Latest / Mini Scroll / The Career & Self-Cancellation of Jenna Marbles: Why We Sill Yearn For YouTube’s OG Funny Hot Girl

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The Career & Self-Cancellation of Jenna Marbles: Why We Sill Yearn For YouTube’s OG Funny Hot Girl · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  On July 10th, 2010, a blonde girl working at Barstool Sports
• 0:04
  uploaded a video to YouTube that would become a cultural marker
• 0:08
  of the platform. The video was essentially a
• 0:10
  makeup tutorial. Sitting in a poorly lit room,
• 0:13
  the creator walked viewers through the.
• 0:15
  Steps you can take to be good looking, kind of.
• 0:18
  From fake tanning to fake lashes, bleaching her hair and
• 0:21
  drawing on her eyebrows, she explained each step before
• 0:24
  cutting to the final reveal. There's no cure for ugly, but
• 0:28
  you can make yourself into a human optical.
• 0:31
  Illusion. This one liner would ultimately
• 0:33
  go down in Internet culture, history, and the creator, of
• 0:37
  course, would also. This is an exploration into the
• 0:40
  history and career of the internet's OG funny hot girl
• 0:44
  Jenna Marbles. From her beginnings at Barstool
• 0:47
  Sports to herself cancellation and disappearance from the
• 0:50
  Internet in 2020, Jenna is a creator that the Internet
• 0:53
  continues to miss. So we're going to explore why
• 0:57
  from Centennial World. I'm Lauren Meissner and this is
• 1:00
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 1:04
  economy, and how social media is shaping Gen.
• 1:06
  Z Welcome back to Infinite Scroll, everyone.
• 1:09
  I cannot believe that we are on our sixth season.
• 1:14
  I know the podcast has evolved a lot, but still our sixth season.
• 1:17
  And we have never done a deep dive on Jenna Marbles.
• 1:21
  Jenna is such an OG. We have done deep dives into so
• 1:25
  many of the other Ogs and I don't know, it just feels like
• 1:28
  it, it was time. So before we get into it, as
• 1:31
  always, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 1:33
  Please star rate US on Spotify. We're trying to get to 1000
• 1:37
  Spotify star ratings, but we also would love an Apple review
• 1:40
  or a YouTube subscription, a YouTube comment.
• 1:43
  Wherever you listen to us, please engage.
• 1:45
  Sign up to our newsletter, which is called Infinite scroll.
• 1:48
  On Fridays, we round up the five biggest thing pieces on the
• 1:51
  Internet that week. There's no denying that Jenna
• 2:00
  Marbles, born Jenna Nicole Mori, is a YouTube OG.
• 2:03
  Her current channel named Jenna Marbles was launched on February
• 2:08
  17th, 2010. The earliest video still
• 2:10
  available, titled Charles Franklin Marbles is a Sad, Sad
• 2:14
  Man, was uploaded the next day and featured her Chihuahua
• 2:17
  Marbles. However, this wasn't her
• 2:19
  original channel. In a 2015 interview with Larry
• 2:22
  King, Jenna revealed that she did have a channel using her
• 2:25
  real name. She eventually created a a new
• 2:27
  one after her mother expressed concern about Jenna's online
• 2:31
  presence during her job search. As a result, Jenna named her
• 2:34
  second channel after her dog, a choice that in hindsight, is
• 2:38
  extremely iconic. Unlike many creators today who
• 2:41
  jump into influencing fresh out of high school or college, that
• 2:44
  wasn't Jenna's experience. She earned a Bachelor of Science
• 2:48
  in psychology from Suffolk University and a Master in
• 2:51
  Education in sports psychology and counseling from Boston
• 2:54
  University. Her original goal was to work
• 2:56
  with athletes. In the same Larry King
• 2:58
  interview, she explained. I wanted to.
• 3:00
  Work with athletes in performance enhancement so
• 3:05
  helping you know hitter get out of their slump in baseball
• 3:09
  things like that or with. Kids.
• 3:11
  But things obviously took a very different turn for her after
• 3:15
  graduating from college. She had a variety of different
• 3:17
  jobs, ranging from bartending to go go dancing to working at a
• 3:21
  tanning salon, but she was truly introduced to the digital world
• 3:24
  when she started working at Barstool Sport.
• 3:28
  The chronically online among us will know Barstool Sports as the
• 3:31
  producer of the BFFS podcast, which has become a central
• 3:35
  player in TikTok drama for years.
