eight years, YouTubers and social media influencers have increasingly harnessed the power of their massive followings. 
• While plenty of influencers shy away from political content in order to protect their follower counts, several candidates have secured endorsements from major content creators. 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

With primary season in full swing, Democratic hopefuls are seeking endorsements beyond the standard political figures, Hollywood stars, and editorial boards. As Michael Bloomberg's campaign demonstrated by spending millions on a bizarre social media campaign — partnering with popular Instagram meme accounts and micro-influencers to create content — candidates value an aggressive social media presence. 

As a result, influencer endorsements may play a critical role in the 2020 presidential election. Content creators are aware of this power and several have harnessed the power of their massive followings to make political statements.

Here are 13 influencers who have endorsed presidential candidates. 

Trisha Paytas has voiced support for Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the past, although she frequently admits to trolling subscribers and knowing 'nothing' about politics.

YouTuber and self-described online troll Trisha Paytas has never shied away from sharing her opinions online — and keeping her 5 million subscribers guessing about what's real.

In 2012, Paytas posted a video to her channel endorsing Mitt Romney, in which she called the candidate "super hot."

"I thought, since this is my first election voting, I would share some of my viewpoints and opinions just to, sort of, help your decision either way," Paytas told subscribers, citing Romney's appearance as her "number one" reason for the endorsement. "We haven't had a hot president since Kennedy, but we know how that ended. So I think it's time."

Weeks later, the vlogger posted a follow-up video in the wake of intense backlash from her Romney endorsement video. While she encouraged viewers to vote for whoever they wanted, she stuck by her initial Romney endorsement, noting that Barack Obama's "taxes on tanning" motivated her sudden political activism.

In 2016, Paytas posted a since-deleted video expressing support for Donald Trump and making disparaging remarks about immigrants. 

However, when the clip resurfaced on Twitter in 2019, Paytas apologized with another video titled "I do NOT support Trump" in which she said she'd "never voted a day in [her] life" and knew "literally nothing" about politics. 

She added that her previous Romney endorsement was "satire" and that "dumbing herself down" was a part of her brand at the time. 

Paytas has not yet endorsed a candidate for the upcoming presidential election and has not responded to Insider's request for comment. 

Tyler Oakley voiced his support for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and, more recently, has expressed admiration for both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

YouTube star Tyler Oakley, who has accrued over 7 million subscribers in his decade-long vlogging career, has made political activism a core part of his online presence.

In 2015, the vlogger wrote a blog post titled "DEAR 18+ YR OLDS USA" in which he voiced his support for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.

"IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THE WEALTHY SHOULD PAY HIGHER TAXES THAN THE LOWER / MIDDLE CLASS IF YOU BELIEVE WE SHOULD CUT MILITARY SPENDING
VOTE FOR BERNIE SANDERS," Oakley wrote. "I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES!!" 

He went on to campaign for Hillary Clinton after she received the nomination, traveling to swing states to encourage students to participate in early voting.

The night before the 2016 election Oakley even uploaded a video to his channel with the nominee herself.

"Everything you care about is at stake in this election," Clinton said in the video.

"Women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, gun violence, climate change. If those things are important to you, you have to get out and vote," Oakley added.

To date, the video has been viewed over 730,000 times. 

After the general election, the vlogger voiced his disappointment and encouraged his 6 million Twitter followers to harness their frustration and prepare for the following elections. 

Accordingly, Oakley's political activism continued into 2020. In January, Oakley took to Twitter to voice his support for both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. 

While Oakley has not specifically endorsed either candidate, he has openly voiced his distaste for Democratic hopeful Michael Bloomberg as well as Bloomberg's influencer-focused strategy.

In recent weeks, Oakley has retweeted posts criticizing Bloomberg's past comments about the trans community and mocking the campaign's effort to recruit positive online buzz. 

The YouTuber also posted a screenshot of a Wall Street Journal article detailing Bloomberg's social media efforts to his Instagram story. 

"LMAO NOPE," Oakley captioned the photo. "If any of y'all trying talking to me about this man..."

Casey Neistat endorsed Hillary Clinton with a 2016 video in which he challenged other YouTubers and content creators to speak up in the weeks leading up to the election.

YouTuber Casey Neistat broke a pattern of relative political neutrality on his channel when he endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016. The vlogger, who boasts a following of nearly 12 million subscribers, uploaded a 3-minute video titled "who i'm voting for president."

"Hillary Clinton," he said in the opening frame of the video. "I will be voting for Hillary Clinton."

Neistat explained that he typically found politics to be divisive, but chose to weigh in due to the dire circumstances. 

"I'm speaking up now because this election has very little to do with politics, policies, or legislation. This has to do with morals and principles," he said, referring to Donald Trump as a "megalomaniac driven by nothing but ego."

Neistat went on to challenge his fellow YouTubers and content creators to have a "backbone" and to use their platforms to speak up in the weeks preceding the election. 

"The top 20 YouTubers reach over a billion views every single week," he said. "We have the power to activate a demographic, an electorate, that typically isn't very active, and that is young people."

As the 2020 presidential election nears, Neistat has expressed enthusiastic and continued support for former Democratic hopeful Andrew Yang. In January, the vlogger tweeted a video of Dave Chapelle endorsing Yang and encouraged his followers to caucus for the campaign.

After Yang dropped out of the race, Neistat tweeted that he "missed" the former Democratic hopeful during Wednesday night's debate and supported CNN's decision to include Yang as a political commentator. 

Grace Helbig compared Donald Trump to "that asshole" from school group projects in a 2016 video endorsing Hillary Clinton.

YouTuber and actress Grace Helbig responded to Casey Neistat's call to action in 2016 by endorsing Hillary Clinton in a video posted to her channel of over 2 million subscribers. 

"I will be voting for Hillary Clinton this election," Helbig said in the 9-minute video. "Donald Trump is so many things that I don't want as a representative of the country that I live in to the rest of the world."

She went on to compare Trump's confidence and rhetoric to "that asshole" who takes over group presentations in school after contributing nothing to the project. 

"I just encourage you to find out for yourself what you value," she continued. "That's ultimately what this election comes down to in a lot of ways, is where your values lie."

Helbig has not publicly endorsed a 2020 candidate and did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

In a recent tweet, Hannah Hart expressed her longtime support for Bernie Sanders.

YouTube star Hannah Hart, known to her 2.4 million subscribers for her "My Drunk Kitchen" comedy series, voiced her ongoing support for Bernie Sanders on Twitter. 

"During the last Democratic Primary, I kept the fact that I was a @BernieSanders supporter off of my social media. This year, and this election, will be different," she wrote.

Hart went on to encourage her followers to check their voter registration status. 

Elijah Daniel previously endorsed Yang before telling Insider that he'd support "anyone but Bloomberg" in 2020.

