James Charles slams Charli D’Amelio’s haters in TikTok rant

Beauty influencer James Charles has slammed Charli D’Amelio’s haters in an impassioned TikTok rant, explaining why he relates to Charli’s situation on a personal level.

This week Charli D’Amelio suffered a mass unfollowing after comments about her follower count that many are calling “ungrateful.” At the time of writing, she has lost 900,000 followers since Wednesday, November 18.

The 16-year-old is already miles ahead of other TikTok accounts, having surpassed Loren Gray in March to become the app’s most popular creator. In the space of a year, she has become a global social media star, securing brand deals and collaborations with some huge celebrities.

While on the precipice of hitting 100 million followers, in a video with her family and James Charles, she expressed that she was hoping to hit that milestone within a year of hitting one million and that she felt she needed more time.

The subsequent backlash was massive, prompting a wave of unfollows that took her further and further away from the record number. On November 19 she broke down crying during an Instagram Live, a result of the “bullying” she had received.

While certain influencers have helped drive the witchhunt, James Charles, who was involved in the initial video, has made his feelings about the situation known on TikTok, taking aim at the other creators who have driven the hate.

In his TikTok, he explained that he became friends with D’Amelios because he felt as though he related to Charli’s rapid rise to fame: “I don’t need Charli and Charli does not need me. I became friends with the D’Amelio family as a whole very early on because this was all very very new to them.

I wanted to be a friend and a mentor anyway that I possibly could and Charli and I, despite not being the same age, had one thing in common, which is coming to the spotlight at a very very young age.”

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Addressing the more infamous haters directly, he added, “You are in no position to be talking about me and my career so I highly recommend that you stop starting fights with people that are half your age, pack it up, and work on holding yourself and your best friends around you because they think you are the problem.”

He also made comments on  Twitter, comparing the situation to his own setbacks in 2019 during ‘Dramageddon’ when Tati Westbrook’s accusations sent his follower count falling by the millions, saying that the situation “does not sit right with him.”

“100M followers in one year & y’all expect her to know how to be a perfect role model?” he asked. “Death threats because she’s a picky eater & made a joke about a milestone? 30+-year-olds dragging someone half their age? Feels familiar.”

After her live stream, Charli has made no further comments as her follower count declines, but creators continue to be at each other’s throats over the debacle.