• 3:37
  The brand was founded by Dave Portnoy in 2003 as a weekly
• 3:41
  print publication distributed in the Boston metropolitan area.
• 3:45
  By the time Jenna completed her university studies, Barstool had
• 3:48
  already evolved. It had transitioned from a local
• 3:51
  print publication into an online blog and had also expanded into
• 3:55
  other cities. Since then, Barstool has become
• 3:57
  known for reporting on sports and pop culture, as well as
• 4:01
  feeding into bro culture. She started working for the
• 4:04
  company as a promo model where she would tell people to.
• 4:07
  Get in a bikini and go tell people to drink booze and have
• 4:10
  a. Good time.
• 4:10
  Jenna later became Dave Portnoy's assistant and then
• 4:13
  eventually started writing blogs on stoolala.com, the company's
• 4:17
  women oriented site. Jenna's time at Barstool has
• 4:20
  become controversial, and not necessarily because of the
• 4:23
  company's associations, but rather because of how she left
• 4:26
  things off with Save Portnoy. In her now deleted Draw My Life
• 4:30
  video, Jenna discussed how she got the job at Barstool as well
• 4:33
  as her decision to leave the company.
• 4:35
  In it, she spoke about how she learned about the digital world
• 4:38
  through Barstool and eventually one day coming home from the
• 4:41
  office, she came up with the idea for her first viral video,
• 4:45
  How to trick People into Thinking You're Good Looking.
• 4:48
  The video mentioned in the intro soon blew up, currently sitting
• 4:52
  at 73 million views and is still her most popular video on her
• 4:56
  channel. It Even and made it to the
• 4:58
  Barstool Sports homepage, a gesture Jenna acknowledged and
• 5:01
  thanked Dave Portnoy for in her Draw My Life video.
• 5:05
  Virality opened up new opportunities for Jenna, showing
• 5:08
  her that she could succeed by creating her own content.
• 5:11
  She did speak on this in her Draw My Life video explaining
• 5:14
  that. I realized that it wasn't really
• 5:16
  making me happy and I wanted to make videos.
• 5:19
  Her Internet fame led to a public falling out with Dave
• 5:21
  Portnoy. He claimed credit for making the
• 5:23
  video go viral, but Jenna pushed back.
• 5:26
  In an April 2011 blog post on Stool Lala, she shared viewer
• 5:29
  stats arguing that most of her audience were women, a mostly
• 5:33
  untapped demographic for Barstool at the time.
• 5:36
  Quote Prez always says that if Barstool hadn't posted it, no
• 5:39
  one would have seen it, and that's the whole reason it went
• 5:41
  viral, she writes. If Barstool made this video go
• 5:44
  viral, then how did so many girls see and share the video
• 5:47
  via social media, making up over 20% of views last time I
• 5:51
  checked. I didn't know Barstool Sports
• 5:53
  was mostly female readers because that's who was watching
• 5:56
  my video. In a follow up blog on Stool
• 5:58
  Lala, Dave announced that quote, Stool Lala is dead.
• 6:02
  I actually wrote a long rant in response, but I didn't want to
• 6:05
  make people cry so I just bit my tongue on this issue, which I
• 6:08
  never do. To this day, Dave Portnoy still
• 6:11
  claims credit for Jenna Marbles rise to fame In 2021, he tweeted
• 6:16
  quote, did Barstool Sports discover and help launch the
• 6:18
  careers of the two most successful digital female
• 6:22
  content creators of the last two decades, Jenna Marbles and Alex
• 6:25
  Cooper? Not bad for a sexist company in
• 6:28
  a male dominated field. Who's next?
• 6:31
  Whether or not Dave Portnoy made Jenna Marbles isn't really the
• 6:35
  point. It was her personality and the
• 6:37
  unique content she created that allowed her to truly resonate
• 6:40
  with her audience. Many of her early videos were
• 6:43
  skits, vlogs, and chatty videos. For example, one of her oldest
• 6:47
  videos, I Hate Being a Grown Up, a comedic rap song about the
• 6:50
  struggle that comes with being an adult, has racked up 19
• 6:54
  million views. Another fan favorite, Drunk
• 6:56
  Makeup Tutorial, has since gained nearly 25 million views.