The YouTube comedian-turned-rapper took to Twitter in September of 2019 to voice his support for Andrew Yang. 

"Read up on @Andrew Yang," the 26-year-old wrote. "he's the only young candidate addressing issues that nobody else is. his politics are actually good (more than just giving every american $1,000 a month), and he has a fun and transparent personality."

Since Yang has dropped out of the race, Daniel has yet to publicly endorse another candidate. However, he told Insider that he would support "anyone but [Michael] Bloomberg."

Chrissy Teigen called Elizabeth Warren "the best candidate running today."

Model, author, and Twitter phenom Chrissy Teigen is known for being consistently vocal about her politics (and hatred for Donald Trump). While Teigen spoke highly of several democratic candidates on Twitter, she shied away from an official endorsement until October of 2019, when she revealed her support for Warren in a Vanity Fair cover story. 

"My favorite — I'm going to say it, we'll break the news today — is Elizabeth Warren," the former Lip Sync Battle co-host said. "She's the best candidate running today and she comes at it with joy and with sincerity and with a wealth of knowledge and experience."

Joseph Saladino, known as Joey Salads to his 2 million subscribers, has expressed continued support for Donald Trump.

Infamous YouTuber Joseph Saladino, known by his 2.7 million subscribers as Joey Salads, made a name for himself creating prank content, from faked child abductions to trolling Trump protest attendees. In 2019, however, Saladino decided to add 'politician' to his resume. Over the summer, the 27-year-old began campaigning for the Republican primary in New York's 11th district. 

While he folded his bid for Congress in December, the vlogger has continued to voice his support for Donald Trump (and his distaste for Democratic hopefuls) in 2020. 

Saladino frequently tweets pro-Trump videos posts criticisms of Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg (and their supporters). 

Saladino recently tweeted that he felt like "fighting an entire Left Wing Mob," writing that he would visit a "Far Left College" in the near future. 

In 2020, Emily Ratajkowski endorsed Bernie Sanders via a 2-minute Instagram video.

Model and Instagram influencer Emily Ratajkowski pledged her support to Bernie Sanders with a 2-minute video uploaded to her Instagram account in January.

In the clip, Ratajkowski sports a Bernie 2020 shirt and tells her 25 million followers that she plans to vote for Sanders in the upcoming election. 

"What he says speaks so much to what people want. That's sort of who he, it's so much beyond just one man," the 28-year-old said in the clip. "He's consistent. He's powerful, not because of who he is as one person, but because of the way that he invigorates people and excites them."

To date, the video has been viewed nearly 4 million times. 

In a January episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," podcast host Joe Rogan said he would "probably" vote for Bernie Sanders.

While comedian Joe Rogan has not cultivated a traditional 'influencer' Instagram presence,  the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast host has developed a massive online following, boasting over 7.5 YouTube subscribers. Rogan, whose libertarian-leaning persona and controversial comments frequently stir up outrage online, has never shied away from engaging in political dialogue. 

On a January episode of the podcast, the former "Fear Factor" host told writer Bari Weiss that he would "probably vote for Bernie" in the primary. 

"You could dig up dirt on every single human being that's ever existed if you catch them in their worst moment and you magnify those moments," Rogan continued. "That said, you can't find very many with Bernie. He's been insanely consistent entire life."

The Sanders campaign publicized Rogan's endorsement, tweeting a clip featuring the podcaster's praise. 

Highlighting Rogan's endorsement, however, was met with swift backlash online.

Progressive political action organization MoveOn posted a tweet that read: "It's one thing for Joe Rogan to endorse a candidate. It's another for @BernieSanders' campaign to produce a video bolstering the endorsement of someone known for promoting transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, and misogyny."

Caroline Calloway took to Instagram to announce her plans to canvass for Bernie Sanders in the spring.

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In January, influencer and "scammer" Caroline Calloway announced via Instagram (where she has over 700,000 followers) that she would be canvassing for Bernie Sanders.

Calloway uploaded a photo of herself to her Instagram story with the caption: "Two of my goals for this spring are to volunteer campaigning for Bernie and to take a training course in empathetic listening so I can volunteer for a suicide hotline."

The choice to volunteer for the Sanders campaign, she told the Daily Dot, was the result of a conversation with journalist Lauren Duca. 

"She asked me what I was doing on a monthly basis to give back to the causes I care about," Calloway said. "I realized all of my donations were financial, and I wanted to start volunteering my time in addition to pledging my money this year."

Anthony Fantano joked that anyone voting for Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire primary would receive his coveted 10/10 ranking.

Music critic and vlogger Anthony Fantano, whose channel "The Needle Drop" boasts over 2 million followers, voiced his support for Bernie Sanders via Twitter. 

"Everyone who votes Bernie in the NH primary gets a 10/10," Fantano, whose 10/10 album rankings have become highly coveted, wrote. 

To date, the tweet has received over 15,000 likes. 

Ethan Klein voiced support for Andrew Yang before formally endorsing Bernie Sanders in February.

YouTuber and podcaster Ethan Klein, whose joint show with wife Hila Klein has amassed over 2 million subscribers, endorsed Bernie Sanders with a tweet revealing his $1,000 donation to the Sanders campaign. 

"I am officially endorsing @BernieSanders for president with a $1,000 donation," the H3 Podcast host tweeted on February 11. "Although take my endorsement with a grain of salt because my qualification is that I talk about poop on a podcast all day."

Klein previously voiced support for Andrew Yang, tweeting that the former Democratic hopeful was "the only candidate" addressing looming job cuts across the US banking industry in the wake of technological efficiencies.  

Read more:

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend reveal that Elizabeth Warren is their favorite 2020 candidate

Memes parodying Mike Bloomberg's paid Instagram meme campaign are flooding the internet

• Influencers are subjected to huge amounts of negative attention and trolling, especially in the era of "cancel culture."
• Sometimes it's because they are in the midst of a scandal, but other times they become a target for no real reason at all.
• The world was shocked when British TV star Caroline Flack tragically died by suicide on February 15. Her private life had been a constant focus of certain corners of the press and social media for years.
• The impact the media frenzy and sheer volume of negative attention had on Flack's mental health cannot be ignored, especially as she spoke about struggling with depression several times.
• It's right to question people in the public eye, but the line between fair criticism and a rampant hate mob is constantly blurred, contributing to the destruction of those already suffering.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Complete shock rippled through the UK when British TV star Caroline Flack died by suicide on February 15. It was a tragic end to a story that had been picked apart and cruelly scrutinized by certain corners of social media and the press for years.

We cannot — and should not — speculate about the many different reasons why someone takes their own life. Samaritans guidelines advise against it, and people's lives reach tragic ends for reasons nobody else will understand. There is no single overarching explanation for why someone decides they can no longer deal with the world.

