Latest / Mini Scroll / Tana Mongeau: The Renaissance & Redemption of YouTube's Biggest "Party Girl" Part 2

Transcript

Tana Mongeau: The Renaissance & Redemption of YouTube's Biggest "Party Girl" Part 2 · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  On December 8th, 2020, 23 year old Tana Mojo uploaded a video
• 0:05
  titled I Caught My Best Friend Hooking Up with My Man, A Story
• 0:08
  Time Rant Scandal. Throughout the 35 minute long
• 0:12
  video, the YouTube, who had been making content for over five
• 0:15
  years now, talked about a friend who she found hooking up with a
• 0:18
  man she was seeing at the time. She called that friend Mindy.
• 0:23
  While the golden era of story Time YouTube was pretty much
• 0:26
  behind us at this point, Tana's video about Mindy was told in
• 0:29
  her signature charismatic and self deprecating style, keeping
• 0:33
  viewers on the edge of their seat whether the story was
• 0:36
  really true or not. The Tana Mindy drama would
• 0:38
  become one of the most notorious sagas of Tana's career.
• 0:42
  Partly because the video went so viral, and partly because it
• 0:45
  marked the beginning of a turning point in Tana's career,
• 0:48
  one that would see YouTube's biggest quote UN quote party
• 0:51
  girl redeem her reputation and come out the other side after
• 0:55
  years of scandal more relevant than ever.
• 0:58
  This is Part 2 of our deep dive into one of the internet's most
• 1:02
  cancelled creators, the redemption of Tana Mojo from
• 1:06
  Centennial World. I'm Lauren Meisner and this is
• 1:09
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 1:12
  economy, and how social media is shaping Gen.
• 1:15
  Z Welcome back to Infinite Scroll, everyone.
• 1:18
  I am so excited to bring you guys part two of our Tana Mojo
• 1:22
  deep Dive. This episode is all about how
• 1:24
  Tana has managed to redeem herself, her reputation, her
• 1:28
  career, and her public image over the last four years.
• 1:31
  But before we get started, let me read you guys some nice
• 1:34
  little reviews as always. So the first review I have is
• 1:38
  from Magic Bailey on YouTube and they wrote Mini scroll has
• 1:42
  quickly become an instant click for me when I see each new
• 1:45
  upload. I am obsessed.
• 1:47
  Thank you Bailey, that is so sweet.
• 1:49
  Alex and Julian on Apple Podcasts wrote thank you.
• 1:53
  Me and my BF love the pod. We listen together all the time.
• 1:56
  So slay love that. I love when I hear that people
• 2:00
  listen with their boyfriends or if guys are listening, I don't
• 2:03
  know. I feel like we try and talk a
• 2:05
  little bit about like boy Internet here on this podcast
• 2:07
  and I love to hear that the boys can also enjoy infinite scroll
• 2:12
  and then at Mars 3483 wrote, I put on your Gen.
• 2:15
  Z pop star video for my dog with my dog.
• 2:18
  Then watched this video and now I'm completely obsessed.
• 2:21
  Amazing content. OK, I'm obsessed that not only
• 2:24
  do we have boyfriends listening to the pod, but we also have
• 2:27
  dogs listening to the pod now. So as always, Please remember to
• 2:31
  rate, review and subscribe. It helps me so much.
• 2:33
  It helps me grow. Please also sign up to our
• 2:36
  newsletter, which is called Infinite Scroll.
• 2:38
  On Fridays. We round up the five biggest
• 2:40
  thing pieces about Internet culture, creator economy,
• 2:43
  commentary style, articles that you need to know on the Internet
• 2:47
  that week. And also join our Geneva group,
• 2:49
  which is also called Infinite Scroll, where you can talk with
• 2:52
  people who are obsessed with Internet culture and drama and
• 2:55
  tea, and you can chat with me. So as I said in part one, we did
• 3:06
  reach out to Tana for comment if she wanted to come on, provide
• 3:09
  commentary, you know, do a little interview with the pod.
• 3:12
  And of course, we did not hear back again, didn't expect to
• 3:15
  hear back. But we always do reach out to
• 3:17
  the creators that we cover just in case.
• 3:20
  The Mindy video was Tana's first authentic story time in a while.
• 3:24
  Tana had cut back on these videos because as her fame grew,
• 3:27
  the people in her stories were often public figures.
• 3:30
  This made it easier for fans to identify them.
• 3:32
  Also, off the back of her questionable relationship with
• 3:35
  Jake Paul, it made sense for her to slow down a little given that
• 3:38
  she had alienated many of her viewers.
• 3:41
  Before I summarize the story, there are a few main characters
• 3:44
  to note. First we have Mindy, who was
• 3:46
  Tana's best friend, and then we have Jeff, the guy who Tana was
• 3:49
  hooking up with at the time. Mindy and Tana had been
• 3:52
  extremely close over the past year where Tana was helping her
• 3:55
  with her career and also her love life.
• 3:58
  Tana and Jeff had been hooking up for a decent amount of time,
• 4:01
  and he had gotten to know many of her friends, including Mindy.
