Tana Mongeau is speaking out about fellow influencer, James Charles.
The 27-year-old Brand Safe influencer uploaded a new episode of her podcast, in which she discussed the 27-year-old’s latest scandal after calling an ex-Spirit Airlines worker “lazy” for asking him to help support her GoFundMe. He since issued several apologies and launched a charity initiative with his company, Painted.
“I debated this very, very heavily. Okay, I really I promise you. But the demons in my head, they’ve won. And there is an argument to be said like, everyone has said everything. I’ve seen a video online about everyone saying everything…but the problem is is I am so deeply passionate about this conversation,” Tana began.
“I do think that there are some things I want to say that are from my own personal standpoint and my own personal life that I’ve lived and almost my relationship with money, going all the way back to my childhood.”
Tana Mongeau Reflects On Growing Up Without Money
“My mom and dad fought all the time…so much of the turmoil and turbulence in my household was directly correlated to us not having money. So much of my mother’s genuine stress and pain and screaming was coming to us not having money, but she would refuse to get a job. And I think that my dad was so big on instilling work ethic into me, even though his morals were so horrible, and his whole mindset to everything to the entire world and the outlook was that money is everything, and do whatever you have to do no matter how immoral it is to get it.”
“I do personally feel like us as influencers do owe our money to the people. And obviously that’s how this whole James Charles conversation started, because he was saying ‘people are in my DMs and I feel like a bank’ and a lot of other awful things that I’m going to get into…here’s my problem with that. I do think that us as influencers owe our people who watch us money and help. And I think that we should be willing and able to give it to them,” Tana went on to say.
The Influencer Says Creators Owe Their Audiences Support
“Because here’s the thing, the difference between us as influencers and traditional media celebrities is that our income directly comes from people’s personal connection to us. Our pay, our exorbitant amount of wealth comes directly from the working class feeling a connection to us. Why wouldn’t we give back to them? Why the would we not give back to the people that have provided this for us because of their direct connection to us? I can’t get behind it,” she went on to say before discussing the profitability of the makeup industry.
“His AdSense is also wildly profitable. I would argue to say that he is in the 1% when it comes to profitable AdSense. I mean, and obviously that notion is reaffirmed because he was just on TikTok right before this scandal begging for a new employee.”
Tana Criticizes James Charles’ Deleted TikTok
Later on, she spoke about his since-deleted video.
“I want to talk about being meanspirited. Like the first thing that I felt like really was the most jarring to me was how genuinely mean he was being in the TikTok. And there’s something just so ‘I’ve never struggled a day in my life’ about sitting there in a plush terry custom bathrobe holding the sides of your arms like this while you make fun of someone so deeply, while you are laughing in the face and screaming. Even if he had just said all of the things that he said in that TikTok, it still would have been an awful, god-awful, horrible take. But I think that the cherry on top of this absolute disgusting cake is that he is sitting there screaming at and making fun of and just being so genuinely mean to this person who was struggling so deeply,” Tana reflected.
“It is shocking to me that there are people with that much hoarded wealth that see that and their first thought is not ‘I can help.’ It’s not their first thought. Their first thought is ‘how annoying are these people?’ Like it it’s so jarring to me. And I think that like your first innate thought being anger is so scary and evil and sad to me. I also think that $1,500 to him realistically is probably a penny to the rest of the world…put yourself in the other person’s shoes. It never feels good to have to ask someone for money. It never feels good to have to say, ‘I’m weak. I’ve tried everything.’”
Watch the full episode above. (The James Charles conversation begins around the 33:14 minute mark.)
In the description of her YouTube video, Tana wrote: “The profits from this episode will be used to help the former employees of Spirit Airlines,” along with a link to this GoFundMe supporting the former exployees.
Find out what James Charles said in his latest apology video amid backlash.
Posted To:Influencers James Charles Spirit Airlines Tana Mongeau TikTok youtube