James Charles is a 19-year old makeup artist who is famous for his YouTube videos that he creates for his now 14 million subscribers.

  Tati Westbrook is a 37-year-old makeup artist who became famous on YouTube among her 10 million subscribers. She is also the owner of her own company, Halo Beauty, where she produces pills to enhance the quality of one’s skin, hair and nails.

  As of the beginning of  May, it became public knowledge that James Charles had upset Tati after he posted an Instagram story apologizing for agreeing to do a sponsorship with Halo Beauty’s number one competitor, SugarBear Hair. He did this in order to attend weekend two of the Coachella music and arts festival.

  Charles attended week one of Coachella with an artist past, which allowed him to have the security and privacy to protect him from his many fans that were at the festival. After week one, Charles and his friends decided that they wanted to attend week two of the festival.

  This time, Charles was only given a VIP pass by the company that was sponsoring him and this didn’t include any protection and security, so he ended up getting mobbed by the people attending the festival.

  Charles then reached out to his friend Nikita Dragun who had an artist pass through Sugarbear Hair. Nikita asked Sugarbear Hair to contact Charles to give him an artist pass so he would feel more safe. Sugarbear hair agreed to help him out, but only if he would post a story on Instagram promoting their new sleep vitamins.

  Instead of contacting Westbrook to let her know that he would be promoting her rival brand, Charles posted the story and didn’t contact her or give her any explanation on why he promoted her rival.

  After finding out that Charles back stabbed Westbrook, she continued to post on her Instagram story, crying, but not confronting James about the issue. She mentioned how hard it is to trust people nowadays.

  “I don’t think they should have made it such a public thing, but James kind of started it by contacting drama channels. It’s just not our business. It’s something they needed to figure out in person, not through a camera or phone. It needed to be more on the down low,” explains former James Charles fan, Karoline Jacobs.

  It came as a surprise to Westbrook and Charles that this feud went as viral as it did. They explained that people on social media were only “in it for the tea and the memes.” The generation of teens on social media pay close attention to famous influencers, especially when they make mistakes.

  About two years ago, Charles said that Westbrook was the person who inspired him to further his love and passion for makeup, and he admitted that she was the one who got him where he was today. Westbrook was like a motherly figure for Charles, she helped him financially and gave him business tips on how to gain an audience and how to gain money.

  Now that he has a large audience, what he posts on his social media effects and touches millions of people around the world. So, when he advertises a product, viewers will most likely give that product positive attention. This is the main reason Tati was as upset as she appeared in her new YouTube video titled “Bye Sister…”.

  This video not only explained the sponsorship drama, but Westbrook also talked about Charles’s past experiences with boys, and how he was acting like a sexual predator.

  A few months back, Charles, Westbrook, and Jeffree Star, another makeup artist, took a trip to Seattle. While they were out at a restaurant, James saw a busboy that he was attracted to, and started flirting with him.

  When Charles got back to his hotel, the boy, whose name is Sam, contacted him and they hung out. Charles was accused of “trapping Sam in the hotel room” and he allegedly told Sam that there was no way he could be straight.

  “Everything is over sexualized,” said Westbrook. “Oh my god, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay, yet again, but somehow you’re the victim. It’s really disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality, especially when they’re still emerging into adulthood and don’t have everything figured out. You are using your fame, your power, your money, to play with people’s emotions. You’re threatening to ruin them, you’re threatening to embarrass them, and you’re doing that to have them behave sexually in your favor, even if they’re straight. And you know what, that’s not ok.”

  Although Charles said this was a lie, this issue upset many of his followers considering that his audience ranges from 12-18 year-olds. He went from 16 million YouTube subscribers to 13 million in less than a week. He has received a lot of hateful comments on social media.

Some other former James Charles fans, Alyssa Stone and Emily Howe, explain what they thinks his audience is most upset about.

“I believe that people were most disgusted with him because they saw him as a sweet, innocent guy, but hearing that he is the opposite just makes you not want to support him anymore,” explained Howe.

  Stone added on saying, “For him to be called out as a sexual predator and manipulator got me suspicious and after hearing people’s experiences with him, I got very creeped out. Sister James is not the icon I thought he once was.”

  Charles made a video much shorter than Westbrook’s, apologizing to her briefly. He has yet to speak out since he posted that video on May 11th. Westbrook released a video on May 16th, explaining why she posted her first video and saying that she wanted all the drama to end.

  Although James Charles is receiving a lot of hate from his fans, Tati made sure that she made one specific point very clear.

  “I want you guys to know I don’t hate James Charles. I don’t want you guys hating on him.”

  They both agreed on Twitter that this feud should not have been publicly fought. James tweeted saying, “There ARE two sides of every story, and now you’ve heard both. I’m sure more will be said, but I’m moving on,” and in a similar way, Tati agreed saying, “I will not be making any further public comments and I hope and pray that no one else will make anymore hurtful statements on my behalf.”

  “It’s really hard to tell who was in the right and who was in the wrong during this whole thing, but I’m just glad that it’s over now,” says junior Bonnie Durante.