• 4:04
  So, the story begins during Halloweek, one of the most
• 4:07
  iconic times of the year for an influencer.
• 4:09
  When Tana noticed that Jeff had commented 3 star emojis on
• 4:13
  Mindy's Instagram post, this set off alarm bells.
• 4:17
  In another instance, Mindy persuaded Tana to invite Jeff to
• 4:20
  join their friend group for a night out.
• 4:22
  Upon reflection, Tana said that Mindy seemed, quote, just a
• 4:25
  little too happy about Jeff's decision to join them.
• 4:28
  At one point in the night, Tana said that she heard a snippet of
• 4:31
  their conversation. But I overhear that.
• 4:33
  He said something to him about him being cute and then he says
• 4:36
  to her, oh you're Tana's hot friend, I wish I could fuck you.
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  To make matters worse, Tana says that Mindy has always been quite
• 4:42
  defensive over anyone she had a crush on or was seeing.
• 4:46
  With this context, she says that her behavior towards Jeff was
• 4:49
  all very hypocritical because she had asked Tana to stay away
• 4:52
  from a girl that she had a crush on.
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  By the end of the night, Tana found herself wondering where
• 4:57
  Jeff had disappeared to. Realizing he hadn't even said
• 5:00
  goodbye as she walked out of her room, she decided to FaceTime
• 5:04
  him, only to spot Mindy emerging from the houses movie room
• 5:07
  wearing an oversized T-shirt. To add to the drama, Tana then
• 5:11
  received a text from Jeff saying to come to the movie room to
• 5:14
  talk. By the time Tana walked in,
• 5:16
  Mindy had returned and both Jeff and Mindy, quote, looked like
• 5:20
  deer in headlights. Initially skeptical, Tana was
• 5:23
  reluctant to believe that Mindy had actually hooked up with
• 5:25
  Jeff, given that they were best friends.
• 5:28
  However, as her friends recounted various instances of
• 5:31
  Mindy showing interest in Jeff, Tana became and convinced that
• 5:34
  she needed to check the house's security footage to get to the
• 5:37
  bottom of the situation. Upon doing so, she confirmed
• 5:40
  that indeed, they had hooked up. According to Tana, Mindy
• 5:44
  attempted to apologize, but also attempted to shift the blame by
• 5:47
  claiming that Jeff had initiated everything.
• 5:50
  Despite this, their relationship deteriorated further when Mindy
• 5:53
  dressed up as Lil Xan, one of Tana's exes for Halloween,
• 5:57
  straight after all of this went down.
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  Of course, like every Tana Mojo story time, her fans needed to
• 6:03
  figure out who Jeff and Mindy were.
• 6:05
  Jeff is reportedly Joshua Greken, the founder and creative
• 6:09
  director of Troubled Humans. Meanwhile, Mindy was the one and
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  only Brooke Schofield. Today, we all know Brooke as the
• 6:17
  Co host of the canceled podcast and one of Tana's closest
• 6:20
  friends, but at the time that this all went down, she had far
• 6:24
  less clout online. Brooke was known as a member of
• 6:27
  Tana's friend group after originally moving to Los Angeles
• 6:30
  from Arizona in 2019, hoping to pursue acting.
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  Two days after Tana's initial story time, Brooke took to her
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  YouTube channel to post a response video titled to Tana
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  from Mindy. This video has since been
• 6:42
  deleted. But in the video, Brooke called
• 6:44
  Tana out for lying, outing her and leaving out certain details
• 6:47
  to make Tana look better. One instance Brooke mentioned
• 6:50
  involved the girl she had a crush on.
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  In the video, she nicknamed her Katie.
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  According to Brooke, it was widely known among their friend
• 6:57
  group that she liked Katie. That being said, Brooke
• 7:00
  overheard Tana going up to Katie and confessing her own feelings,
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  but Tana then told Brooke the opposite, that it was Katie who
• 7:07
  expressed romantic interest in Tana.
• 7:09
  In the video, Brooke maintained that she didn't necessarily ask
• 7:12
  Tana to stay away from Katie, but rather she asked if she
• 7:16
  would be given the chance to pursue her first.
• 7:19
  Brooke mentioned that Tana respected her request and also
• 7:22
  clarified that Brooke was free to hook up with anyone Tana had
• 7:25
  been involved with except for Jake Paul.
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  Another alleged lie in Tana story was that Brooke encouraged
• 7:30
  her to invite quote UN quote, Jeff over.
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  Brooke pointed I doubt that Katie was with them that
• 7:34
  evening, questioning why she would then pressure Tana to
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  invite Jeff. Brooke also noted that she and
• 7:40
  Jeff had been part of the same social circles long before she
• 7:43
  even met Tana. On that same night, it seemed as
• 7:46
  if Tana was going to hook up with Katie, so it seemed that
• 7:49
  Tana had given up on her promise to Brooke.
