Shane Dawson slams the beauty community and announces he's quitting

From Cosmopolitan

In a now deleted tweet, YouTuber Shane Dawson has announced he is "quitting" the beauty industry, comparing it to a "circus", calling beauty gurus "attention seeking, game playing, egocentric, narcissistic, vengeful, two-faced, ticking time bombs".

Shane's dramatic 4-page statement comes after YouTube drama channels accused him, Jeffree Star and Tati Westbrook of allegedly planning the downfall of James Charles back in 2018.

Recap for the 4 people that missed 2018's "dramageddon" - YouTuber Tati Westbrook posted a 45 minute exposé video on her former friend and fellow beauty guru, James Charles.

Calling him out for his "disgusting behaviour", Tati accused James of being a fake friend and using his fame, power and money to benefit himself in his relationships. She then went on to explain an alleged incident with James and a waiter at her birthday party which made her want to "vomit".

After the video, James lost 2 million subscribers in 3 days (he has since gained them all back and then some) and naturally Jeffree Star jumped into the debate, defending his friend Tati. Claiming that his ex-boyfriend had James banned from their house and calling him "a danger to society", a tweet he later admitted he regretted. and has since extended an olive branch to James.

However, following dramageddon, Jeffree appeared to backtrack on his 'friend', unfollowing Tati on social media and telling YouTuber FaZe Banks that she should never have uploaded the video... despite defending her at the time.

"It's so f*cked because everyone wants to make out – 'you ruined James Charles' career' – no, Tati did and uploaded a 40 minute video about him and she should have never uploaded that. But she did," Jeffree told FaZe on his podcast. "And for some reason James Charles thinks that me and Shane [Dawson] orchestrated the whole thing, like we f*cking care."

Enter Shane Dawson - who became part of the discussion when he filmed his 'Beautiful World of Jeffree Star'documentary series and of course teamed up with him to release their sell-out Conspiracy makeup collection.

In the trailer for the series, Shane teased that viewers would get to see what happened behind the scenes during dramageddon, showing clips of himself watching Tati's video, however he later said he wouldn't be including the drama in full as he felt the series had come to a natural end, following the launch of the palette.

This angered some viewers who felt Shane and Jeffree had exploited the drama to make money from their collection - A viewpoint propelled by a clip in the series where Jeffree tells Shane he could make as much as $10 million from the sales of their collection.

Anyone else feel like they could write a dissertation on Jeffree Star/Shane Dawson/Tati Westbrook/James Charles right now?

Back to my thesis... everything really started to kick off again, when fellow beauty YouTuber and former Jeffree Star Cosmetics model, Kameron Lester, posted a video titled "Fear and manipulation within the beauty community", announcing he was cutting ties with Jeffree. Claiming that Jeffree manipulated him and alleging that a few months prior to dramageddon, Jeffree not only asked him if he like James Charles, but that he allegedly overheard a FaceTime call between Shane and Jeffree discussing him.

"I was kind of taken aback, because I've never seen Shane Dawson like that. And he was just going in on James," Kameron claimed.

While Jeffree and Shane have stayed silent on the rumours until now, their Conspiracy collection re-stocked this weekend, prompting Shane to speak out and deny the accusations against him.

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Read Shane's statement in full below"

"Welcome to the circus - my final thoughts on the beauty world.

A few questions that I have been getting lately

1. Did I know that she was thinking about making a video? Yes.

2. Did I tell her to make a video? No.

3. Did I have any involvement in the video? No.

4. Did I orchestrate it? No.

5. Did I need that kind of "drama" to make a good series? No.

6. Have I ever tried to ruin a career or make someone look bad in my 15 years on YouTube? No.

7. Do I have a track record of getting into drama with people or having fights with other YouTubers? No.

8. Am I innocent and don't have HUGE anxiety provoking regrets about how I could have helped everyone handle everything better? No. I've had a pit in my stomach since it all happened.

Now onto my final thoughts on the beauty world and my experience in it.

The Conspiracy palette was one of the best experience of my life. The series with Jeffree changed my life and changed me as a person. It helped me be more confident and stand up for myself which I've always been bad at. So to honour the series and what I learned from it, I'm gonna say this:

The beauty gurus who are ALWAYS involved in scandals are ALL THE F***NG SAME. They are all attention seeking, game playing, egocentric, narcissistic, vengeful, two-faced, ticking time bombs ready to explode. And I'm OVER it.

Yes, they are talented, creative, smart and love makeup. But they also joined a side of the Internet that is obsessed with looks, money, power, fame, screenshots and subtweets.

Releasing private texts, voice memos, emails and other "receipts" as a way to point yourself in a particular light, or someone else in a bad light is weird to me and I will never engage in that. That is a game that they know how to play well and I would rather eat my own hands off than play it.

Yes, Jeffree is in that list of dramatic gurus (and would admit that) and he will always be family to me and I love him despite those characteristics. He's VERY aware of the fact that I don't agree with many of the ways he approaches situations and I have been very honest with him about needing to make some changes. But as for being in the beauty world, I can't take the drama anymore and it's not how I am wired, so I'M OUT.

It's draining, exhausting, depressing and sometimes amazing. But for me, the amazing is outweighed by the bad.

I can't have a pit in my stomach every day waiting for the next "scandal", or the next "expose video". It's going to give me health issues and I'm done caring about it anymore.

I've never been involved in drama with another YouTuber EVER and the second I decided to do a beauty series, BOOM, I'm in the hurricane.