But it would be careless to ignore the impact the media frenzy and sheer volume of negative attention had on Flack's mental health, not least because she spoke about it herself many times.

Her experience was not unique, as so many stars, both on TV and in new media, face poisonous vitriol from all sides.

The unrelenting pressure of fame

British tabloid newspapers published hundreds of articles about Flack over her career, then deleted some of them as soon as the news broke of her death. The pressure never let off, despite her being open about her battles with depression on several occasions.

Her partner Lewis Burton, ex-boyfriend Andrew Brady, and many other famous friends condemned how Flack was treated in the public eye, calling it a "trial by social media" and "media dogpile," while placing the blame with her management, the Crown Prosecution Service, and unrelenting cruel commentators.

When Brady posed the question of who was to blame for Flack's death in an emotional blog post, he answered: "All of us."

"Her personal life [was] plastered all over the press like a bad sitcom," he wrote, attacking the "vile paparazzi" and "invasive articles."

"Her love life was a joke to you people," he said. "Anything she did was recorded, exaggerated, and paraded for the world to see."

Flack was the famed presenter of the hit ITV reality show "Love Island" before she stepped down while awaiting trial for alleged domestic abuse against Burton in December.

ITV released a statement live on air after claims from fellow TV star Amanda Holden that Flack was abandoned and "thrown to the dogs" after the charge.

"ITV has asked us just to make it clear – because there's been some discussion about this – that they did actually keep in close contact with Caroline since this domestic incident and they were constantly offering her assistance and help," Richard Madeley said on "Good Morning Britain."

The company also launched "Britain Get Talking" in October, a campaign to get families talking to each other about mental health.

But brand consultant and CEO of Studio BE, Brandon Relph, told Insider he doesn't think there are sufficient protections in place, particularly since a major study released by the Film and TV Charity last week found that nearly nine in 10 people (87%) working in film, TV, and cinema in the UK had experienced a mental health problem, and over 50% had considered suicide.

"I don't think they've gone far enough," he said. "We thought it was bad, but turns out it's even worse than we thought."

'I don't think I fully was prepared'

"Love Island" had already faced criticism for lacking proper mental health care to help the stars deal with their newfound fame, and better ease them into all the negative attention associated with it. Two former contestants died by suicide after leaving the villa — Sophie Gradon in 2018 at age 32, and Mike Thalassitis in 2019, age 26.

One islander from the 2018 season, Savanna Darnell, fell into a deep depression after being on the show for just a few days. She told Insider a major factor was all the attention she received when logging back into her social media accounts.

"It's like I went on holiday for a week and came back to people knowing who I was, talking about me, writing things about me, and wanting pictures with me in the street," she said. "I don't think I fully was prepared. I thought I was. But I didn't expect it to be how it was."

Her short stint living in Casa Amor attracted more hate than she ever realized was possible, with trolls calling her the "ugliest contestant ever" and telling her she should die from cancer.

"It ruined my self esteem," she said. "I hated the way I looked, I became stressed, my acne flared up because of it, which made me feel way more self conscious. It was a crazy experience."

The hardest part of being skyrocketed to fame was the intense wave of public scrutiny, she said, where the public thought every aspect of her life was up for grabs because she was on TV.

"They can comment on your appearance, your life, your family, your friends," she said. "It's horrible."

Darnell said she thinks TV companies have started looking after their stars better "because of past events," but she would have benefited from therapy and help as soon as she exited the Love Island villa.

"Even when you feel like you don't need it, you should be made to go, because I was in denial when I came out," she said. "I felt like I was fine when I really wasn't."

The bully, the target, the bystander, and the defender

Media Psychologist Pamela Rutledge told Insider cyberbullying creates roles: the bully, the target, the bystander who willingly allows the abuse to continue, and the defender who speaks out.

"But even having defenders may not offset the negative emotions of hurtful content if someone is already depressed," she said.

Fame makes someone an easy target for bullies and haters, she said, with repetitive, intentional, and personal insults they can make anonymously on social media. This encourages the individual to behave in a way the would be unlikely to in real life, and fuel "cancel culture" through the excitement of behaving badly.

"Social media makes it easy for haters to gain critical mass, forming a relentless cyber-mob spewing vitriol that can undermine self-image and worth," she said.

"A celebrity can be reached through mentions and hashtags, and the interaction is visible to a larger audience, encouraging similarly needy others to join in and experience whatever thrill they get from anonymous meanness."

When it's all coming at them at once, it's hard to remember where this hate stems from: A reflection of the bully's many shortcomings.

"Whether that's a projection of the bully's aggression and sense of powerfulness, a projection of unwanted feelings, jealousy, obsession, a lack of empathy, or an attempt to increase their own sense of social power and rank by diminishing another," Rutledge said.

Online stars fight hate all the time

Rutledge said quitting social media sometimes feels like the most logical solution against online abuse, but this isn't viable for influencers whose careers depend on keeping in touch with their fans.

This is a quandary for influencers, particularly YouTubers, who are subjected to flurries of criticism and hatred at the online community's whim. Gabbie Hanna, a creator with over 6 million subscribers, for example, is particularly susceptible to scrutiny. So much so, it feels like everyone watching her videos is just waiting for her to screw up.

She spoke to Insider for a previous article about her struggles with body confidence, saying she doesn't even look at her comments anymore.

"I feel very detached from social media," she said. "I basically use it as a job where I post and then I go and then that's it. I don't harp on what other people think or say because it can get very hateful and I'm just not at a place in my life where I'm willing to deal with that type of energy."

The latest installment of drama came from a mistake she made in a recent now-deleted video. She followed a TikTok trend where she transformed herself into an "e-girl," but didn't realize she had included an image of Bianca Devins — a teen who was brutally murdered in 2019.

Online commentators and tea channels soon noticed Devins' photo and accused Hanna of using a dead girl's story for attention.

YouTubers and Twitter users called her a narcissist and made accusations about her character, even after she uploaded an apology. A video later posted by Devins' mother and sisters still wasn't enough to halt the flood of hate, with channels still accusing Hanna of crocodile tears and trying to manipulate the situation.

Relph said one of the major problems with cancel culture is how people make knee-jerk reactions and upload or comment them in real time. The online world moves so quickly that taking longer to react is frowned upon and portrayed as avoidance.

Hanna, for example, blurred out Devins' photo when she became aware of the criticism. Then she remained silent while she contacted Devins' mother. Onlookers, meanwhile, read this as callousness because it fit into their narrative of Hanna being a villain. In the end she could do nothing right.

Psychologist Pamela Paresky told Insider in a previous article that the human brain's concept of community makes us start to see strangers on the internet like neighbors. If we think they do something we think is wrong, we don't like to associate with them any more.