• 7:51
  Brooke said that the sequence of events is important here because
• 7:55
  Tana had said that she started speaking to Katie because Brooke
• 7:58
  was flirting with Jeff. She maintains that that was
• 8:01
  incorrect. Brooke also mentioned SO that if
• 8:03
  she had planned to hook up with Jeff, she would never have done
• 8:06
  it at Tana's house. However, she admitted that she
• 8:09
  and Jeff did end up hooking up that night, though they didn't
• 8:12
  have sex. Brooke claimed Tana knew this,
• 8:14
  but continue to insinuate otherwise.
• 8:17
  On top of this, Brooke accused Tana of lying about how she
• 8:20
  learnt about the hookup, saying that she told Tana about it the
• 8:23
  following afternoon and that she didn't actually find out via
• 8:26
  security footage. In fact, Brooke said that the
• 8:29
  security footage was not from the movie room, but rather the
• 8:32
  kitchen. And As for her her dressing up
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  as Lil Zan, Brooke maintained that she didn't even think of
• 8:36
  Tana at that moment and that she was going as a rapper for
• 8:39
  Halloween because her friend was dressing up as Post Malone.
• 8:42
  After everything unfolded, the reaction was mixed.
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  Many of Tana's fans continue to send Brooke hate.
• 8:49
  In her response video, Brooke admitted that she was in the
• 8:51
  wrong, but noted that the amount of hate and death threats she
• 8:55
  was receiving was unnecessary. Tana did end up releasing a
• 8:58
  statement on Twitter calling for her followers to limit the
• 9:01
  amount of hate. Posting quote by the way, I
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  never condone harassment toward anyone I tell a story about.
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  I don't think with an eye for an eye mentality and whatever that
• 9:10
  person did, I'll go get therapy over LMAO.
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  No need to attack anyone. Nevertheless, Tana did go on to
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  post the security footage from the kitchen on TikTok, only
• 9:19
  adding fuel to the fire. As for how the situation
• 9:22
  impacted Tana, Brooks video cast doubt on Tana's story and
• 9:26
  further damaged her credibility and legitimacy.
• 9:29
  While Brooke and Tana have clearly had their problems, the
• 9:32
  two seem to resolve their differences by the launch of the
• 9:35
  cancelled podcast in 2021. In July of that year, Tana
• 9:39
  started teasing the podcast, posting a trailer to the
• 9:42
  Cancelled Podcast YouTube channel.
• 9:44
  Of course, the name of the podcast was Tana, poking fun at
• 9:47
  cancel culture while acknowledging just how much
• 9:49
  being cancelled informed her brand.
• 9:52
  Over the years. Quote, I have been cancelled a
• 9:54
  few times, so it's only fitting that I call my show cancelled.
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  I am so excited to finally be the host as I have been the
• 10:01
  guest of hundreds of podcasts. I decided to finally do this
• 10:04
  show because I want to give the audience a new insight as to
• 10:07
  what I am about, how I feel about breaking news and giving
• 10:10
  you an unfiltered insight into my world.
• 10:12
  Tana told Us Weekly in 2021. According to reporting from page
• 10:17
  6 of the time, Tana scored a multi $1,000,000 deal with the
• 10:20
  Paragon Collective and DWE talent to host a podcast.
• 10:24
  Of course, this felt very natural for Tana's brand given
• 10:27
  that she skyrocketed to viral fame for her charisma and
• 10:30
  storytelling abilities. The podcast was set to include
• 10:33
  in interviews with different celebrities, where Tana and her
• 10:35
  friends would also sit down to discuss the latest trends,
• 10:39
  according to Business Insider. Canceled with Tana's attempt to
• 10:42
  fill the gap of frenemies Tricia Paytas and Ethan Klein's shared
• 10:46
  podcast that abruptly ended one month earlier.
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  Quote With upcoming guests like Tricia Paytas and Nessa Barrett,
• 10:52
  influencers who have also been entangled in drama, Mojo is
• 10:55
  hoping to fill a void left by frenemies.
• 10:58
  Kat 10 Barge reported for Business Insider at the time.
• 11:01
  The first episode of the canceled podcast aired on July
• 11:04
  30th, 2021 and to everyone's surprise, Tana hosted the
• 11:09
  episode with Hunter, Moreno and Brooke.
• 11:12
  As for why Tana chose them to Co host the pilot?
• 11:14
  She said at the top of the episode.
• 11:16
  I felt. Like, it would be very fitting
• 11:17
  to sit down today with Brooke and Hunter because all jokes
• 11:20
  aside, they are my favorite people, two of my funniest
• 11:22
  friends, and the only people who will ever hold me accountable.
• 11:25
  From our research, it remains unclear exactly how Tana and
• 11:29
  Brooke overcame their differences.
• 11:30
  Many users across various Reddit threads have wondered how they
• 11:34
  reconciled and how Brooke ended up Co hosting the podcast.
• 11:37
  One year ago on the R slash cancelled pod, one Reddit user
• 11:41
  asked how did Brooke and Tana become friends again after the
• 11:43
  Mindy situation. A couple of users responded
• 11:46
  saying that the two saw each other at a party and reconciled.
• 11:49
  However, we haven't been able to verify these claims.