• 7:00
  Skits and similar content styles were hugely popular in the early
• 7:04
  2000. Tens.
• 7:05
  Creators like Shane Dawson, who has since been cancelled for
• 7:09
  many of those videos, built his platform around comedic skits
• 7:13
  that often relied on racist jokes, inappropriate humor, and
• 7:16
  harmful stereotypes. Ryan Higa, another OG YouTube,
• 7:20
  gained a following with similar skit based content.
• 7:23
  With that being said, Jenna's videos fit perfectly into the
• 7:26
  trending formats of the time, but what sets her apart was her
• 7:29
  ability to break the mold in certain ways.
• 7:32
  As a stereotypically attractive woman in a predominantly male
• 7:36
  dominated online comedy space, she leaned into her
• 7:39
  relatability, whether poking fun at herself or exposing specific
• 7:42
  habits. A hot woman being goofy and
• 7:45
  weird felt unprecedented off the back of the 2000s bimbo era,
• 7:49
  making her stand out to viewers. But that is not to say that
• 7:52
  Jenna hasn't been without controversy.
• 7:54
  Reflecting on her older videos, critics have called about the
• 7:57
  sometimes racist and misogynistic undertones in her
• 8:01
  content, but more on that later. Jenna would upload every
• 8:04
  Wednesday, dubbing her upload day, Sexual Wednesdays.
• 8:07
  Some of her earliest and most memorable content included her
• 8:11
  Salon series, where she'd do things like give her now husband
• 8:14
  Julian a manicure or put acrylic nails on her toes.
• 8:18
  Other memorable moments included videos where she covered her
• 8:20
  face in rhinestones and cut and colored her own hair.
• 8:23
  And of course, her pets Marbles, Kermit, Peach, and later Bunny,
• 8:27
  were always a big part of her videos.
• 8:29
  She'd do everything from officiating a dog wedding to
• 8:33
  reading mean comments about them.
• 8:34
  Jenna and Julian have since adopted another dog, Lonnie, but
• 8:38
  she never appeared on Jenna's channel.
• 8:40
  One of the most impressive things about Jenna over the
• 8:42
  years was that even though her content evolved, often for the
• 8:45
  better, she always stayed true to her roots.
• 8:48
  As Amy O'Leary wrote for The New York Times in 2013.
• 8:52
  Quote Unlike other YouTube personalities who invest in
• 8:55
  better cameras, lighting and production values, Miss Morey
• 8:58
  has stuck to her original lo fi operation.
• 9:01
  During the mid to late 2010's as the beauty community hit its
• 9:04
  peak, creators were stepping up their game and essentially
• 9:07
  turned YouTube into a full on production.
• 9:10
  But Jenna continued to film videos in front of her bed or on
• 9:12
  her living room floor chatting about different topics.
• 9:15
  She was the relatable and authentic figure young people
• 9:18
  were craving long before relatability became a trend with
• 9:21
  creators like Emma Chamberlain. Quote Teenage girls love her
• 9:25
  exactly because she seems so genuine.
• 9:27
  Her video videos are catnip to them, the kind of thing they
• 9:29
  discover privately in their Facebook feed, where her
• 9:32
  profanity and tell it like it is Rants on sex, boys, sports bras,
• 9:36
  and makeup speak directly to her core audience, O'Leary
• 9:39
  continues. Jenna's connection with her
• 9:41
  audience was undeniable, so much so that she started breaking
• 9:45
  into more mainstream spaces in 2015.
• 9:48
  She even got her own wax figure at Madame Tussauds New York.
• 9:51
  But unlike many other Youtubers who saw the platform as a
• 9:54
  stepping stone to bigger things, Jenna seemed perfectly really
• 9:57
  content staying on YouTube while other creators chased Hollywood
• 10:01
  As YouTube became more legitimate, Jenna stayed
• 10:03
  grounded and committed to the digital space even when more
• 10:07
  traditional opportunities popped up.
• 10:09
  For instance, when Jenna was given the opportunity to host a
• 10:12
  radio show on SiriusXM, it was still related to YouTube where
• 10:16
  the show would feature the quote top and emerging breakout songs
• 10:19
  based on YouTube data. Another example was when she was
• 10:22
  signed by Creative Artists Agency, a major talent agency,
• 10:26
  when she was asked about it on Larry King, she said.
• 10:28
  I got to a point within the Internet world so that I have
• 10:32
  accomplished a lot of things on my own and it's time to have
• 10:36
  some serious backing. And I honestly, we're talking
• 10:40
  about my goals. I think just trying to see where
• 10:44
  you can go on the Internet and being your own boss and, you
• 10:47
  know, not maybe climbing a traditional ladder.