This means drama elicits incredibly emotive responses from fanbases, and online personalities can quickly fall into categories of all good or all bad. Their reputations are considered fair game and the repercussions of bullying on their mental health are not even considered.

When Logan Paul and James Charles went through their scandals in the last couple of years, for instance, they lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a matter of hours.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they thought their careers were coming to an end," Relph said.

Creators often take breaks after a scandal to try and block out the hateful noise, but it's hard to do. A close circle of friends and family might not be enough to offset the feeling of the whole online world turning against them, leading to a growing sense of intense isolation.

"Social media platforms are ill-equipped to police haters," Rutledge said. "The sheer range of what constitutes hateful messaging makes that untenable except in the most blatant cases. No one is watching out for us but ourselves."

Those in the public eye are free to scrutinize, and so they should be — they are public figures setting an example to generations of younger people. But there has to be a line between fair criticism and a rampant hate mob, because how can anybody be expected to learn from their mistakes if everyone turns against them?

One of Flack's last public messages before she took her own life has now become her legacy. She told people to simply "be kind."

"I'm lucky to be able to pick myself up when things feel s---, but what happens if someone can't,"she wrote in a post raising awareness for mental health day last October. "Be nice to people. You never know what's going on. Ever."

It seems as though no matter how many tragedies we experience, the gleeful take-down circus is rolled out time and time again. We all play a part: the casual commentators, journalists, and the companies standing by, complicit in watching the downward spiral. 

Cancel culture can't be blamed for every suicide, but there is no doubt it plays a part in destroying the mental health of vulnerable people who are already suffering.

Everyone in the world has a responsibility to think hard and really ask themselves what role they want to be known for — the bully, the bystander, or the defender.

Read more:

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The struggle YouTubers are facing with their body image isn't just a result of vanity. It's a long-standing battle between hate comments, constant comparisons, and self-compassion.

The world's biggest YouTube stars told us they're burning out because of the unrelenting pressure to post new videos

Why the beauty community on YouTube is one of the most turbulent and drama-filled places on the internet

SEE ALSO: Nearly half of influencers think their job impacts their mental health, from body image to facing scrutiny of their integrity and work ethic

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Paris Hilton spoke about her issues with trust in an interview with Cosmopolitan.
• She said she has tried therapy in the past but doesn't stick with it because she "doesn't really trust anyone."
• Hilton had a private sex tape of her and her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon leaked to the public in 2003. She was just 20 years old in the video.
• Speaking to Marie Claire in 2018, she said the scandal deeply impacted her mental health and she couldn't leave her house "for months."
• Hilton now seems to know her worth when it comes to partners, telling Cosmopolitan they "have to be perfect" if she's going to settle down.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Paris Hilton opened up about her life as a businesswoman, influencer, and pop-culture icon in an interview with Cosmopolitan. As well as discussing her famous family and friendships with Kim Kardashian and Nicole Richie, Hilton also spoke about her love life, and the troubles it has brought her.

Hilton said trust is a big issue for her. She said she's had "a little bit" of therapy, but can't see one for a sufficient period of time because she "doesn't really trust anyone."

A private sex tape of Hilton and her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked in 2003. She was just 20 years old when it was filmed two years previously.

She told Marie Claire in 2018 that the video was "the most embarrassing, humiliating thing that has ever happened to me in my life," and the leak deeply impacted her mental health.

"I could not leave my house for months," she said. "I was so depressed, humiliated. I didn't want to be seen in public."

Celebrities and regular people are now more at risk of having their private photos and videos uploaded to the internet than ever before largely thanks to the introduction of cloud services. Hilton told Cosmopolitan that "none of these things are 100% secure," so she would recommend never having anything on there "you wouldn't want the world to see."

Speaking to Marie Claire in 2017, Hilton said meeting Salomon was the one regret she had in life. She seems to now know her worth when it comes to partners, as she's been single for about a year since breaking up with Chris Zylka.

She told Cosmopolitan it "feels good to not have someone controlling me," and Zylka just wasn't the "right person" for her.

"I feel like I'm an incredible woman and I deserve someone so amazing," she said. "It just didn't feel right. I've worked way too hard to just give my life to someone. They have to be perfect."

Read the full interview here.

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SEE ALSO: The frenzy of unrelenting online bullying further destroys the mental health of those already suffering, and everyone has a role to play

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• YouTube stars Manny MUA, Kaiser Coby, and Plumbella spoke about how their online and offline lives compare at this year's VidCon London.
• Manny MUA, who has over 4.7 million subscribers, said he likes to share a lot with his audience, but this comes with downsides. Twice on dates, he has been asked to "collab" afterwards, he said.
• Coby, who has over 400,000 subs, said she likes to be more private, especially as her family never signed up to be in the public eye.
• She said the social media world can be a bit toxic, "and not everyone is ready for that."
• Plumbella, a streamer, said she has "no filter" so struggled to keep things from her audience of over 300,000. She's even accidentally leaked her address a couple of times.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTube stars Manny MUA, Kaiser Coby, and Plumbella took part in a panel at this year's VidCon London called "My Online Life vs. My Offline Life." They discussed how they decide what to share with their fans and what to keep private, how to switch off from online, and whether being digital stars has impacted their personal lives.

Coby, a makeup guru, said she liked to keep her work life and personal life separate, mostly so her family and friends are kept away from it all.

"I signed up for this but they didn't," she said. "I don't really like to involve my family and my friends and stuff because the social media world sometimes can be a bit toxic and not everyone is ready for that."

She said she tends to find it hard to completely switch off because she's always worrying about her followers and whether they're missing her. She said she feels guilty leaving them without content, and the only way she can truly take a break is if she goes on holidays.

Manny MUA, real name Manny Gutierrez, reiterated what he told Insider in a recent interview— he likes to share a lot of his personal life, what he does day to day, and his mental health. He said he thinks it's important to be open about things, even though he has over 4.7 million subscribers.

"I feel like it makes you more of a human being in a weird way," he said. "I have a family, I have friends, I'm not a psycho. I show I have a normal life too."

He doesn't share everything, but what he chooses all just comes down to a gut feeling.

"Sometimes I feel more open and sometimes I feel more private, and that's totally fine," he said. "It ebbs and flows."

Gamer Plumbella, real name Jesse McNamara, is best known for her videos where she plays The Sims. She streams all the time on Twitch three times a week, and posts two videos, so she finds it hard to keep anything from her audience of over 300,000. Even though this means she has accidentally leaked her address a couple of times.

"I don't have a filter at all," she said. "Everything that happens in my real life I talk about online, but especially with streaming — it's such a one on one experience and it's like live talking. I just get carried away sometimes."