• 11:52
  Since its first episode, the Cancelled podcast has
• 11:55
  skyrocketed in popularity, becoming the eighth most popular
• 11:59
  podcast in the United States. After taking an almost year long
• 12:03
  break from May 2022, the podcast came back with a rebrand in
• 12:07
  April 2023. The new setup featured Tana and
• 12:10
  Brooke recording at Tana's house, similar to the setup that
• 12:13
  we all know and love today. Since then, Brooke has become a
• 12:17
  permanent Co host and her name has been added to the podcast
• 12:20
  title now known as Cancelled with Tana Mojo and Brooke
• 12:23
  Schofield. As we all know, the Cancelled
• 12:25
  Podcast has really hit its stride in recent months.
• 12:28
  We don't need to discuss every story as we've covered much of
• 12:32
  it on Mini Scroll, but the the podcast has gone super viral
• 12:35
  after shedding light on the truth about Matt Rife and more
• 12:38
  recently Clinton Kane. From her story times to the
• 12:41
  podcast, Tana's career, marked by numerous conflicts and
• 12:45
  cancellations, has not made her the most brand safe influencer.
• 12:49
  This has impacted her from a business standpoint where she is
• 12:52
  frequently discussed how her brand jeopardizes sponsorships.
• 12:56
  As a result, she has been forced to get creative in building her
• 12:59
  empire. Over the years, Tana has
• 13:01
  embarked on numerous business ventures outside of YouTube and
• 13:04
  podcasting. These ventures have further
• 13:07
  entrenched her presence in the viral space while allowing her
• 13:10
  to stay true to her brand, something her followers have
• 13:12
  always loved about her since the beginning of her career.
• 13:15
  That being said, Tana has started quite a few companies
• 13:18
  and pushed different income streams.
• 13:20
  We won't have time to get into all of them today, but let's go
• 13:23
  through a few notable examples. For instance, in 2020, Tana
• 13:28
  joined Only Fans, a decision that was not necessarily
• 13:31
  unsurprising given her whole vibe.
• 13:33
  In May 2020, she and her best friend Ashley Schwann launched
• 13:37
  their pages Tana Uncensored and Ashley's Knockers, with a joint
• 13:40
  photo shoot. For additional context, Ashley
• 13:43
  is now dubbed Mindy Two Point O after it was revealed that she
• 13:47
  was seeing Tana's ex-boyfriend Joey Joy behind her back.
• 13:51
  But of course, they launched their Only Fans.
• 13:53
  Before all of that went down, Tana announced her Only Fans
• 13:56
  debut on her social media platforms, causing a flood of
• 13:59
  traffic to the site. According to reporting from the
• 14:02
  Daily dot at the time. Quote, 20 minutes after the
• 14:05
  initial tweet, Tana announced that the website broke.
• 14:08
  Initially, both Tana and Ashley operated their Only Fans pages
• 14:12
  like pay-per-view catalogs, free to subscribe but with fees to
• 14:16
  unlock explicit content. Tana has occasionally discussed
• 14:19
  her success on Only Fans. In March 2022, she revealed that
• 14:23
  she was a top earner on the platform, having amassed 10
• 14:27
  million since her debut in 2020. The following year, Tana
• 14:30
  diversified her online presence even further, announcing the
• 14:34
  launch of Tana's Angels. In April 2021, Tana announced
• 14:38
  her plan to enter into a managerial role for small
• 14:40
  content creators, launching her very own talent agency called
• 14:44
  Tana's Angels Agency or ATAA. Sharing the news via an
• 14:47
  Instagram post she wrote. Yes, the rumors are true.
• 14:51
  After receiving 10s of thousands of messages daily from people
• 14:54
  asking me how I make money on only fans and as an online
• 14:57
  creator, how to get started and for some bad bitch mentorship
• 15:01
  and a year of turning Tana Uncensored into a multi
• 15:03
  $1,000,000 business, my team and I knew it was time to partner
• 15:07
  with Unruly Agency and Tara to start my very own agency, TAA
• 15:12
  Tana's Angels Agency. For Tana's Angels, Tana
• 15:15
  partnered with her manager, CEO and owner of DWE Talent David
• 15:19
  Weintraub and Tara Electra, owner of the Unruly agency which
• 15:23
  also rubbed Tana. Quote.
• 15:25
  In this industry, I have been fucked over by so many people in
• 15:28
  every imaginable way. When I signed to Unruly in April
• 15:31
  2019, I was so grateful and excited to work with and be
• 15:35
  mentored by some of the smartest, best women I know who
• 15:38
  truly changed my life for the better and taught me so much
• 15:41
  about how to create an empire based in authenticity, honest
• 15:44
  and working hard, she continued in her announcement, Tana's
• 15:48
  Angels felt like a natural extension of her brand.
• 15:51
  In some ways, it seems like the grown up version of Trash,
• 15:54
  Tana's collaboration channel with small creators that
• 15:57
  launched in 2016. That said, when Tana's Angels
• 16:00
  launched, Tana did face backlash.
• 16:02
  Some users described the agency as a scam and criticized her,
• 16:06
  suggesting she doesn't understand the challenges of
• 16:08
  building an only Fan's presence from scratch.
• 16:11
  Quote Tana is making money off OF because she's already got a
• 16:14
  name. You being in her agency does not
• 16:16
  guarantee you the same success she's had.
