With James Charles' name all over the news lately, it seems fitting to learn a little bit more about the world's most famous beauty guru.
From his viral beginnings to his current explosive feud with the beauty community, here's what we know about James Charles.
James, who had a respectable 40k+ followers at the time, tweeted out his high school yearbook re-take in 2016.
The images quickly went viral, and celebrities like Zendaya were in on congratulating him for his ingenuity.
The viral fame quickly flipped over to real fame.
CoverGirl signed James as their first CoverBoy in 2016.
In his tweet, he admits to thinking that there was a possibility he could have gotten Ebola while visiting Africa on a school trip.
He faced massive backlash for perpetuating stereotypes about Africa.
He also faced mockery when he referred to Africa as a "country" in his apology.
Due to his conflict with fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook, he has since lost that number.
James' current YouTube subscriber count is around 13.4 million. The speed of his loss seems to have finally slowed.
One of the most notorious James memes is undoubtedly Flashback Mary.
In a photo with a fan, the flash bounced off of James' setting powder and made him look like, well, Casper the ghost.
Though the photo was edited to be a bit lighter than it really was, the meme persists to this day.
In 2018, James teamed up with the brand Morphe to introduce his own makeup palette.
It contains 39 shades, and sold out immediately. Some of the shade names include "Sister," "Pinkity Drinkity," and "Code James."
His YouTube channel has hosted big-time celebrities, like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Iggy Azalea.
For his Kylie video, he made her over for Halloween with a low-key skeleton look. The video has over 29 million views.
James attended the Met Gala on behalf of YouTube, joining other influencers like Liza Koshy and Riverdale's Madelaine Petsch.
He was dressed by Alexander Wang, and documented his entire Met Gala journey for his YouTube channel.
The theme of the 2019 gala was "Camp: Notes on Fashion."
Called Sisters Apparel, James described the line as "inclusive, good & fresh."
The line is currently unavailable, thanks to his scandal with Tati Westbrook. The brand's supplier, Killer Merch (owned by James' former friend, Jeffree Star) seems to have taken the Sister Site down.
Yup, you read that right.
Summarizing the whole thing is going to be a mess, but here goes: James began tweeting from the movie theatre where he was seeing It, saying he didn't like it.
The internet dragged him for it, including the stars of the movie.
James then capitalized on that fame and did a Pennywise makeup look.
The It cast dragged him for that.
So, yeah. Messy.
From his friendship with beauty mogul (and fellow drama-magnet) Jeffree Star to the formation of the Sister Squad with Emma Chamberlain and the Dolan twins, James' friend group was the who's who of YouTube.
All previously mentioned YouTubers and celebrities have since unfollowed James on social media.
Called the "Sisters Tour," the whole thing took on a dramatic edge when the ticket prices were announced.
Some were upwards of $500, which had the internet completely floored.
James is currently on the tour in Australia.
Most recently, he collaborated with RuPaul's Drag Race season 11 contestant, Plastique Tiara, to do a full head-to-toe drag transformation.
His other drag collabs include season 9's Farrah Moan, and season 4's Willam.
On the heels of Tati's 40-minute James Charles exposé, James took a break from the Sisters Tour to record an 8-minute apology to Tati.
As of writing, the video has over 49 million views. YouTuber drama does serious numbers, y'all.
Previously held by his former friend, Laura Lee, who herself had major drama this time last year, James has now surpassed her subscriber loss count.
To date, he has lost over 3.7 million subscribers. Ouch.