• 10:50
  I'm really interested to see what you can do by yourself and
• 10:52
  how far you can go by yourself. For all intents and purposes,
• 10:56
  Jenna achieved this goal. While so many early Internet
• 10:59
  personalities struggled to maintain relevancy and parlay
• 11:02
  their virality into long term success, Jenna's career had
• 11:06
  longevity. This was seemingly for two
• 11:08
  reasons. Jenna's content was extremely
• 11:10
  nostalgic for millennial and Gen.
• 11:12
  Z women, plus she remained humble and open to feedback.
• 11:16
  It's no surprise that nostalgia is a huge seller.
• 11:19
  Gen. Z specifically, are an extremely
• 11:21
  nostalgic generation. Whether it be the low waisted
• 11:24
  jeans and baby Tees reminiscent of the Y2K or opting for a
• 11:28
  digital camera on a night out, Genzed is always seeking a
• 11:32
  nostalgic reprieve from the chaos that comes with getting
• 11:35
  older. In a similar vein, nostalgia has
• 11:37
  become a coping mechanism for many young people today, helping
• 11:41
  them navigate a world that feels increasingly polarized,
• 11:44
  discriminatory, and stressful. One thing we can't overstate is
• 11:47
  the cultural impact that YouTube and creators held for many
• 11:51
  Genzeds during their childhood and teenage years.
• 11:54
  For a lot of people, Jenna Marbles was probably one of the
• 11:57
  1st creators they encountered, even if they were too young to
• 12:00
  fully understand her content at the time.
• 12:03
  Jenna embodies a type of nostalgia that few creators can
• 12:06
  match. Nostalgia is clearly magnetic.
• 12:08
  It keeps people coming back, even for the things that might
• 12:11
  not hold up in the same way. Today, we all have those TV
• 12:14
  shows or movies from our past that, despite their flaws, we
• 12:18
  can't resist watching. For many, Jenna Marbles holds
• 12:21
  that same grip. Jenna was always known as a
• 12:23
  comedic creator, but around 2018 her content went through a
• 12:27
  shift. Gone were the days of edgy,
• 12:30
  sometimes offensive humor that had been a staple of YouTube in
• 12:33
  the late 2000s and early 20 tens.
• 12:35
  Instead, Jenna embraced a more unconventional approach,
• 12:39
  creating videos that honestly only she could pull off.
• 12:42
  These videos were a little absurd, as if she came up with
• 12:45
  the idea and simply had to do it, no matter how random.
• 12:48
  It was definitely a shift, but it also showed her audience just
• 12:52
  how much she loved creating content.
• 12:54
  Some of the stand up videos from this era include transforming
• 12:58
  myself into my dog, just trying to blend into my green screen
• 13:01
  where she wore all green and painted her face to be
• 13:04
  superimposed over images in real time.
• 13:06
  And of course I want to be tall and I want to be a toothbrush
• 13:10
  for Halloween, where she took unconventional approaches to
• 13:13
  achieve these goals. Now these videos were extremely
• 13:17
  entertaining, with many of them going on to receive millions of
• 13:20
  views. But part of the obsession around
• 13:22
  them was the nostalgia. Her audience, many of whom had
• 13:25
  grown up with her, were fiercely and just wanted to see Jenna
• 13:29
  having fun and enjoying creating content.
• 13:31
  Other creators who perhaps didn't have such a long term fan
• 13:35
  base would have struggled to produce unconventional content
• 13:38
  like this. Jenna, on the other hand, could
• 13:40
  make any video and people loved it.
• 13:43
  It was also nice to see a creator being original,
• 13:46
  especially as influencers would rush to copy whatever was
• 13:49
  trending. With that being said, the
• 13:51
  relationship between nostalgia and creators is definitely an
• 13:54
  interesting one and is worth investigating a little further.
• 13:57
  In Jenna's case, nostalgia gave her a kind of creative freedom,
• 14:01
  whether it was her bizarre video ideas or even her past
• 14:04
  controversies. The same can be said for many
• 14:06
  other creators who have benefited from longtime fans.
• 14:10
  Take David Dobrik, for example. While Jenna and David aren't
• 14:13
  comparable in terms of controversy, they share one
• 14:16
  trait, loyal fans who continue to support them no matter what.
• 14:20
  A lot of that loyalty stems from nostalgia and the deep
• 14:23
  parasocial bonds formed over the years of watching their content.
