Fans Call Out Scooter Braun For His Relationship With Justin Bieber— 'He Was Utterly Failed By Those Around Him'
Bieber was never offered protection from the people who were supposed to give him care.
DFree, Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock; Oneinchpunch, ROCKETMANN TEAM / Canva In the rippling wake of Scooter Braun’s famous clients leaving his management company, many are wondering what Braun could have possibly done to push them all away. News broke on August 21, 2023 that both Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande were walking away from Braun as talent manager.
As Scooter Braun’s empire crumbles, fans are calling him out for his relationship with Justin Bieber.
A post made to the subreddit r/popculturechat posed the following question to the forum, asking, “Now that the Scooter discourse is happening, can we please talk about how inappropriate his relationship with Justin is?”
Bieber shot to international stardom when he was 13 years old, after being signed to Raymond Braun Media Group, which was owned by Braun and Usher. Braun became Bieber's manager in 2008. An extreme level of fame was coming for the young teen — so quickly, it seemed virtually unstoppable.
Bieber came of age in the stark view of the public eye, stumbling through various missteps — a DUI arrest, an abandoned pet monkey, behavior that spun more and more out of control.
The way Bieber acted was nothing revelatory for any teenager, except that he had all the trappings of wealth and fame while being seemingly surrounded by adults who never told him no. There were no restrictions on what he had access to, only for the world to turn around and yell at him for being entitled and reckless.
Fans are wondering why Braun was never held accountable as an adult who ‘utterly failed’ to protect Bieber when he was younger.
Within the Reddit post that called Braun out for putting a teenage performer through grueling worldwide tours with little guidance, fans left their low opinions on Braun in the comments section. As one person noted, Bieber “was failed by every adult his entire life and we don’t talk about it enough.”
Someone else commented on the inherent imbalance of power between an adult Braun and a tween Bieber, explaining that Bieber’s roaring fame came at a high cost, stating, “Basically his entire life he'd been led astray by adults looking to use him to make a buck.”
The same person continued, “Don't even get me started on how much he was sexualized as a literal child by the general public and everyone thought it was acceptable.”
Another person emphasized the apparent impact Bieber’s past has had on his present, noting that as an adult himself, Bieber does “need to take some accountability for his behavior, but you can clearly see why his outcome now has gone the way it has.”
“He was utterly, utterly failed by those around him,” said a different person, positing that there were probably even more sinister happenings behind the scenes in Bieber’s world, “given the industry around him is what it is.”
The person who posed the original question to the forum commented on the ethical ambiguity of Braun’s role in Bieber’s career.
“Getting emotional and financial support from a child is very very inappropriate,” they stated.
Someone else countered that statement by explaining their perspective, that “All child stars under the age of 18 [are] filling the pockets of someone. A manager getting a manager cut isn’t necessarily inappropriate, it’s how the industry works regardless of who you are.”
Yet that person’s comment seems to prove the point they were trying to counteract: That an adult earning money from a child’s artistic labor isn’t completely ethical, because of the exact nature of a relationship that could easily be deemed predatory.
Another person explained how Bieber and Braun’s set-up was rooted in emotionally manipulative language, saying, “Oftentimes these relationships are referred to as brotherly, which is like when your work refers to everyone as family… Saying that is another way to exploit and take advantage of someone.”
They emphasized that both Bieber’s family background and age left him vulnerable, as a kid with divorced parents, and Braun “taking on a fatherly role while simultaneously overworking him. It’s inappropriate all around.”
Bieber is on the cusp of turning 30, an age when most people lean into their adulthood. Yet Bieber was never offered protection from the people who were supposed to give him care.
Responsible behavior, rooted in gratitude, was never modeled to Bieber by the adults surrounding him. Given that context, is it any surprise that his own adulthood remains messy?
At some point, we should all take accountability for how we exist within our communities, despite how we were raised. If we view Bieber through a more empathic lens, one that recognizes the lack of protection he was given, it grows easier to offer him grace.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.