Recently, there’s been a lot of concern for a popular YouTuber who goes by the name Marina Joyce. Joyce is a 19-year-old girl living in North London, England and has been producing YouTube videos since 2012. Her content ranges from clothing hauls to makeup tutorials and she posts videos at least once a week. Fans of Joyce have been expressing their concern for her well-being in the comment section of YouTube and over Twitter tweeting things like “favorite this is you’re okay” after noticing the quality of her videos has changed and she no longer has the same off-the-cuff style she became well-known for.
@MarinaJoyce7 you are not okay, this is not being okay pic.twitter.com/inCi01cL9n
— andrea (@bradleyysoul) July 26, 2016
In her more recent videos, she looks behind the camera, ends videos abruptly and spaces out. Fans have even gone as far to say that someone is forcing her to do the videos as though she has been kidnapped.
Viewers seem to point to her “Date Outfit Ideas” as the beginning of her frightening behavior. At the 13 second mark, some fans have claimed to hear Joyce whisper “save me” on top of the background music. In the video, as Joyce is twirling around and showing off the dress, viewers can easily see bruises on her arms which made people believe she was being abused by her alleged kidnapper. In the lower left corner, viewers could see a man’s hand holding a piece of paper-- allegedly a script-- and pointing to where Joyce needed to stand. Some also say that the blinds on her window are actually bars keeping her inside.
After "Date Outfit Ideas" was released, fans started dissecting older videos as well. Fans were concerned about a shotgun in view in Joyce's "Every Day Makeup Tutorial" as well as an abundance of medicine bottles on her nightstand. In "Question and Answer" some say you can see somebody in the reflection of her eyes. Fans are also concerned with how she continuously repeats herself, is very rapidly speaking and how she apruptly ends the video after looking behind the camera.
On July 26, the day Twitter began tweeting #SaveMarinaJoyce, Joyce invited fans to a “Morning Glory” rave event to be held at 6:30 am at Bethnal Green, a supposedly dangerous part of town. Fans began to believe it was a trap, that her kidnapper was setting it up to kidnap more people. Others went to the place and live-streamed the entire thing, whereas some went and made fake videos pretending to be Joyce, stating that it was a set-up and to not go.
The hashtag began to trend worldwide, full of theories, concern and questions about her well-being. Over the course of a day, she gained over a million subscribers on YouTube and hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.
Fan theories ranged from kidnapping, being abused by her boyfriend or family member, drug issues, a mental health problem or an unfortunate cocktail of the above. While trying to debunk theories, fans had a hard time reconciling with some facts. Joyce’s-- and her boyfriend’s-- silence on the issue was one of the main problems fans didn’t understand. They questioned if someone was accused of being abusive towards their girlfriend, why wouldn’t they want to speak up?
One of the stranger theories was that Joyce was, in fact, dead and that whoever was behind her YouTube account was using old footage and photos to make it seem like she was alive. Proponents of this theory cited her use of multiple Instagram photos more than once and advertising clothing from a company that she had had for over 25 weeks.
After the local police station received dozens of phone calls concerning Joyce, they went to her home and checked on her.
Officers have visited YouTube user Marina Joyce. She is safe and well. #ETeam #savemarinajoyce
— Enfield MPS (@MPSEnfield) July 27, 2016
There was so much attention and concern, people who had never heard of Joyce beforehand were watching her videos and trying to understand what was happening to her. Joyce finally began streaming a YouNow where she announced that she was safe and well and that she has never been happier. She was denying theories of having a drug problem and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. She even said that it “was a publicity stunt, created by the fans”. YouTuber Philip DeFranco was the first to interview her about the situation, where she also denied the drug abuse claims and explained that all of her bruises was caused by running around in a forest. In both the YouNow and the interview with DeFranco, she thanked everybody for helping her reach 1.6 million subscribers.
Now that it has been a few days, the hype has calmed a little. Joyce even posted a new video as normal. She’s honestly acting as though everything is the same and as though just three days ago people were not--and still are not--worried about her safety and health. Currently, more and more people are starting to believe that she has a mental illness or she is in a drug-induced psychosis.
Personally, we are two of the many people that believe that Joyce is abusing drugs and has a mental illness. All we can do now is continue to hope that she receives the help she needs for whatever is going on in her life, whether it’s drug abuse, physical abuse, a mental disorder or any other theories fans cannot think of.