So did I "plan" dramageddon? Are you SERIOUS? NO. Do people in the YouTube world come to me like a grandpa and tell me their problems and ask for advice? Yes. It is easy for me to get wrapped up in something potentially toxic if I think someone I love is hurting or upset? Yes. It's an issue I need to work on and have been working on.

When she told me how upset she was in person I had the same reaction the world did when they saw her video. I felt awful for her and she seemed broken. So I tried to be there for her and be someone she could to about it.

So was I shocked that she decided to make a video? No. Was I shocked that Tati READ his ass to f***ing FILTH? YES. I wasn't "acting". I didn't know it was gonna be that intense.

Looking back, I still believe her on a lot of what she said and I believe she felt it was what she needed to do at the time. Does she regret it? Probably. Does it mean we should see James as some poor innocent sweet angel? No.

Don't get it twisted. Him and Jeffree have always been at the TOP of the dramatic guru list and I mean that with love.

Did I warn James about the video? No. Why? For reasons that I will never discuss. We've spoken privately on it and that's that.

Do I think James is THE DEVIL? No. Do I think he was a young, egocentric, power-hungry guru who needed to be served a slice of humble pie in the size of the f***ing Empire State Building? YES. Has he grown as a person since then? It really seems like it! And that's AMAZING.

I'm truly happy if he's realised how his ego was effecting others which he did address in his 'No More Lies' video. Do I think Tati is a villain? No. I think Tati was sick of being treated like sh*t by so many in the beauty world and finally snapped. And damn, did she f***ing snap all the way off.

Holy sh*t. She really said "FUCK IT" and beat her face for the gods and popped on that ring light and went full GAME OF THRONES on that sh*t. Say what you want about her, or that video, but that sh*t will be in the history books. F***ing YouTube Rewind even gave it an acknowledgement. Damn. K, sorry, back to my rant.

Do I think Jeffree orchestrated this whole situation? No. Tati is a strong woman who made a choice. Do I think Jeffree was also upset by some issues with James and some things he heard behind the scenes? Yes.

Was Jeffree excited to see a competitor fall? Probably! He's Jeffree F***ING Star, what do you expect?? I guess I missed the part where he got baptised and devoted his life to Christ.

Did Jeffree take it too far and f**k up BIG TIME by tweeting what he did? YES. And it's one of the biggest regrets of his life. This all happened over a year ago and I'm really sick of hearing about it and having people constantly using it as a way to keep my name and other names tagged together in drama videos.

Don't get it twisted, drama will never end, with a lot of these people. It's their game, their survival, their drug. They LOVE it. This specific drama went too far, obviously, and hopefully something like that never happens again.

Putting drama in the trailer was something I regret more than anything in the world and I'm mad that I chose tea over morals. I'm really sorry to Tati and James if me putting their drama in the series at all felt like I was re-opening up wounds. Although I did speak to both of them privately about the trailer, I should have not even done it AT ALL.

Drama might be fun to watch, but it's NOT fun to get wrapped up in, and it's my fault for letting that happen. And I'm sick of being trapped in the middle of it. Do I think this will be the LAST drama involving these people? Hahah no. No I don't. Do I want to be involved ever again? FUCK NO.

Remember to not expect these gurus to maintain some high moral code. And we shouldn't have some "they must be perfect, or they're cancelled!" mentality.

The reason you watch these people is because they ARE SO EXTRA. They are dramatic. And if you keep cancelling them and wanting them to go away, THEN who will you talk about?

You don't go to a circus to watch the hay on the ground. You go to watch the over-the-top performers who just want to be liked and want to do whatever they can to get your attention.

If you don't want to feed into it, then don't. But before all the drama-free gurus pop off at me and say "well I'm not involved in drama and I'm perfect" GURL PLEASE. Your top-viewed videos are probably "top makeup FAILS" and "anti-hauls" with vomit emojis all over the screen. And that's OK.

I LOVE those videos. But let's not pretend that the beauty world isn't negativity first, makeup second. It's just how it is and I'm sick of people pretending to be so above it all. And with that said I love watching beauty channels of all sizes and I will continue to watch and support them. The dramatic ones, the non-dramatic ones, and the ones who genuinely just love to show their makeup skills. Sadly those channels get way less views for the reasons I have stated above.

So go, enjoy the gurus. Enjoy the circus. Unsubscribe from me if you are mad that I'm no longer engaging in it. Unsubscribe to gurus who you don't like. Subscribe to gurus you do like. Just don't take the beauty world as seriously as I did, or as so many of us did in 2019. It's not worth it and I feel like we all lost a bit of our soul during dramageddon.

As for my channels, I'm done with the beauty world.

I love what I was able to create with Jeffree and I'm sure people are going to assume I only did it for money, but that's not true. I just am choosing to no longer be apart of that world.

I will still watch beauty videos, buy and play with makeup and be a part of that life offline, but as far as being a part of that world on YouTube? I don't think it's for me.

I need to get back to why I started YouTube back in 2005 and that was to make things that bring me joy (not drama) and to make movies one day.

Makeup will for now just be a fun hobby I have to help with my anxiety... like slime, or emotional eating. And that all sounds really good to me right now."

However, if Shane was hoping this would put an end to the rumours and drama involving him and dramageddon, it looks unlikely if the responses are anything to go by.

After the scandal in 2019, James Charles confessed he felt suicidal from all the backlash he received... so it's sad to see that the Internet has clearly not learnt any lessons from that.

Let's hope the beauty community can be better in 2020.

Follow Laura on Instagram.

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