• 16:18
  You don't need an agency to succeed at Only Fans, you just
• 16:21
  need a fan base and that can take a while, wrote one Twitter
• 16:25
  user. Many also questioned how much
• 16:27
  Tana would earn as a manager and whether she would take a
• 16:29
  percentage of her clients funds on Only Fans.
• 16:32
  Despite such criticism, Tana's Angels reportedly received more
• 16:36
  than 100,000 applicants just 10 hours after the announcement.
• 16:40
  While initially promising, many Internet users have wondered
• 16:44
  about the current status of Tana's Angels since it launched,
• 16:47
  with one user on Reddit asking quote.
• 16:49
  Does anyone know of people who actually have been recruited,
• 16:52
  managed and became successful with OF due to Tana's Angels?
• 16:55
  There have also been reports that Unruly Agency was being
• 16:58
  sued by clients after the agency posted sexy pictures of clients
• 17:03
  that went beyond what they'd consented to, writes EJ Dixon
• 17:07
  for Rolling Stone. With Tana's Angels being part of
• 17:09
  Unruly, this only fueled speculation.
• 17:12
  As of 2023, it appears that Tana's Angels is still active,
• 17:16
  as Tana cited the agency as a source of income for Created
• 17:20
  with John Yusha. I am signed with Unruly Agency
• 17:24
  and the CEO of that, she is like my best friend.
• 17:27
  We decided to kind of start a little subdivision at Unruly
• 17:31
  called Tana's Angels Agency, or TA, because it people saw girls,
• 17:35
  saw models, saw the success that I was having in that and the fun
• 17:40
  I was having and the money I was making.
• 17:41
  Since then, Tana has also released Dizzy, a canned wine
• 17:45
  beverage. In 2022.
• 17:47
  In the same conversation with John Yushay, Tana explained that
• 17:51
  Dizzy actually spawned from a ghost kitchen concept called
• 17:54
  Tana's Tacos A. Year before we decided on Dizzy,
• 17:58
  we thought it was going to be Tana's tacos and we thought it
• 18:00
  was going to be a ghost kitchen. And we did the entire process
• 18:04
  with the same people who did Beast Burger and, you know,
• 18:08
  tried all the foods. And so I probably gained 20 lbs
• 18:10
  just trying all the freaking food for tennis tacos.
• 18:13
  And we got it all the way to the finalized products and the
• 18:17
  finalized menu and where these pop ups were going to be.
• 18:21
  And it was going to be on Postmates and we're eats and
• 18:23
  whatever. And I was just like, I hate to
• 18:25
  say this, but it's, I, I, I don't think it's right.
• 18:28
  I don't think Tana needed Tana's tacos, you know what I mean?
• 18:30
  And we we switched to Dizzy and it was a shot in the dark.
• 18:35
  Well, Tana's tacos didn't make her excited for the future of
• 18:38
  the brand. Creating her own alcoholic
• 18:40
  beverage felt like it just made sense.
• 18:43
  At the time it was like, my image is party girl and I'm
• 18:45
  always partying, why am I not partying with my own drink in my
• 18:47
  hand and stuff like that? Dizzy launched in January 2022
• 18:51
  with a star-studded launch party featuring huge influencers and
• 18:54
  celebrities, including Dixie Demilio, Faze Banks, Charlie
• 18:58
  Jordan, Josie Kosenko, makeup by Arielle, and more.
• 19:01
  By 2023, Tanna revealed that she had sold, quote, hundreds of
• 19:05
  thousands of cans of Dizzy, making it one of her most
• 19:08
  successful business ventures to date, aside from a few scandals
• 19:12
  here and there. That brings us to now, Tanna's
• 19:15
  renaissance. Over the past year or so,
• 19:17
  Tanna's perception in the public eye has shifted.
• 19:20
  After years of being considered everything from unreliable to
• 19:23
  overdramatic to a clout chase, she has seemingly won over many
• 19:27
  of her haters. While it's not unusual for an
• 19:29
  influencer's popularity to ebb and flow, Tana has been through
• 19:33
  quite a shift, and there are a couple of reasons why.
• 19:36
  Much of this shift is thanks to the cancelled podcast and Tana's
• 19:40
  report with Brooke. One interesting characteristic
• 19:42
  about Tana is her consistent inclusion of friends in her
• 19:45
  journey to success. From the outset of her career,
• 19:48
  she introduced her hometown friends like Amari, Bella, and
• 19:51
  Ashley to her audience, many of whom still appear in her videos.
• 19:55
  Contrasting Tana to someone like David Dobrik provides an
• 19:58
  interesting comparison. While both creators choose to
• 20:01
  feature their longtime friends and videos, Tana never really
• 20:04
  faced the same criticism as David.
