Mackenzie Wofford, Staff Writer  

(Image from Today.com)  

Public relations firms and personal management teams have been reshaping celebrity reputations after controversy for decades. Whether through strategic brand partnerships or tastefully curated friendships, celebrities have been able to manage public perception after controversy. Due to the rise of the internet, the idea of celebrity has changed. With the ability to garner millions of followers and billions of views on social media, many aspiring celebrities have taken a different avenue in hopes of achieving fame. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram have created a new genre of celebrity, the “influencer”. With the rise of the internet, people have been able to connect and comment on shared media more than ever before. Positivity spreads fast on the internet, but hate spreads faster.  

After controversy, influencers can expect commenters to dogpile hate on their social media, which can sometimes cause irreparable damage to their reputations. Influencers are not typical celebrities. Sometimes, they are simply famous for sharing their lives online, which can be little to keep fans interested after their fall from grace. Because of this, some influencers have mastered the art of the rebrand. One of them is YouTube star Trisha Paytas. 

Trisha Paytas, 36, is a YouTube content creator and musician. In 2007, under the username “blndsundoll4mj,” Trisha began posting rap covers, vlogs, and odes to Quentin Tarantino. Before her YouTube fame, Trisha appeared on The Ellen Show, Stan Lee’s Who Wants to Be a Superhero? and My Strange Addiction in her search for stardom. In addition, Trisha has starred in music videos by artists such as Eminem, All-American Rejects, and Amy Winehouse. Through this, Trisha learned how to keep viewers entertained and took her new skills to her YouTube channel. Trisha started shifting her content to “trolling” videos, which she later claimed was a major misstep in her career. While Trisha’s fame did skyrocket, other content creators avoided collaborating with her, viewers hated her, and brands refused to associate with her for years to come. 

By 2015, Trisha was making more money and her newfound friendship with YouTube star Shane Dawson massively increased her viewership and reputation because of fans’ love for Shane. Fans saw Shane Dawson as a level-headed, morally good influencer. His friendship with Trisha Paytas caused viewers to believe she was more trustworthy than they previously thought, and they began changing their perception of her. Trisha began apologizing for her offensive remarks in old videos of hers. She has been criticized for discrediting and victim-blaming, racism, transphobia, and cultural insensitivity. Trisha avoided defending this behavior and claimed she was wrong to say such cruel things in her bid for attention on the internet. Despite this, her reputation would be forever stained by this period. 

As Trisha’s friendship with Dawson dwindled, she began a new one with vlogger David Dobrik. Dobrike had a massive and loyal fan base. His vlogs showcased him and various friends partying, performing stunts, and pulling elaborate pranks. This friendship damaged Trisha’s reputation as she was portrayed negatively in David’s vlogs and hated by his viewers. Trisha has long struggled with her mental health and has claimed that participation in these vlogs damaged it even more. This caused her to shift her content and the people she collaborated with massively. 

In 2020, Trisha rebranded and joined the podcast, Frenemies, with podcaster Ethan Klein. The pair collaborated to create the Frenemies podcast because of their mutual disdain and mutual respect for each other. Trisha has consistently demonstrated a strong understanding of what viewers want to see, and the podcast was an absolute success because of this. While filming, Trisha quickly began dating Ethan’s brother-in-law Moses, adding an extra layer of entertainment for listeners. Despite the numerous blowout fights and almost show-ending arguments, Trisha and Ethan’s relationship developed into a harmonious friendship. 

Viewers enjoyed Trisha’s addition to the podcast and tuned in each week, earning episodes millions of views and listens upon release. This helped improve Trisha’s once poor reputation into a favorable one. Throughout her time on the podcast, Trisha continuously acknowledged mistakes made in her career. Her genuineness on Frenemies is something viewers had not yet seen from her, but became something they greatly enjoyed. 

The Frenemies podcast came to an end in June of 2021 after a blowout fight between Trisha and Ethan. This led to a change in Trisha’s content and life on the internet. Ethan and his wife Hila soon cut ties with Trisha, marking the lowest point in her career. Fans again criticized her behavior, resurfaced her past controversies, and vilified her for the podcast’s ending. Part Two will explore the creation of Trisha’s most personal project to date and how she reshaped her messy online reputation into one defined by positivity.