She said it's often down to her confidence and her self esteem on any certain day.

"If I'm feeling quite confident I'm really open, whereas if I'm a little bit down, I share less," she said.

One thing she's started opening up about more is her autism. She said it's great to have subscribers and even their parents contact her to say how much she's helped them.

"They say 'I can't believe you have the same thing as me,'" she said.

Coby said she's learned that sharing more with her followers can be a good thing. At one point last year her skin started breaking out and she feared people wouldn't be interested in her makeup looks anymore.

"One day I just woke up and had loads of spots on my face, and I was like so scared because my canvass is my face," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, what is going on? Will everyone still like me?'"

Her friends kept telling her to be honest about what was going on, so she posted about it on Instagram.

"I did get a few negative trolls, but the love and support I got from people, from my supporters, was phenomenal," she said. "They were so encouraging. They really helped me through it. They were giving me recommendations, try this out, do this. I would do this, some would fail, some would succeed. and it was literally such an amazing experience."

She said she's still learning to trust people because having a large platform — over 400,000 subscribers — means she prefers to be around the people who knew her before her success.

"Making new friends and new relationships and stuff you never know people's intentions," she said. "People do sometimes have other agendas, using you for clout or status and stuff like that so it is a bit scary."

Gutierrez learned this the hard way. He spoke about his dating life and how twice men had asked him to collab with them when the evening was over.

"So I would say my work life does affect my personal life in that way," he said, "because you never really know if someone is trying to be in your life for the right reason."

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SEE ALSO: Beauty superstar Manny MUA says being 'canceled' led to the darkest period of his life. Now he writes his own narrative.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Twin YouTubers Lucas and Marcus Dobre pulled a prank on friends and family where they pretended to fall asleep at the wheel.
• They used Tesla's Autopilot function to keep the car moving while they took it in turns to act out taking a nap in the driver's seat.
• As funny as the reactions were, this is actually pretty irresponsible. The basic Autopilot function that is available to consumers requires drivers to have both hands on the wheel at all times.
• Simon Alvarez points out in a blog post for Teslarati that "pretending to be sleeping while Autopilot manoeuvres around city streets is not an example of responsible behavior."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTuber twins Lucas and Marcus Dobre decided to pull a prank on their friends and family for their YouTube channel that has over 19 million subscribers. They drove around in their Tesla and pretended to fall asleep at the wheel while using the car's Autopilot function.

At the beginning of the video they say that Autopilot means the car can drive itself, but this is actually wrong. Tesla is careful to point out on its website that its semi-autonomous Autopilot driver-assist system — the basic Autopilot that is available to consumers — "is intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any time."

Regardless, the twins prank their brothers and fellow bandmates, Cyrus and Darius, Lucas' girlfriend, and their video editor Alex. They took it in turns to turn on the Autopilot and then pretend to fall asleep. Each prank victim reacted with shock and tried to shake them awake before the prank was revealed.

The twins seem to think nobody was in any real danger, but the reality is they could have been. Simon Alvarez points out in a blog post for Teslarati that "pretending to be sleeping while Autopilot manoeuvres around city streets is not an example of responsible behavior.

"YouTubers with massive followings such as at the Dobre twins are best advised to be more careful and aware of the risks involved in misusing Autopilot," he wrote.

Even the twins' older brother Cyrus said they "can't trust" the Autopilot fully.

Insider has contacted the Dobre twins for comment.

This isn't the first time Tesla's Autopilot function has been irresponsibly used by influencers — on YouTube, there are several videos about sending the cars through a drive-thru with nobody inside.

In May last year, adult entertainer Taylor Jackson and her boyfriend filmed themselves having sex in a moving Tesla and uploaded it to the adult website PornHub.

Jackson told Insider at the time that they joked about it at first then "thought that would make a great porno." They said there were a lot of cars driving by while they were filming.

Tesla's founder Elon Musk later responded to the film in a fairly relaxed manner, saying, "Turns out there's more ways to use Autopilot than we imagined," and added that he "shoulda seen it coming ..."

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The family of an Apple engineer is suing Tesla over a deadly Autopilot crash

SEE ALSO: James Charles mocked YouTuber band the Dobre Brothers with a parody video of their miserable meet and greet

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• In his latest vlog, David Dobrik he surprised his publicist Megan Smith and his assistant Taylor Hudson with matching white Mercedes — one CLA Coupe and one GLC Coupe.
• "No, no, no, this isn't real," said Taylor. "You're kidding me."
• Megan was speechless with shock and started to cry.
• "This is way too nice for me," she said as she opened the door and got inside. "It's so beautiful and it's so nice, and I love you."
• Together, the cars cost at least $86,000 for the base models.
• Thanks to the companies The RealReal, SeatGeek, and EA Sports, Dobrik has managed to gift nearly everyone in his life brand new cars.
• Among some of the best surprises were giving Reggie Castro a new Mercedes when he came out as gay to his parents, Heath Hussar a brand new $290,000 Lamborghini Huracán, and Jason Nash a Tesla while he was on holiday.
• He's also gifted two brand new cars to his assistant and best friend Natalie Mariduena, a Chrysler minivan (and Chipotle burritos for a lifetime) to a homeless man, and $25,000 to a struggling single mom.
• The lesson here is that if you're in David Dobrik's life, you're probably going to get a car at some point.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

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SEE ALSO: YouTuber David Dobrik gave a homeless man a car and free Chipotle burritos for a year

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Though beauty influencers rule the internet now, they didn't always exist.
• Just a few years ago, many of today's most popular internet stars had jobs that were entirely different than what they do now.
• James Charles, for example, sold Instagram pages and worked at a frozen-yogurt shop as a teenager. 
• Jaclyn Hill, on the other hand, has always been a makeup artist — she got her start working at a MAC Cosmetics store.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

In 2020, it's tough to imagine a world without beauty influencers.

Not only have they changed the way we shop for makeup, but beauty influencers also provide constant entertainment through their videos and internet drama. However, many of today's makeup moguls were doing everyday jobs just a few years ago.

From James Charles to Jeffree Star, here's how 11 influencers made their livings before becoming famous.

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Manny Gutierrez, also known as Manny MUA, has worked in both service and athletic fields.

Back in April 2019, the YouTuber shared a tweet about five jobs he's worked in the past. At the time, he said he's been a volleyball coach, restaurant host, waiter, Sephora employee, and MAC Cosmetics makeup artist.

When one fan questioned his volleyball skills, Gutierrez revealed that he even went to the Junior Olympics while in high school.

Chloe Morello's past jobs range from wine tasting to bartending.

Just like Manny MUA, Morello shared her work history on Twitter in April 2019. In the past, she's cleaned motel rooms, tended bar, modeled, worked as a belly dancer and instructor, and also as a plot coordinator at a crematorium. 