• 20:07
  While David was posting Vlog Squad videos, he was frequently
• 20:10
  criticized for supposedly orchestrating and manipulating
• 20:13
  his friends, especially because he was rarely in the videos but
• 20:16
  instead behind the camera. Tana, in contrast, has always
• 20:20
  positioned herself as the main character alongside her friends,
• 20:23
  which allows her content. To feel far more genuine, this
• 20:27
  approach extends to her collaboration with Brooke on the
• 20:29
  podcast. While Brooke has undoubtedly
• 20:31
  carved out her own niche in the viral space, the conversational
• 20:35
  nature of the podcast initially captivated viewers.
• 20:38
  This style allows audiences to see themselves reflected in
• 20:41
  Brooke and Tana's discussions, making Tana's content more
• 20:44
  relatable than ever. With this, Cancelled has
• 20:46
  perfectly tapped into the cultural zeitgeist that favors
• 20:50
  podcasts, storytelling, and authenticity.
• 20:52
  On top of this, as Tana moves away from traditional YouTube
• 20:55
  videos, she's managed to be even more honest.
• 20:59
  While authenticity has never been an issue for Tana, she
• 21:02
  previously faced challenges with monetization, which sometimes
• 21:05
  led to self censorship on certain topics or issues.
• 21:08
  However, on a podcast, she faces fewer restrictions.
• 21:12
  The conversational format of the podcast has allowed Tana to
• 21:15
  discuss topics that might not naturally fit into a scripted
• 21:18
  YouTube video, especially given that her content is largely
• 21:21
  comedic in nature. From her journey with sobriety
• 21:24
  to reflect actions on her childhood, this platform has
• 21:27
  provided Internet users with deeper insights into her life
• 21:30
  and her ongoing personal growth. Tana has been known to be
• 21:33
  controversial in the past, but her openness about working to
• 21:36
  change is helping people understand the reasons behind
• 21:40
  her past behavior. Through appearances on podcasts
• 21:42
  like Call Her Daddy and episodes of the cancelled podcast, Tana
• 21:46
  has opened up about her tumultuous upbringing and the
• 21:48
  challenges she faced, including abuse from her parents.
• 21:52
  She has historically discussed her lack of structure growing
• 21:54
  up, which she acknowledges contributed to her reputation of
• 21:58
  being unreliable. We all know that she was
• 22:00
  chronically late for most of her early career.
• 22:03
  While Tana has previously touched on her upbringing in her
• 22:06
  YouTube videos, including one titled Finally Opening Up about
• 22:10
  Growing Up slash My Insane Dad, she now approaches these topics
• 22:14
  more seriously, allowing her audience to take her discussions
• 22:17
  about her quote, insane dad, and other personal matters seriously
• 22:20
  as well. In fact, clips from a recent
• 22:23
  episode of the cancelled podcast went viral after Tana discussed
• 22:26
  being no contact with her mother, who still tries to reach
• 22:29
  out to her. Her mother even bombarded Tana's
• 22:32
  boyfriend Makoa, at a recent poker tournament that Tana
• 22:35
  participated in. In a similar vein, Tana has also
• 22:38
  been more forthcoming with her experiences in the industry at
• 22:41
  an early age. It's no secret that culturally,
• 22:44
  we're now more sensitive to the sexualization and exploitation
• 22:47
  of children and young people on the Internet than we were in
• 22:50
  years prior. This shift seemingly comes from
• 22:53
  a better understanding of how Internet fame negatively impacts
• 22:56
  creators, especially minors, and Tana Mojo is no exception.
• 23:00
  As Tana's grown up before us in the public eye, many fans are
• 23:04
  now looking back at her behavior and the decision she made in her
• 23:07
  early career through a more empathetic lens.
• 23:10
  This extends to Tana's collaborations with other
• 23:12
  Youtubers in the 20 Tens. We spoke about this briefly in
• 23:16
  part one, but Tana spent much of her early career collaborating
• 23:19
  with much older creators, many of whom engaged in highly
• 23:23
  inappropriate behavior with her for clicks and views.
• 23:26
  One such creator who is currently facing backlash for
• 23:29
  this is Cody Ko. Cody got his start on Vine and
• 23:33
  pivoted to YouTube after the app shuttered in 2017.
• 23:36
  He grew his following by making reaction videos and commentary
• 23:39
  videos about other Internet personalities.
• 23:42
  Sometime between 2015 and 2017, Tana and Cody allegedly attended
• 23:47
  Playlist Live, an annual convention for content creators.
• 23:50
  At this event, the two allegedly slept together.
• 23:53
  Cody was allegedly 20 five, while Tana was allegedly just 17
• 23:58
  years old. While this allegation has been
• 24:00
  circulating online for years, it recently reemerged after Tana
• 24:04
  made this claim during a live podcast show for Cancelled on
• 24:07
  May 30th. Over these past six weeks, fans
• 24:10
  and fellow influencers alike have shared support for Tana,
• 24:13
  called on Cody to address it, and have engaged in open
• 24:16
  discussion about how Tana was treated by adults who were
• 24:19
  supposed to protect her throughout her early career.
• 24:22
  In that same interview with John Yusha Tana spoke about what it
• 24:25
  was like being sexualized as a minor online.
• 24:28
  Even just in the industry being so young, 16/17/18, you're
• 24:31
  showing up to stuff and you're you're getting hit on left and
• 24:34
  right and left and right by the directors and the producers and
• 24:37
  the people you're working with and other creators.
