We don’t need to ‘cancel’ Colleen Ballinger - she’s already done it to herself
By Eilish Gilligan
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A couple of weeks ago, YouTuber Colleen Ballinger appeared on Tea Time with Raven and Miranda, an interview podcast hosted by actor Raven-Symoné and her wife Miranda Maday. This was a pretty notable appearance because, well, Colleen was cancelled a couple of years back.
Cancelled! Back in my day, that term used to mean something. Now it’s just a misnomer for whatever Taylor Swift was singing about when she said “welcome to my underworld” (where it gets quite dark, in case you didn’t get it).
Colleen Ballinger was ‘cancelled’ back in 2023 after allegations of inappropriate conduct with underage fans surfaced online. The communities and group chats where this alleged behaviour took place were initially formed by fans in support of Colleen herself and her popular character Miranda Sings.
This particular cancellation occurred in the form of numerous YouTube drama videos and a whole lot of angry tweeting. This furore reached fever pitch when, after weeks of being demanded to make a sincere apology, Colleen decided it would be a good idea to pick up her achingly 2010s ukulele and have a little sing. This was a truly mind-boggling choice that became a cornerstone of internet history.
In 2025, Colleen’s still making YouTube videos. I presume she’s still making money off them. She’s being invited onto podcasts hosted by ex-Disney stars to share ‘her side’ of the controversy. She has her own podcast with her husband!
In my mind, being ‘cancelled’ (like, actually cancelled) means being properly and permanently de-platformed by outside forces. By that definition, Colleen hasn’t really been cancelled – and if she has, then we need a new definition. She still has a public platform, and she still has the same job that got her into this mess in the first place.
Reaction videos to this podcast interview have consistently received more views than the actual podcast itself, which says to me that people are more interested in hearing commentators dunking on Colleen’s ‘side’ rather than getting it from the source. I cannot imagine what a mindfuck that would be for Colleen.
But before I feel too sorry for her, the thought appears: she’s done all of this to herself.
She was the one who messaged inappropriate stuff to underage fans. She’s the one who keeps uploading videos for some unknown reason, well after anyone else in her position would have long abandoned the grind. I really can’t understand why she keeps it up.
Despite her diminishing relevance and a maelstrom of online voices condemning her to hell, Colleen Ballinger continues to upload content to her YouTube vlog channel to this day. I can’t imagine filming daily vlogs to less than 50,000 views per video is particularly satisfying for her. Surely it’s just a painful reminder of the heady heights of her peak from about a decade back, when her videos would regularly, easily, clear the one million views mark?
Is it an ego thing? Maybe. Like I said before, though, I truly can’t imagine it would be much of a dopamine hit, to watch your views and followers so consistently and dramatically in decline. Does she feel like she can’t do anything else? I thought she was cleverer than that, but maybe she isn’t. There’s about a bajillion other things a person can do to make a living – many of them making significantly more than the AdSense payout from a video with 30,000 views.
There was a time when I might’ve believed that Colleen deserved to have her social media accounts taken from her. Now, though, I can see that it’s her own actions that are dismantling her career from the inside out. Her determination to go down with the ship of her YouTube channel is not admirable; it’s pitiable.
Being an online creator, or an entertainer in general, is to submit to the whims of your audience. If they don’t like what you’re doing, try something else (Colleen’s vlogs have been constructed in the same format for…well, for forever). If the vast majority of the internet rejects you, unfortunately, you’re not owed a mainstream position in it, even if you once held one. Her refusal to abide by this most basic of tenets is so…cringe.
Going back to the idea that being ‘cancelled’ means being de-platformed by outside forces; as we know, YouTube, Instagram, et al – those guys haven’t de-platformed Colleen Ballinger. Some might say she was cancelled by her audience, but I can’t help but raise a sceptical brow at that. Absolutely not, if you ask me. The ebb and flow of an online following is just the name of the game. You can’t hold your audience? That’s a ‘you’ problem, unfortunately! Sorry doll!
When I first started writing this, I thought my question was going to be: what do we do with people like Colleen Ballinger? Now that I’m here at the end, though, I’ve realised that the answer to that is…nothing. The worst that could have been done, Colleen has already done it to herself.
About the author
Eilish Gilligan
Eilish is a Senior Podcast Producer, musician and pop culture journalist at Shameless Media. She is, without a doubt, your most online friend.
Not sure this is the content we need. It doesn’t add anything to the story, it just amplifies boring gossip about someone who needs no platform. When you say we don’t need to do anything, we don’t. Really.