• 14:27
  David's recent return to YouTube is a case in point.
• 14:30
  David spent years off the platform after being cancelled
• 14:33
  in 2021. As most people know by now, he
• 14:36
  was accused of being complicit in Dom Zegeliadis's sexual
• 14:39
  assault of a college student. Under mounting pressure from
• 14:42
  mainstream media and the Frenemies podcast, David lost
• 14:45
  sponsorships, stepped down from Dyspo, and posted 2 apology
• 14:49
  videos in March 2021. Then just a month later, Vlog
• 14:53
  Squad member Jeff Whittick revealed that he had almost died
• 14:57
  in an ex excavator stunt gone wrong.
• 14:59
  He shared a documentary showing footage of the accident which
• 15:02
  left him with a shattered skull and eye socket, broken bones,
• 15:05
  brain damage and permanent vision loss in one eye.
• 15:08
  Since then, there have been reports of Jeff suing David for
• 15:11
  $10 million as David was driving the excavator, alleging
• 15:15
  negligence and intentional harm. Despite everything, David
• 15:19
  returned to YouTube on the 8th of January, welcomed by mostly
• 15:23
  fans excited for his comeback. His first video back, titled
• 15:26
  Surprising Friends with Body Transformation, felt like
• 15:29
  classic David Dobrik content, fast-paced, sensationalized and
• 15:34
  aspirational. Given how far reaching his
• 15:36
  cancellation was, and with little sign that he's changed in
• 15:39
  this new video, you'd expect widespread backlash.
• 15:43
  But instead his comments section was immediately filled with
• 15:46
  praise, with many celebrating his return and calling his vlogs
• 15:49
  as entertaining as ever. One comment even read quote.
• 15:53
  Last time I watched David I was a teenager.
• 15:55
  Now I'm an adult starting my career.
• 15:57
  Thank you David, my childhood is complete.
• 16:01
  With this, it's clear that nostalgia can sometimes cloud
• 16:04
  our judgement as viewers, especially when it comes to
• 16:06
  holding creators accountable. Beyond David, plenty of long
• 16:09
  time creators have been problematic, yet continue to be
• 16:13
  hyped up and supported. Trisha Paytas and Tana Mojo are
• 16:16
  just a couple examples, but there's no denying that this
• 16:19
  works in the creator's favor, giving them creative freedom and
• 16:22
  in some cases, a more forgiving audience.
• 16:25
  Fans are just happy to have content from often holding them
• 16:29
  to a lower standard, both in terms of what they produce and
• 16:32
  how they take accountability. When it comes to Jenna, viewers
• 16:36
  fondness, nostalgia and parasocial attachment definitely
• 16:39
  gave her the freedom. But that didn't stop her from
• 16:42
  staying humble and taking accountability throughout her
• 16:44
  career, one of the key reasons she remained relevant in the
• 16:48
  ever so fleeting digital world. Although Jenna did face a number
• 16:52
  of scandals that ultimately LED her to take an indefinite hiatus
• 16:56
  from YouTube in 2021, notable moment came in 2017 when Jenna
• 17:01
  faced criticism over animal abuse allegations.
• 17:04
  It all started when she had posted a vlog where she
• 17:07
  purchased a new pet fish. Following the advice of the pet
• 17:10
  store, she bought a tank, only to be met with a wave of
• 17:13
  backlash from online users who claimed she had chosen the wrong
• 17:17
  one. In response, Jenna posted a 47
• 17:20
  minute long apology video where she repeatedly expressed regret
• 17:24
  for her actions, stressing that harming the fish was never her
• 17:27
  intention. In the apology video, she hoped
• 17:30
  to make the situation quote a teachable moment for her viewers
• 17:33
  so that no one else would make a similar mistake.
• 17:36
  She also ended up attaching the vlog footage to the end of her
• 17:39
  apology video to help viewers unfamiliar with the situation
• 17:43
  understand, as Jenna said in the video.
• 17:45
  Well, this again is my fault because it's my job to be
• 17:49
  informed about the fish and where they should live and how
• 17:53
  they should live, not the person selling them to me.
• 17:56
  And I should have done a better job off the bat by just maybe
• 18:01
  going in there with an idea of what a what a good first fish
• 18:05
  first fish for me to have. Was the video was well received,
• 18:08
  with many viewers genuinely surprised by how seriously she
• 18:12
  took the situation. It's rare for a creator to sit
• 18:14
  down and film an almost hour long apology over a fish, and
• 18:19
  people took notice, especially because her response came across
• 18:22
  as sincere and earnest as one viewer wrote Quote.