One fan seemed particularly shocked by the latter job, and asked if Morello enjoyed the work. The YouTuber replied and said she did.

More recently in January, the YouTuber shared a similar list with two additional jobs: wine taster and sales assistant.

Laura Lee has held numerous retail jobs over the years.

On Twitter in January, Lee said she's worked as a cashier in a pet shop, wine store, and Dick's Sporting Goods. She also said she's worked at a day-care facility, as a medical assistant, and as a Cheeburger Cheeburger waitress.

In response to her tweet, a representative for Dick's Sporting Goods said: "We miss you, Laura."

Though he started making YouTube videos at a young age, James Charles still found time to work a "regular" job.

In February, Charles appeared on Philip DeFranco's A Conversation With podcast. When DeFranco asked if the YouTuber had ever worked a "regular job," Charles said: "Yes! I worked at a frozen-yogurt shop called 16 handles in my hometown."

According to Charles, he was 16 at the time and "loved" working for the company. He also noted that he balanced the job with his growing internet career, meaning he would sometimes film a YouTube video, "speed" to work, and then complete his homework when he'd get home at night.

The YouTuber said later in the podcast that he also "started businesses online" at a young age, and sold two Instagram pages for $15,000 when he was 15 years old.

In addition to her makeup expertise, Nicol Concilio has a lot of medical experience.

In January, the YouTuber wrote on Twitter that she's worked as a dog washer, receptionist, and bank teller. She also shared some insight into her medical background, which includes jobs as a medical assistant, EKG tech, and phlebotomist, or a person trained to draw blood.

Tati Westbrook listed her "weird jobs" during a 2016 YouTube video.

During the video, Westbrook said she's worked as a freelance makeup artist, cashier at Gap, "perfume sample lady," accountant, and celebrity personal assistant. She also said she's been a jewelry seller at Costco, Starbucks barista, bartender, dog groomer, and consultant at a bareMinerals counter at Nordstrom.

Additionally, Westbrook has worked as an actor, appearing in shows like "Greek" and "Unsolved Mysteries."

Patrick Starrr has come a long way since his early days working in the beauty industry.

Before becoming a YouTuber, Starrr worked as a makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics. His career came full circle when he collaborated with the brand in 2017, which he announced in a YouTube video.

"I freelanced at MAC, I freelanced at Macy's, shout out to Florida Mall, shout out to Millenia, shout out to Orlando," Starrr said in his video. "Orlando is a place where I got to foster my artistry." 

He's since released numerous collections with MAC Cosmetics.

Jaclyn Hill also got her start working for MAC Cosmetics.

When she released her first Morphe eye-shadow palette in 2017, Hill used Twitter to reflect on her career journey.

"I was just a girl working at MAC living on food stamps because I couldn't pay my bills," Hill wrote at the time. "Five days ago we sold out of my palette in 43 minutes."

Before becoming a YouTuber, Jackie Aina served in the military.

In a 2018 interview with Insider, Aina said she joined the army in 2008, and had a lot of free time because she was in the reserves. She began looking for a creative outlet, and eventually made a YouTube channel.

Aina has also mentioned on Twitter that she previously worked at a MAC Cosmetics store.

Emily Noel's previous career as a morning news anchor led to the creation of her YouTube channel.

Noel started her YouTube channel back in 2007, and originally did so while working as a morning news anchor for WSIL-TV. In 2012, she posted a YouTube video announcing that she'd be leaving her news position to further pursue online opportunities.

"I'm approached with more opportunities relating to this YouTube channel than I can accept, and I never would've imagined it would've grown to this," she said in the video. "This started as a hobby thing, and it continues because I have the love and passion for it." 

Jeffree Star went from musician to makeup mogul.

As Insider's Jacob Shamsian previously pointed out, Star has worked in makeup before from working at beauty counters to doing makeup for brides and celebrities after graduating high school.

He eventually became famous on Myspace around 2003, and briefly pivoted to music — he released music videos, an album called "Beauty Killer," and even toured.

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• Influencer Ava Louise filmed herself licking a plane seat toilet, starting a bizarre "coronavirus challenge."
• "Please RT this so people can know how to properly be sanitary on the airplane," she said.
• She told Insider she did it because she didn't want coronavirus getting more attention than her.
• "What's not gunna make people sad is a hot rich blonde 20-something-year-old licking a toilet," she said. "It's not like the virus can kill me anyway because I don't use Facebook."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

An influencer filmed herself in a plane toilet licking the seat as part of a "coronavirus challenge."

Ava Louise has appeared on the "Dr. Phil" show and has 19,000 TikTok followers and 150,000 Instagram followers. She posted the video to her Twitter on March 14.

"Please RT this so people can know how to properly be sanitary on the airplane," she said with "love" and "sweating" emojis.

People responded with disgust that she would do such a thing just for the attention.

"The whites are at it again," one person said, while another responded "Classy."

A day later, Louise confirmed that she started the coronavirus challenge for "clout" and that her actions were no worse than "eating a dude's a--."

"I can't get coronavirus,"she added. "Just like the gays, rich blonde b------ are IMMUNE."

Louise also started spreading awareness of important social issues.

"OK so now that you're all on my page — racism is bad," she tweeted. "Gay people are good. Transphobia is grosser than me licking a toilet. Good day."

Louise told Insider she licked the toilet seat because she was "tired of some b---- named corona getting more publicity than ME." She added that "hot blondes" can recover from anything so there's "no harm done."

"The xenophobia makes me sad," she said. "What's not gunna make people sad is a hot rich blonde 20-something-year-old licking a toilet. It's not like the virus can kill me anyway because I don't use Facebook."

"It was iconic," she added. "ALS bucket challenge could never ... Period."

Overall, her video pretty much had the desired effect, she said.

"I just wanted more attention than this corona bitch but she's GOOD," she said. "So I capitalized off her. And now I'm like global news. My mom told me she's proud of me I shed light on pandemic while wearing Fendi sunglasses ... The serve."

The video has also helped her song "Skinny Legend Anthem" go even more viral, she said, with TikTok megastars like Chase Hudson (lilhuddy) using it in their videos.

Swab tests have shown the most bacteria and fungal spores on a plane are found on the headrest, seatbelt buckle, tray table, and inside handle of the washroom door. There are probably also more things to catch at check-in than in the bathrooms, and toilet seats may be comparatively quite clean.

That's not to say you should go around licking things.

