Tyler Oakley is one of the internet's most renowned voices for LGBTQ+. He began as a Youtuber in 2007, creating videos to get a hold and keep up with family and friends. He's made a huge impact on the lives of young people all around throughout his time being a web star. He's been featured on The Amazing Race, has written an autobiography titled Binge (which was #2 on the NY Times Best Seller list), released a collaborative album titled Pride Jams, has worked with Ellen DeGeneres in creating his own self-titled talk show, stars in his very own documentary titled Snervous, has a successful podcast with his college best friend Korey Kuhl titled Psychobabble, and has hosted numerous book tours and "Slumber Party" tours.
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I thought I had lost my chance to meet Tyler Oakley after I passed up the opportunity when he had an event at the Mall of America last year, but it turned out that I didn't. My best friend saw an event from a mutual that said they were interested in going to an event on October 7th at the University of Minnesota. That event was An Evening With Tyler Oakley. So, with a quick chat about it, we decided to go ahead and buy the tickets a week before the event.
It wasn't like anything either of us had really been to and we didn't know what to expect. It was in a smaller hall, only about a hundred or so people were there and we had been fortunate enough to get into the very front row in front of Tyler's best friend Korey Kuhl.
Neither of us had ever watched Tyler and Korey's Psychobabble podcast, so we were both enlightened with their entertaining friendship. I would have to coin them as best friend goals. Tyler would go off on random tangents and Korey would continuously say that he was there to keep him on track while laughing.
They had the audience write down questions and then one of them would answer. Tyler was answering a question about his talk show with Ellen DeGeneres, The Tyler Oakley Show, and told everyone that in his first episode, Celine Deon made him kiss her. He went on to inform us that that was the first and only woman he had ever kissed, but remembered that he had kissed a girl in the fifth grade with "aggressive braces," which led him into summarizing and also reenacting a chapter in his book ("Brace Yourself", Binge) about the time he licked his "hot orthodontist's" finger.
The night went on from that, laughter filling the room at Tyler and Korey's bantering back and forth. Of course, Tyler's laughter caused me to laugh harder because it is just such a fun and contagious laugh. After spending an hour and a half with the two boys, they went off stage and we ran to the book signing line, trembling with excitement.
The line moved quickly and every second that passed, I couldn't believe that I was about to meet the boy that I had only seen in videos. The guy who had accompanied my other favorite internet stars Connor Franta, Troye Sivan, Marcus Butler, Joe Sugg...it was surreal.
When it was my turn to meet him, he scribbled his name into the cover of my book and looked up at me with a smile on his face. "I love your outfit."
That phase goes to the top of my favorite moments list, falling into a tie when Connor Franta said "I love you too."
It was one of the best moments of my life, making me one of the happiest people alive.
(All photo credits to Facebook)
