Who Is Jessy Taylor?
YouTuber Jessy Taylor lost her Instagram account but went viral instead.
Instagram A YouTuber and Instagram influencer is terrified that her career is over after her Instagram account was locked this week. Jessy Taylor filmed a video wherein she cried about suddenly being locked out of her account, which had over 100,000 followers. She claimed that social media influence work is her career and she isn’t cut out for anything else.
It’s unclear why her account was deleted, but she says it was due to “trolls” reporting her.
Taylor posted a three and a half minute video where she begged people to stop reporting her accounts and said she was afraid that losing her social media following would force her to return to her previous career in sex work.
Who is Jessy Taylor? Read on to find out.
1. Vlogger
Taylor is originally from Florida but says she has lived in Los Angeles for the last several years while she pursues her career on social media. She describes her work as primarily live-streaming. Her old Instagram account had 113 thousand followers and while her YouTube subscriber count is close to 5,000. It’s not entirely evident how she monetizes her posts and videos.
Taylor considers social media her career.
2. Account deleted
Earlier this week, Jessy took to YouTube with a tearful video saying that her Instagram account had been deleted without notice. She claimed that it was the result of people reporting her as spam. She also said she had just returned home after going to San Francisco to petition for a verified account in person at the Instagram offices.
She begged people to stop trying to get her deleted, saying “I'm trying to get it back, I'm calling everybody I can and I don't know why it's not working out for me. I'm in LA because of this. I'm in LA because I want to be on Instagram. I'm nothing without my following, I am nothing without my following."
Her old account was deleted without explanation.
3. Racism allegations
One of the reasons her account may have been reported was for a racist comment. In one clip, she can be seen claiming that another girl isn’t better looking than her because “she’s black” and she goes on to confirm that she is racist.
In the video posted about her account being deleted, she indirectly addressed these allegations saying "And when people try to hate on me or report me I'm literally trying to be a f**king better person. I want to say to everybody that's reporting me - think twice because you're ruining my life, because I make all of my money online, all of it and I don't want to lose that."
In a later video, she denies that she was serious and claims it was to get a higher ranking on a site called Klout.
She has been accused of racism.
4. Sex work
Taylor goes on to say that social media work is how she managed to break free of the world of sex work.
She said "I was a prostitute. I used to strip every single day. I don't do that anymore because I make all my money online. I don't want to go back to that life.”
In a later video, she explained her choices, saying made choices to do sex work because it gave her a form of income while she built up a social media following. She clarified that all her clients were “high end.” She also explains that she sold nude photos of herself and continues to do so as an income stream.
Taylor claims to have done sex work for money.
5. No skills
In one of the more hysterical parts of the video, Taylor talks about having worked at a fast food restaurant in the past and not wanting to go back to it. She also says she has no skill to bring to other kinds of work, crying “I'm perfectly happy where I'm at. I have no job qualifications, I could never work a normal job. I'm worthless I bring nothing to the table, zero. I bring nothing to the table when it comes to that. I'm always going to fight the people. I always get kicked out of places. I'm not work material I will never be work material.”
The response to her video wasn't always supportive.
6. Family
Taylor also makes claims about her family. In her video “To All My Haters,” she says that her family is rich but she is only making money through her social media work now.
She also refers to being in debt from student loans. In her other video, she intimates that her relationship with her family is strained, saying “From the bottom of my heart it sucks. And the people who are laughing at this and plotting to get my account deleted, imagine if you were in my shoes. I was abandoned by my family, I've been backstabbed by everyone I know.”
She does not elaborate to explain what happened with her family or how people have backstabbed her in the past.
Her new account has 10,000 followers.
Taylor still hasn’t gotten back her original Instagram account but she did start a new one and the viral video has given her a boost in traffic in the days since her crying video was posted.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.