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• Trisha Paytas caused a stir on the internet once again for claiming she has Dissociative identity disorder (DID).
• DID is a psychiatric diagnosis formerly known as Multiple personality disorder, where people have several alters.
• It is always linked to early childhood trauma, where the personality is fragmented to protect the mind from tremendous pain, according to professor of clinical psychology Robert T. Muller.
• Whether or not Paytas does have DID, she spread several huge misconceptions about it in her video — many of which were explained by Nin, the host of YouTuber Chloe Wilkinson's system, on their channel DissociaDID.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Trisha Paytas caused havoc on the internet once again when she posted a YouTube video called "MEET MY ALTERS." In it, she claimed to have Dissociative identity disorder (DID), a psychiatric diagnosis formerly known as Multiple personality disorder.

The video, where she talks about having multiple distinct personalities called T, Trixie, Tyson, Tierney, and Tobolter, has currently been watched over 700,000 times, and has 75,000 dislikes at the time of writing. Much of the outrage came at Paytas because she spread misinformation about the disorder, diagnosed herself rather than going to a mental health professional, and used outdated and offensive terms.

Despite no formal diagnosis, Paytas said DID is what she feels is the best fit. We cannot know whether she really does have DID, but what is clear is that the incorrect statements she makes throughout the video are incredibly damaging to both people who have DID and those who want to learn more about it.

Spreading ignorance only intensifies the stigmas surrounding people who live with DID, who are strong and resilient, but already vulnerable because of what they have been through.

Paytas seems to misunderstand how alters work

Paytas' first error in the video is saying that alter stands for people who have multiple personalities. Alter actually stands for "altered state of consciousness," which are the different personalities who can front as part of a person's DID system.

Paytas also seems to misunderstand how alters work. There is no one original personality that controls all the others, but several fragments that are all whole in themselves.

YouTuber Chloe Wilkinson, who identifies as part of a DID system and runs the channel DissociaDID, detailed Paytas' errors in an informative video. She explained how the alter who is at the front most often is called the host, but all of them are their own entities with their own personalities, skills, ages, sexes, and interests. Wilkinson's host alter Nin was the personality present while filming the video.

"A very simple way that I like to put it is, if you were to drop a glass bowl, and it shatters into a number of pieces on the floor, which piece is the original piece?" she said. "They are all part of the same bowl. But they are also all their own individual pieces. They matter just as much on their own as they do when they were part of a bowl."

DID is always linked to early trauma

DID expert Robert T. Muller, a professor of clinical psychology at York University in Toronto, told Business Insider that every case he has ever seen has been linked to early childhood trauma and abuse. Work by other psychiatrists such as Bethany Brand has solidified this theory.

When a child goes through something that is too damaging and harmful for them to comprehend before the personality fully forms at around ages 7 to 9, the mind dissociates. The child's mind cannot deal with the trauma and so it puts up a wall, often known as an amnesia barrier, to protect itself. This is when the personality splinters off so some parts remember the trauma and other parts don't, so the person develops several personalities instead of one.

It's essentially a defence mechanism for the mind, like playing possum, only it has been taken to the extreme, Muller said.

"In order to develop DID, there has to be repeated childhood trauma before the ages of where your personality fully integrates," Nin said in her video. "Amnesia walls prevent the personality being able to fully combine."

DID does not exist without dissociation

Another misconception Paytas fuelled is that she must have DID because she takes on parts of other people's personalities and mannerisms. In reality this is just part of interacting with people. As Nin explained in her video, everyone is a product of every person they've interacted with — that's just how personalities grow.

Paytas also said some of her alters dissociate while others don't, but the truth is DID does not exist without dissociation. All alters filter in and out of consciousness.

It is possible to be coconscious, Nin explained, which means having two or more alters being at the front at the same time, sharing thoughts and interacting. But most of the time, alters are independent, and one will not know what the other has been doing because of the amnesia barrier.

Paytas suggested she got certain traits from each of her alters, blaming her failed relationships on her more turbulent ones, for instance. But alters don't really work like that.

One of Wilkinson's other alters, Kyle, is strong on his own, but so is Nin. One alter may appear when extra patience, kindness, or resilience is needed, but they exist as their own people, and they do not live for the host.

"Sometimes when you are blendy, or you are coconscious, it is really difficult to tell where one alter stars and the other ends," Nin said. "They were created to keep you safe, to protect you, but they're not necessarily there to serve you. They don't belong to you. They're their own people. So their emotions are their emotions."

It's also unlikely each alter will know who has been there before them, or feel another one coming, because of the amnesia wall.

People with DID are not 'crazy'

Paytas also throws around the term "crazy," which is a deeply insensitive term to describe anyone with a mental illness. Nin said this feeds into the idea that people with DID are seen as evil or characters in horror films, like M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Muller said alters being depicted this way could originate from the fact there is often a juvenile part, who is childish to their approach to the world, and then a "persecutor" who is very aggressive.

"[It's] a part that actually wants to torture themselves in a way, but to the person when they're in the persecutor role, they feel powerful and their cruelty feels powerful to themselves," he said.

This doesn't mean the alter wants to wreak havoc on anyone else, as usually it's a means of punishing themselves. As with some other victims of abuse, people with DID also may have very low self-esteem and self-worth, he said. This misconception also fuels people thinking DID isn't real because it's too fantastical.

"It's one of those conditions that people find spooky, and distressing to talk about, so they don't think it is a real thing, and people just make it up," Muller said.

Nin said hearing doubt like this is deeply hurtful because it's not just denying the disorder, but it's a denial of the childhood trauma too.

"Can you imagine how devastating that is?" she said in her video. "For somebody to look into your eyes as you're expressing this very vulnerable part of yourself, something that has happened to you, because somebody did things to a child that nobody should do ... And say, 'You're nuts, it's not real, you're making it up'?"

Alters do not die

After introducing all her alters, Paytas said it felt like one of them was dying. This is not something that happens. Alters can integrate with each other through therapy if they start to understand the trauma they went through and are guided through memories of the past without getting badly triggered by them. They can also go dormant if their certain protections aren't needed.

We should not doubt Paytas' experience, and it is plausible that she does in fact have DID. But it is important people have the right information and are diagnosed by experts if they spread their words to a large audience. Especially with a disorder like DID which is already so stigmatized, hyperbolized, and misunderstood already.

Read more:

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SEE ALSO: Trisha Paytas is causing controversy with a video claiming she has multiple personalities and Dissociative Identity Disorder

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• Chronically ill and disabled influencers have been spreading awareness of just how important social distancing measures are to their communities as the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads.
• For someone like Shane Burcaw, who has Spinal muscular atrophy, getting infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus could easily kill him.
• Keeping a safe distance, washing hands often, and staying in if you have any symptoms doesn't just help keep you healthy, but it could save the life of someone more vulnerable.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Chronically ill and disabled influencers have been spreading awareness of why keeping a distance and isolating yourself as much as possible is so important both to you own health and to theirs.