• 24:40
  And it's normalized. I shouldn't say it's normal, but
• 24:42
  it's normalized. And the people just play into
• 24:45
  that so much. They're like sexualization of
• 24:47
  everything that you do. As Tana has opened up more about
• 24:49
  her upbringing and early experiences in the industry,
• 24:52
  these stories have humanized her and helped explain some of her
• 24:55
  behavior and her decisions. In turn, viewers are more
• 24:59
  empathetic to Tana, and unfortunately, this empathy
• 25:02
  means more people now believe her.
• 25:04
  As Tana spent the past few years working on herself, her circle
• 25:08
  of friends has evolved, which brings us to the final reason
• 25:11
  for her renaissance. In late 2023, Tana went on an
• 25:14
  extended vacation to Hawaii, where she met her now boyfriend,
• 25:17
  Makoa, through a mutual friend. Makoa is not an influencer.
• 25:22
  In fact, his Instagram is set to private, where he has less than
• 25:25
  2000 followers, and he works for a company that does photography
• 25:28
  and videography for real estate. After years of dating
• 25:31
  questionable men, fans love Tana and Makoa together as it seems
• 25:36
  like Tana found someone to help ground her.
• 25:39
  Another major shift in Tana's personal life that's improved
• 25:41
  her public image is how much she's distanced herself from
• 25:45
  problematic friends. Some notable influencers that
• 25:47
  Tana dropped recently include Lila Gibney and David Dobrik.
• 25:51
  Lila Gibney is an influencer who rose to fame for posting
• 25:54
  lifestyle videos, which included videos about her transition and
• 25:58
  experiences as a sugar baby. One of her most viral moments
• 26:01
  was in 2019, when she claimed that she and a friend were
• 26:04
  kicked out of the Team 10 house for being trans.
• 26:07
  Earlier this year, fans started noticing that Tana and Brooke,
• 26:10
  who were previously close with Lila, had distanced themselves
• 26:13
  from her. After mounting speculation, Tana
• 26:16
  and Brooke addressed their relationship with Lila on
• 26:18
  cancelled, confirming that they are no longer friends.
• 26:21
  They said nothing into poorly, but Tana is in a place where
• 26:24
  she's quote finding everything in her life as she explores
• 26:27
  sobriety and a different lifestyle.
• 26:29
  That being said, the rumor mill still continued and the theory
• 26:32
  now is that Tana primarily cut Lila off after Lila showed
• 26:37
  Tana's ex-boyfriend private group chat messages about him
• 26:40
  that Tana had sent to her girls group chat.
• 26:43
  However, we'll probably never know for sure.
• 26:46
  Tana's separation from David Dobrik, on the other hand, was
• 26:49
  much more public after the 2021 Vlog Squad scandal, in which
• 26:53
  David was accused of fostering a toxic environment within the
• 26:56
  collective that enabled an alleged sexual assault of a
• 26:58
  woman. Jeff Whittick, who was a member
• 27:01
  of the group for years, started speaking out about his own
• 27:04
  traumatic experiences with David.
• 27:06
  Back in 2020, Jeff was seriously injured during a prank that he
• 27:09
  was filming for David's channel, in which several members of the
• 27:12
  Vlog Squad spun around on a rope attached to an excavator.
• 27:16
  David was driving the excavator quote.
• 27:18
  I tore some ligaments in my leg. I broke my foot.
• 27:21
  I broke my hip. I shattered my skull in nine
• 27:24
  places. I shattered, battered my eye
• 27:25
  socket, I almost lost my eye and I almost died, Jeff later said
• 27:29
  of this accident. David did not respond well to
• 27:33
  Jeff taking this public and the two had a huge falling out that
• 27:36
  also involved an ongoing lawsuit.
• 27:39
  In the aftermath of all of this, Tana, who had been friends with
• 27:42
  members of the Vlog squad and even filmed with them in the
• 27:45
  past, appeared to take Jeff's side.
• 27:47
  Tana and Jeff became really close, and Tana appeared on his
• 27:50
  podcast many times to help him discuss the events of his
• 27:53
  accident and his traumatic experience with David.
• 27:56
  Tana's support of Jeff through this difficult time showed
• 27:58
  audiences a softer side to Tana that the Internet didn't always
• 28:02
  see. And throughout this time, Tana
• 28:04
  was also building a stronger friendship with another
• 28:07
  influencer who was experiencing her own renaissance, Tricia
• 28:11
  Paytas. Tricia and Tana previously had
• 28:14
  quote UN quote beef, in part due to how the Vlog Squad treated
• 28:17
  Tana while member Jason Nash was dating Tricia.
• 28:20
  Throughout his relationship with Tricia, Jason made several jokes
• 28:23
  in Vlog Squad videos about having a threesome with Tana.
• 28:27
  For context, Jason is currently 51 years old, Tricia is
• 28:30
  currently 36 years old, and Tana is currently 26 years old.
