Jenna Marbles Quits YouTube & Apologizes For Past ‘Blackface’ & ‘Awful’ Rap Video

In tears, Jenna Marbles revealed that she’s leaving YouTube — possibly ‘forever.’ The iconic YouTuber, who boasts 20.2 million subscribers, no longer wants to put ‘negative things into the world’ and apologized for a number of past controversies.

Jenna Marbles, one of YouTube’s foremothers, quit the video platform. The 33-year-old famous YouTuber sent shockwaves across the Internet after announcing her departure in what may just be her last ever YouTube video, shared on June 25. “I feel like we’re at a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic, and I am being requested that I address things that I’ve done in my past. I also get a lot of tweets from people that are saying like ‘We love you, you unproblematic queen,’ which always makes me uncomfortable…I’ve definitely done things in the past that weren’t great and I’m not completely unproblematic,” Jenna began the video.

“That being said, I privated a lot of my old content. Because I just don’t want anyone to feel upset about anything. I don’t want to contribute to that…I don’t want someone to watch something and feel hurt or offended now for any reason,” Jenna continued. The YouTube star didn’t dance around what she needed to address.

“The first two things I’d like to address is the fact that people were offended that I did blackface as Nick Minaj in 2011 and I’ll show you the clip,” Jenna said. She proceeded to play a clip of her old impersonation of Nicki, which had already been non-accessible to the public for a while. “And I do just want to tell you that it was not my intention to do blackface…this is the end of the video where I take my wig off. I don’t know how else to say it, but it doesn’t matter,” she explained, adding, “All that matters is that people were offended and it hurt them and for that, I am so unbelievably sorry. This isn’t ok.”

https://twitter.com/btdjareau/status/1276264524325236738

Jenna then pulled up another now-private video from 2011, called “Bounce That D–k.” In the video, Jenna wears a rice hat and raps, “Hey ch*ng ch*ng wing wong, shake your king kong ding dong. Sorry that was racist, I’m bad at rap songs.” Noting how insensitive the video was to Asian cultures, Jenna said, “It’s awful. It doesn’t need to exist. It’s inexcusable….I shouldn’t have said that, ever. It’s not cool, it’s not cute, it’s not okay. I’m embarrassed I ever made that, period.”

Jenna even apologized for content that no one had called her out on. She said she “f–ked up” for making a video in 2012 that “came across unbeliavably sl-t-shamey,” in addition to videos about “what girls do, and what guys do,” since she now doesn’t think “that making jokes about your gender is funny.”

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I want to remind people that Jenna Marbles is a prime example of a human being that has taken accountability for their actions, grown as a person, and applied the lesson they learned from that moment on. …pic.twitter.com/3Ls95Cd7dx

— god’s favorite girl boss✨🤩😫 (@ansleighwright) June 25, 2020

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, I don’t want to offend anyone. I don’t. In case you guys haven’t noticed, there’s no sponsors on this channel, I’m not trying to sell you anything,” Jenna further said through tears, explaining why she’s doing a massive wipeout of her old YouTube content. Towards the end of the video, Jenna revealed, “I don’t think I’m having a good time. It seems like other people aren’t having a good time…for now, I just can’t exist on this channel..hopefully I’ve taken down anything that would upset someone and I hope you know that’s just not my intent, that’s not what I ever set out to do.” Jenna couldn’t say for sure whether or not she’d be gone from YouTube “forever,” but was sure of this: “I just want to make sure that the things I’m putting out into the world aren’t hurting anyone.”

Jenna launched to viral fame with her video “How to Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking” in 2010, and established herself as one of YouTube’s most popular comedy creators with more than three billion total views and 20.2 million subscribers as of June of 2020. This ended reign hit fans hard, who grew to love watching Jenna’s journey over the years alongside her beloved dogs and her boyfriend, Julien Solomita. “Jenna Marbles quitting YouTube was the last straw for 2020 let’s just skip to 2021,” one fan tweeted, and another devastated fan appreciated Jenna’s public apology: “I want to remind people that Jenna Marbles is a prime example of a human being that has taken accountability for their actions, grown as a person, and applied the lesson they learned from that moment on.”