As per World Health Organization guidelines, maintaining 1-3 meters between you and others, frequent handwashing, and staying in if you have any symptoms at all or have recently travelled are overall a small sacrifice and inconvenience that will ultimately help everyone.

While it feels like the whole world is going into lockdown to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, plenty of people are not taking the pandemic seriously.

There are still groups going to clubs, bars, and restaurants even though governments all around the world are recommending social distancing.

It's not just yourself you have to think about during this time, it's everyone around you. And although you might be young, strong, and healthy enough to fight off COVID-19, others you spread it to might not be.

'It could very easily kill me'

Shane Burcaw, a YouTuber and activist who is one half of the channel Squirmy and Grubs with his fiancé Hannah Aylward, has posted several videos and Instagram posts about what social isolation means for him as someone with Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

"My tiny little atrophy lungs would be completely devastated if I got the coronavirus," he said in his latest post. "Jokes aside it could very easily kill me."

In a change of pace from his usual witty and sarcastic comments, Burcaw said everyone should think about those who cannot effectively overcome an illness like COVID-19, and should "practice social distancing to the best of your ability."

"My ability to stay safe relies very heavily on EVERYONE (especially young and healthy people) making smart choices and doing your utmost best to limit the spread of the virus," he added in a comment underneath.

Putting a face to those who are vulnerable

Molly Schreiber, who runs the Instagram account andthenyoureatjax, is at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus because she has Rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, and POTS.

She cofounded #highriskcovid19 and has shared many people's stories of living through this scary time while having a chronic illness.

Schreiber's posts help put a face to those who are vulnerable to the coronavirus. She's also helping to quell the dismissive response of how the elderly and vulnerable are the only ones at risk.

"Every time you say that the coronavirus is *only* deadly to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, you are telling me that my life doesn't matter," she wrote.

Caleigh Sarah Haber has a popular Instagram account called fight2breathe where she documents her life with a double lung transplant to treat her Cystic fibrosis.

She shared a detailed post with some advice for others about how she is adjusting to the current crisis. Rule number one of preventing COVID-19 is having no visitors.

"We have cancelled all local and out of town visitors," she wrote. "Friends and family. Symptomatic or asymptotic. We know that some people are transmitters of the virus or have the virus themselves without any symptoms."

She is also not leaving the house to go anywhere but the beach or her back yard, and is keeping her distance from anyone she comes across. She has cancelled all her non-essential health checkups and travel plans and is having all deliveries left at her doorstep without personal interaction.

Other recommendations she has include wiping down packages with disinfectant, washing produce, wearing a mask, stocking up on food, and washing hands for at least 20 seconds.

Disabled artist and writer Karolyn Gehrig reminded her followers that people like her have been living in a way that prepares them for health crises like this for as long as they can remember.

"Through self quarantining, homes become medicalized spaces," she wrote. "We use them differently, and what has been routine is dipped in anxiety. We remain ourselves even in isolation. Disabled and chronically ill people have lived this way for a long time. We are not expendable. We hold the tools for survival."

'My life depends on public responsibility'

Charis Anna Hill, who is a disabled writer, speaker, and model, has been posted about how important it is to "flatten the curve" or the coronavirus.

"Bunker down,"she wrote. "Don't go anywhere unless it's vital. My community of folks with underlying health conditions is relying on you to save us by staying home, slowing spread, and acknowledging our existence."

In another post, she shared an intimate photo that showed her exhaustion, pain, and fear during this time.

"My life depends on public responsibility," she said.

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SEE ALSO: Meet the interabled YouTuber couples teaching viewers that people with disabilities need love, sex, and intimacy like anyone else

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• A 21-year-old college student from New Jersey has been seeking internet fame for years, and she got her wish when she posted a TikTok video of herself licking an airplane toilet seat.
• The "coronavirus challenge" was a thinly veiled ploy for Ava Louise to stir up controversy, and the wannabe influencer celebrated the plan in her latest video.
• She refuses to apologize to the "boomers" she says she offended with her clout-chasing attempts, and she even suggested that "Darwinism is doing its job by knocking you out with this virus."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The college student behind the "coronavirus challenge" TikTok video of herself licking an airplane toilet seat is gloating now that she got what she wanted: plenty of attention.

Ava Louise describes herself as a 21-year-old college student from New Jersey who "trolled" the mainstream media this week with her viral stunt, which got her plenty of hate from people like "The View" host Meghan McCain, who tweeted "Put her a-- in jail!" alongside the video in question.

Now, she's celebrating her viral success and refusing to apologize in her most recent video. The would-be YouTuber uploaded a video alongside her "moral support gay" friend that features her chugging the remainder of a White Claw and reading from a scripted response.

"You're all so f---ing stupid. There's a reason coronavirus is taking out people over 50, because you're all idiots who ruined our country, our economy, and raise clout-chasing idiots like me, the person you all hate so much," Ava Louise said in her video. "Darwinism is doing its job by knocking you out with this virus."

Ava Louise has capitalized on her potential for internet fame in the past. Branding herself as "hot, skinny, and rich," she's created at least one pseudo-rap song called "Skinny Legend Anthem"that's popular on TikTok and appeared on "Dr. Phil" as a misbehaving teen — not unlike her predecessor Danielle Bregoli, or Bhad Bhabie.

Based on Bregoli's ability to maintain her success, or "clout," as both would call it, Ava Louise may be able to hang onto her online relevance for a while longer, and especially if she can keep public figures like McCain angry enough to continually feed her publicity. Better yet (for her), Ava Louise seems to know exactly what she's doing.

She thanked the mainstream media for its coverage of her toilet-licking video and said the "coronavirus challenge" was something she created to trick boomers into giving her global attention.

"This challenge isn't real. No one is doing it," she said in her YouTube video. "I made it up knowing I'd hit mainstream media immediately. You boomers turned this nonexistent challenge into a problem that didn't exist and shared it globally because that's what you do and that's what you do to this country."

The good news regarding Ava Louise's stunt is that she probably didn't expose anyone to the coronavirus through toilet-licking alone, as it's actually one of the cleaner parts of an airplane, and there's no telling when she filmed her viral TikTok or whether she sanitized the seat before licking it.

"I am a proud hot, rich, skinny, iconic, legendary clout-chasing wh--- who clout-chased her a-- onto Fox f---ing News," she said, tacking a suggestion that people vote for her in the 2020 US presidential election onto her response.

• Read more:
• An influencer filmed herself licking a plane toilet seat for 'clout' on TikTok as part of a 'coronavirus challenge'
• I tried YouTube star Emma Chamberlain's coffee line and found that the work involved wasn't worth the price
• Coronavirus memes are spreading as the disease travels across the world — here's what they look like and why creators say they're important
• YouTuber Shane Dawson thinks he and Jeffree Star had the coronavirus

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