3 People Share 'Disturbing' Childhood Experiences With Colleen Ballinger Amid Backlash From The Miranda Sings Era
From sending underwear to a minor to forcing fans into inappropriate yoga poses, the Colleen Ballinger allegations are pretty jaw-dropping.
Instagram YouTuber and comedian Colleen Ballinger has come under fire after some disturbing new allegations by fans have surfaced.
Fans have accused Ballinger of sending them inappropriate items and messages, forcing them into provocative poses while on stage for her shows, and tricking them into working for her for free — all while they were minors, being the ages of 16 and younger at the time.
36-year-old Ballinger is most well-known for her Internet character, Miranda Sings, which took YouTube by storm in 2008. The character of Miranda Sings mocks the egotistical, misguided, and quirky personalities of Ballinger’s peers in college and as of today, the Youtube channel has over 10 million subscribers.
As Ballinger’s fanbase for Miranda Sings grew throughout the years, she began to connect with some of her fans online, many of them who were in their early or pre-teenage years. She would chat with them via Instagram, allow them to pitch ideas for her videos and would bring them on stage during her live performances.
However, things have taken a dark turn as some of her fans recall feeling taken advantage of and made uncomfortable by actions and remarks she would make to them behind the scenes. Some of the fans have decided to come forward and share their experiences with Ballinger with the public.
People have come forward with disturbing Colleen Ballinger allegations stemming from the Miranda Sings Era.
Photo: Instagram
1. Adam McIntyre claims that Ballinger sent him lingerie, sent him inappropriate messages, and used him to create free content for her social media pages.
20-year-old content creator Adam McIntyre from Derry, Ireland, became a fan of Miranda Sings when he was just 11 years old. In 2016, he claims the two began chatting online on a more personal level after they met at one of her live shows. He says he was added to an Instagram group chat created by Ballinger, where he and other fans, along with Ballinger and her sister-in-law, would exchange random messages.
Some of the fans, including McIntyre, were underage at the time. In a YouTube video titled “my relationship with Colleen Ballinger,” McIntyre revealed screenshots of some invasive messages Ballinger would send to the chat, including asking girls about their first period experiences, asking McIntyre to send provocative photos of himself and asking him what his favorite sex position was.
Photo: YouTube
Ballinger also allegedly sent McIntyre lingerie in the mail when he was just 15 years old.
Additionally, McIntyre claims that Ballinger took advantage of him by having him create content for her Miranda Sings social media pages for years with no pay. He recalls an incident where Ballinger gave him access to her Twitter account, telling him to “go crazy” and post some of his content as Miranda Sings.
She later ceased contact with him after facing backlash over one of her posts where she was accused of “queerbaiting” and spread rumors among her friends that McIntyre created a hate account online about her.
In 2020, McIntyre posted a YouTube video titled “Colleen Ballinger, stop lying,” where he shared his side of the story and called her out for her actions. Since then, he has posted several videos to his YouTube detailing Ballinger’s inappropriate conversations with other underage fans, encouraging them to slander her ex-husband, Joshua Evans, and make fun of other fans.
"For anyone who's a fan of Colleen Ballinger… they make fun of you [behind the scenes], they make fun of your appearance, they make fun of things you do, and I know because I was also with them doing it except one group of us were in our 30s, one group of us had not even hit the ripe age of 15 yet," McIntyre said in the video.
After McIntyre’s initial video in 2020, Ballinger responded with her own video addressing all of the allegations, where she admitted to sending him lingerie and giving him control of her Twitter account.
She explains that she sent the lingerie as part of a giveaway that she was doing with fans where she would send them unused clothes that she bought and did not need, and thought it would be funny to send it to McIntyre after she claims that he asked for them, without ever referring to him by name.
“[I’ve] always given away weird stuff, and so in my mind at the time, this was no different than all the other weird stuff I’ve sent to my fans as a joke,” Ballinger says.
She admitted that she “doesn’t know what part of my brain was missing at the time” when she thought it was a good idea, but stresses that the context of the situation was “everything.”
She also claimed that she had granted McIntyre access to her Miranda Sings Twitter account for a day. "Over the years, I loved asking my fans for advice on what I should post for Miranda videos, Miranda tweets, things like that,” she says. She adds that she cares about McIntyre “so much,” as she does all of her fans and wishes him “nothing but success and happiness and love.”
2. A female fan was made uncomfortable by Ballinger on stage after she forced her to hold a provocative pose during a live performance.
Ballinger would often go on tour and do love performances as Miranda Sings, where she would pull fans from the audience on stage to participate in the show. One of her popular skits involved Miranda teasing those who wore “skimpy” and “revealing” outfits and calling them out on stage in front of the audience.
One fan named Becky, who was 16 years old at the time, took to TikTok to share her experience on stage at a Miranda Sings show that left her feeling extremely self-conscious.
While she admitted that she was “trying to dress skimpy” so that she would be called on stage, she says that instead she was beckoned for the “Yoga Challenge” skit and that Ballinger’s eyes “widened” when she noticed that she was only wearing a dress and spandex.
“For some reason, that didn’t stop her from continuing. In fact, no adult at this point stepped into this situation,” Becky reports. During the show segment, Becky explained how she had to lie on her back while Ballinger grabbed her feet and spread her legs “basically as far as she can,” causing the spandex underneath her dress to become visible.
“I was lying under Colleen and she was smirking down at me while thousands of people were laughing and I was terrified that my body wasn’t covered enough,” she says in the TikTok video. “For her to use my body as entertainment on stage really set my confidence back quite a lot.”
The incident also left Becky feeling uncomfortable and unsafe, as she had to walk back to her car after the show, where “many men” were staring at her in a “very predatorial way” due to how exposed she had been on stage.
“Colleen exploited my minor body for entertainment and money and did not protect my safety at this show.”
3. A fan claims that they no longer support Colleen Ballinger after realizing that they were in a group chat created by her with minors.
Kodee Tyler, a content creator and founder of the YouTube channel KodeeRants, was a longtime fan of Ballinger for years and grew close with her and her family. However, all of this has since changed.
In a now-deleted YouTube video titled “Why I left the Colleen Ballinger fandom…,” Kodee reveals that they were added to one of Ballinger’s group chats that consisted of underage fans. Although they were an adult at the time, they were reportedly unaware of the minors’ presence in the online chat and have since issued an apology.
"I should have done the research on [this], so I want to apologize to any child who was in these group chats. I should not have been in a group chat with you,” Kodee said.
Additionally, Kodee shared screenshots of Ballinger asking fans, including Adam McIntyre, inappropriate questions, including asking McIntyre if he was a virgin when he was 15 years old. While Kodee originally sided with Ballinger through McIntyre’s allegations in 2020, they have since had a change of heart after coming to terms with her actions toward underage fans.
Colleen Ballinger has yet to address the recent allegations and has been silent on all social media platforms.
Additionally, the Miranda Sings YouTube channel has lost over 30,000 subscribers in light of recent events.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.