• 18:26
  So many Youtubers make a apology videos for cheating, doing
• 18:29
  terrible things, committing crimes, doing drugs, whatever
• 18:32
  else. You make an apology video for
• 18:34
  your fish. Honestly, I feel like you're the
• 18:36
  only sane person on this platform.
• 18:38
  Thank you for being precious and inspiring.
• 18:41
  The fish incident introduced the idea that Jenna genuinely cared
• 18:45
  about doing the right thing, and it was a perception that largely
• 18:48
  continued through her other scandals.
• 18:50
  For example, the most egregious controversies stem from her
• 18:53
  early content. Over the years, Jenna has faced
• 18:56
  accusations, internalized misogyny, slut shaming, and
• 19:00
  racism in her older videos. While many of these videos have
• 19:03
  since been deleted, re uploads continue circulating online.
• 19:07
  We don't have time to go into all the different videos, but
• 19:09
  one widely criticized example is her 2011 video What Nicki Minaj
• 19:14
  Wants in a Man, where she impersonated Nicki Minaj by
• 19:17
  wearing a pink wig and patting her pants to create exaggerated
• 19:21
  curves. Her skin also appeared to be
• 19:23
  darker in the video, leading to a debate over whether this was
• 19:26
  intentional blackface or the result of heavy self Tanner that
• 19:29
  she used at the time. Another example is her video
• 19:33
  Things I Don't Understand About Girls Part 2 Slut Edition, in
• 19:37
  which Jenna made problematic statements about women and
• 19:39
  casual sex. She described being a slut as a
• 19:42
  personal choice, saying I'm not making.
• 19:44
  Fun of you Personally, I'm just making fun of your slutty.
• 19:48
  Choices. But of course, the video failed
• 19:50
  to acknowledge how the term is often weaponized against women
• 19:53
  or that many people are unfairly labeled as such.
• 19:56
  She ultimately issued an an apology for these videos and
• 19:59
  other problematic content in a June 2020 video titled A
• 20:03
  Message. In this video, which was
• 20:05
  uploaded around the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests in
• 20:08
  the US, she announced her decision to take an indefinite
• 20:11
  hiatus from her YouTube channel. She opened the video by
• 20:14
  reflecting on her past, admitting.
• 20:16
  There's things in my past I'm not proud of.
• 20:19
  She then explained that she recently decided to private much
• 20:22
  of her old content, saying that she was trying to limit any
• 20:25
  negativity online and stop offending viewer.
• 20:28
  I'm sorry if any of that holds any nostalgia for you, but I'm
• 20:32
  literally not trying to put out negative things into the world.
• 20:38
  I think there was a time when having all of my old content
• 20:41
  exists on the Internet showed how much I have grown up as a
• 20:45
  person, which I'm very proud of. And I think now it's hard for
• 20:53
  that content to exist at all because I think people watch it
• 20:58
  and don't bother to look at when it was posted or you know, care
• 21:01
  about what path I took to get to where I am.
• 21:06
  It offends them now. And if that's the case where
• 21:10
  people will watch something and be offended, now I don't want it
• 21:13
  to exist. So I've private did a lot of my
• 21:17
  old content because I just don't want anyone to feel upset about.
• 21:23
  Anything. Although she did delete much of
• 21:24
  her catalogue, it should be noted that many users felt she
• 21:27
  should have done so earlier, especially since she had
• 21:30
  continued to benefit from them, not necessarily financially, but
• 21:34
  through engagement and visibility.
• 21:36
  She went on to address the blackface allegations in the
• 21:38
  Nicki Minaj video too, stating that it was never her intention.
• 21:42
  She acknowledged that intent doesn't change the impact, where
• 21:45
  her actions still hurt and offended viewers.
• 21:48
  Jenna also spoke about the slut shaming videos, saying.
• 21:51
  It does not reflect my attitude towards anyone in their bodies.
• 21:55
  That's really been eating me up inside for a long time, and I
• 21:59
  just wanted to tell you I'm sorry.