• 28:35
  Jokes like this from Jason were creepy and yet another example
• 28:39
  of how Tana was sexualized by the industry while barely being
• 28:42
  old enough to drink at the time. Over the course of Tricia's
• 28:45
  relationship with Jason, she repeatedly mentioned that she
• 28:48
  thought it was weird that the Vlog Squad spent so much time
• 28:50
  with Tana, who was significantly younger than the rest of its
• 28:53
  members. Coming closer with Jeff and
• 28:56
  Trisha in the aftermath of the Vlog Squad cancellation put her
• 28:59
  on the quote UN quote right side of history with viewers.
• 29:02
  Now, as Tana's reputation was starting to shift more
• 29:05
  positively, one very public feud that we have not yet discussed
• 29:09
  made a big impact on how audiences perceived Tana and all
• 29:14
  that she had been through in her career in the spotlight.
• 29:17
  That feud was Tana Mojo versus Addison Ray's dad Monte Lopez in
• 29:23
  August 2022. Rapper Young Gravy made an
• 29:26
  appearance on Jeff Woodock's podcast, Jeff FM.
• 29:29
  During the episode, the artist said that he had a thing for
• 29:31
  MILFS and that he was going on a date soon with Addison Ray's
• 29:34
  mother, Sherry. This was fresh off rumors that
• 29:37
  Addison's father, Monty had cheated on Sherry.
• 29:39
  In response to Young Gravy's comments, Monty threatened the
• 29:42
  26 year old rapper on TikTok for talking about his estranged
• 29:46
  wife. Quote watch your mouth boy.
• 29:48
  You gon get Chris rocked. Monty wrote on a TikTok video
• 29:51
  duetting the clip of Young Gravy on Jeff's podcast.
• 29:54
  In the comments, Monty challenged the rapper to a
• 29:56
  boxing match, writing at Young Gravy.
• 29:58
  Let's get in the ring please. If you have balls, I'll take
• 30:02
  him. He also tagged a number of
• 30:03
  influencers and drama accounts. Monty's videos were getting a
• 30:06
  lot of attention because they were genuinely unhinged and it
• 30:10
  turns out our girl Tana also couldn't look away.
• 30:13
  In the comments section, Tana said she is quote calling the
• 30:16
  police over Monty's TikTok threat to Young Gravy.
• 30:19
  Monty responded to Tana, who was just 24 years old at the time,
• 30:23
  just three years older than his daughter Addison, telling her to
• 30:27
  take a bath. He then commented again, asking
• 30:30
  Tana if she is calling the police over the number of people
• 30:33
  that she slept with. Writing about your body count
• 30:37
  question mark. Monty then took to Instagram to
• 30:39
  continue making degrading comments about Tana's sex life.
• 30:42
  The then 46 year old father asked his followers to vote in a
• 30:46
  poll on whether they thought Tana had slept with more than
• 30:50
  300 people or less than 300 people.
• 30:52
  Never went to let someone walk all over her.
• 30:54
  Tana was responded to Monty in a video she posted on TikTok and
• 30:58
  Instagram Stories, threatening to expose him for clout chasing,
• 31:01
  alleged drug use and alleged inappropriate interactions with
• 31:05
  young women. Though Tana certainly didn't
• 31:07
  need help defending herself, fans and creators came to Tana's
• 31:10
  defense on mass for what seemed like the first time ever in her
• 31:14
  career. Monty's public slut shaming and
• 31:16
  harassment of Tana, who was 22 years his junior, was a wake up
• 31:20
  call to so many who had judged Tana in the past, marking a
• 31:24
  turning point in the perception of Tana that just kept getting
• 31:27
  better. While Tana entered the twenty
• 31:29
  20s at a low, battling addiction issues, career defining scandals
• 31:33
  like Tana Con, and a difficult split from Jake Paul, her
• 31:36
  redemption was right around the corner.
• 31:38
  Over the next four years, Tana would rebuild her life and her
• 31:41
  reputation by showing more vulnerability, changing who she
• 31:45
  associated herself with, exploring sobriety, and
• 31:48
  launching a chart topping podcast that allowed fans to get
• 31:51
  to know Tana on a more personal level.
• 31:53
  Through all of this, the Internet started to to see Tana
• 31:55
  through a different lens. While this is not to say that
• 31:58
  Tana is faultless through her many mistakes and scandals, but
• 32:01
  her behavior and decisions over the course of her career did not
• 32:04
  exist in a vacuum. Since Tana first posted on
• 32:07
  YouTube back in 2015, it's clear she lacked the guidance and
• 32:10
  protection she needed as a young creator rising through the
• 32:13
  ranks. And despite the wild child label
• 32:16
  that she so proudly wore, the reality is that Tana has been
• 32:19
  exploited by the industry since the age of 17.
• 32:22
  Nine years later, it's about time that Tana Mojo finally got
• 32:27
  her redemption. Infinite Scrolls Podcast
• 32:30
  produced, presented and Co written by me, Lauren Meisner
• 32:33
  for Centennial World. This episode is researched and
• 32:35
  written by Annabelle Ben David and edited by Danny Fennick.
• 32:39
  Thank you guys so much for listening.
• 32:40
  I love you guys so much and I will talk to you next week.
• 32:44
  Bye.