To those who aren't familiar with Jenna Marbles, she is a popular influencer on YouTube who kickstarted her career in 2010 and has since managed to gain a following of over 20 million subscribers. She has maintained her audience by creating hundreds of videos covering a wide range of silly, yet entertaining, ideas like turning herself into a disco ball and throwing her dogs a pool party. Over the years, millions of people have fallen in love with not only Jenna, but her dogs, as well. She's racked up billions of views by making people laugh with her content.
On June 25, 2020, Jenna shocked the world when she posted a video titled "A Message," in which she announced that she would no longer be posting on her channel.
The eleven minute video includes Jenna addressing videos from her past that have offended viewers.
"If that's the case where people will watch something and be offended now, I don't want it to exist. So I probably deleted a lot of my old content because I just don't want anyone to be upset about anything. I don't want to contribute to that." - Jenna Marbles
Jenna first brings up a video she made in 2011, where she impersonates and dresses up as Nicki Minaj and is wearing blackface. After showing a clip of the old video, she states, "I do just want to tell you that it was not my intention to do blackface." She then goes on to say that she's sorry and that "this isn't okay and hasn't existed on the internet for a while because it's not okay."
Jenna then brings up another video of herself from 2011, titled "Bounce that D**k." She plays a clip, including where she raps, "Hey ching chong ling wong shake your king kong ding dong. That was racist. I'm bad at rap songs." She goes on to apologize for this video, along with calling it "awful" and "inexcusable."
Throughout the rest of the video, Marbles goes on to talk about another video that has spurred controversy among viewers which came off as slut shaming. Her sincerity is blatant as she is brought to tears while apologizing for posting those videos. She ends by letting her audience know that she will no longer be creating content on her channel, and she is unsure how long she will be gone.
After seeing many apology videos over the years that seem fake or insincere, Jenna's video really stood out to me.
She took full responsibility for her actions without giving excuses for them. She admitted that she's grown up since those videos were made, and her content from the past few years supports it.
Like most of the internet, Jenna's decision to leave YouTube is another hit for 2020. Now more than ever, cancel culture has been rampaging the internet. Many, including myself, never thought that Jenna Marbles would fall victim to cancel culture. People have been expressing their opinions on Jenna's decision on social media, and it has caused her to become the number one trending topic on Twitter. Fans have been using this tag to show their support for the creator.
Although some of Jenna's early videos are problematic, owning up for her past mistakes is commendable.
