Colleen Ballinger, the YouTube creator whose awkward character Miranda Sings rose to Internet fame, has responded publicly to accusations that she formed inappropriate relationships with teenagers.
Ballinger posted a video Wednesday to her Colleen Vlogs channel on YouTube in which she denied the “lies” and “gossip” about her — partly in song, while strumming a ukulele.
“Some people are saying things about me that just aren’t true,” she said at the beginning of the 10-minute video. She continued, “Even though my team has strongly advised me not to say what I’m going to say, I realized they never said I couldn’t sing about what I wanted to say.”
Early in her YouTube career, according to Ballinger, “I used to message my fans — but not in a creepy way, like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more of a loser kind of way. I was just trying to be besties with everybody.” Ballinger admitted that “there were times in DMs when I would overshare” but said she “changed my behavior and took accountability.”
She sang, “Thought you wanted me to take accountability / but that’s not the point of your mob mentality / your goal is to ruin the life of the person you despise / while you dramatize your lies and monetize their demise.” In a recurring chorus in the video, she referred to the allegations about her as “the toxic gossip train.”
At another point, she sang, “I’m sure you’re disappointed in my shitty little song / I know you wanted me to say that I was 100% in the wrong / well I’m sorry I’m not gonna take that route / of admitting to lies and rumors that you made up for clout.
“The only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats / I’m not a groomer, just a loser / who didn’t understand I shouldn’t respond to fans / and I’m not a predator even a lot of you think so / because five years ago I made a fart joke,” Ballinger sang.
Regarding charges that her odd, child-like character Miranda Sings has said things that are inappropriate for kids, Ballinger claimed that she makes it clear her Miranda Sings content is “PG-13” in nature (and the videos are not available on the YouTube Kids app) and that it’s the responsibility of parents to decide what is and isn’t suitable for their children.
As reported by NBC News, the allegations against Ballinger first came to light three years ago. According to the report, in 2020, YouTuber Adam McIntyre made a video alleging that Ballinger “formed an inappropriate personal friendship with him while he was between the ages of 13 and 16, which included her sending him lingerie as a joke. He also alleged that Ballinger gave him access to her social media, helped her generate content ideas, and that they exchanged text messages for years.”
In her video, Ballinger acknowledged making “jokes in poor taste” and “dumb mistakes” but added, “Was it my intention to manipulate? No.”
“For what it’s worth, I never had any bad intentions,” she said. “But I do feel like shit.”
In a tweet responding to the video, McIntyre wrote, “as much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, im glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes, the mask has slipped…everyone meets the REAL colleen ballinger.”