• 22:00
  With this, a caveat is an order. When she posted a message, no
• 22:04
  one demanded that she issue an apology for this specific video,
• 22:08
  and taking initiative definitely went a long way for her in the
• 22:11
  public eye. Ultimately, her decision to take
• 22:14
  proactive measures helped her to appear more genuine and
• 22:17
  apologetic. Many creators have found
• 22:19
  themselves in similar situations to Jenna, but Chief Impact
• 22:23
  Officer at Forbes, Seth Cohen highlights what sets Jenna's
• 22:26
  apology apart. Quote Marbles didn't just issue
• 22:29
  an apology. Her brief video also addressed
• 22:32
  specific videos and explained why the videos demand an
• 22:35
  apology. In doing so, she did what many
• 22:38
  others failed to do, own her mistakes.
• 22:41
  To many viewers, it was clear that Jenna was genuine.
• 22:44
  She took accountability and raised issues that users hadn't
• 22:47
  called out. On top of this, she followed
• 22:49
  through on her promises and actually left the Internet.
• 22:53
  This behavior was extremely different from that of other
• 22:56
  creators who apologize and promised to change but continue
• 23:00
  exhibiting problematic behavior. While Jenna's approach is
• 23:02
  positive and honestly how creators should treat their
• 23:05
  scandals and controversies, many users would go on to claim that
• 23:09
  Jenna was driven off the Internet by cancel culture,
• 23:11
  especially because she had shown so much growth.
• 23:14
  As one user put it on Reddit quote, she left because she
• 23:17
  cancelled herself for making racist content when she was
• 23:20
  younger. While you can say it's on her
• 23:22
  own accord, that suggests she wanted to, but I feel there was
• 23:25
  a lot of negative stress and pressure on her.
• 23:27
  As someone who is popular on the the Internet and just made her
• 23:30
  boil over and quit. I honestly feel like she
• 23:32
  probably would still be making content today if she didn't have
• 23:35
  all that pressure. Other viewers believe that Jenna
• 23:38
  didn't necessarily leave because of cancel culture.
• 23:41
  They claim that Jenna was simply burnt out and used the scandal
• 23:44
  to step back. In a discussion on the R slash
• 23:47
  Jenna marble subreddit debating whether the negativity online
• 23:50
  pushed Jenna to quit, many users maintain that Jenna leaving the
• 23:53
  platform was inevitable. Quote I think she was ready for
• 23:57
  the stage of her life to be over and the Dramageddon was the time
• 24:00
  to bow out. She was on YouTube for a very
• 24:02
  long time and started off as a very young person, one Reddit
• 24:06
  user wrote. Quote I think she was pretty
• 24:08
  burnt out at the end. I think she was just looking for
• 24:10
  a way out. I wish she knew.
• 24:12
  We would have loved it if she had just made a video whenever
• 24:15
  she wanted. Added another Since leaving
• 24:17
  YouTube, she's entered her podcast and deleted her
• 24:20
  Instagram and Twitter, leaving fans with only updates from
• 24:24
  Julian. He shared the news about their
• 24:26
  wedding in a live stream in December 2022 and still post
• 24:29
  updates about their dogs. But whatever the real reason
• 24:32
  behind Jenna's decision to step away, it's clear that nostalgia
• 24:36
  and her genuine approach to feedback have kept her fans
• 24:39
  captivated. Though she hasn't posted in
• 24:41
  years, anything related to her still catches people's
• 24:44
  attention. At this point, it's anyone's
• 24:47
  guess whether Jenna will ever return to the online world.
• 24:50
  And even if she does, it doesn't mean users must forgive her for
• 24:53
  her previous problematic content.
• 24:55
  But with so many fans holding out hope that one day they'll
• 24:59
  open YouTube and see her video pop up in their recommendations,
• 25:02
  it's clear that nostalgia has a powerful hold on what we choose
• 25:06
  to watch. Jenna, with all her ups and
• 25:08
  downs, will always be remembered as the woman who helped define
• 25:12
  YouTube influencer culture. The creator who actually evolved
• 25:16
  as a person over time while staying authentically true to
• 25:19
  herself. The YouTube who wasn't afraid to
• 25:22
  tackle apologies and accountability head on.
• 25:25
  And of course, the one who taught us how to trip table.
• 25:29
  Into thinking you're really good looking.
• 25:31
  Infinite Scroll is a podcast produced, presented and Co
• 25:34
  written by me Lauren Meisner for Centennial World.
• 25:37
  This episode was researched and Co written by Annabelle Ben
• 25:40
  David. Editing is by Danny Fennec.
• 25:43
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys and I will talk
• 25:46
  to you next week. Bye.