YouTuber Colleen Ballinger, better known online as her childlike alter ego Miranda Sings, is facing troubling allegations of interacting inappropriately with her younger fans, nearly two months after attending the 2023 Kids’ Choice Awards.
HuffPost published a lengthy investigative report on June 24, following fans publicly coming forward with “screenshots of their private communications with Ballinger to evidence claims that she ‘groomed’ them throughout their adolescence,” and the publication confirmed the phone number featured in said screenshots belonged to Ballinger. Several of those fans went on the record with HuffPost.
Adam McIntyre alleged, among other things, that “Ballinger would bring up sex during their conversations back when he was still 14 or 15 years old,” including asking about his virginity and his favorite sexual position. The story delves into a private group chat that was named “Colleeny’s Weenies,” where Ballinger allegedly continually crossed the line.
NBC News also cited McIntyre, drawing attention to a 25-minute 2020 YouTube video posted by him to “tell my side of the story” as it pertained to his past with Ballinger. Roughly two weeks after McIntyre’s video, Ballinger posted a 13-minute video to her YouTube channel titled “Addressing everything.”
History is repeating itself this week, as Ballinger posted another vlog on Wednesday, June 28, to deny all of the allegations circulating about her behavior. The 10-minute video begins with the 36-year-old seated on her couch, looking despondent, and then inexplicably picking up a ukulele.
“Hey, it’s been a while since you saw my face,” Ballinger sings (sort of) while strumming. “I haven’t been doing so great, so I took a little break. A lot of people are saying some things about me that aren’t quite true. Doesn’t matter if it’s true, though, just as long as it’s entertaining to you. Right? You guys having fun? All aboard! The toxic gossip train, chugging down the tracks of misinformation.”
Ballinger states that her team “strongly advised me to not say what I want to say,” so that’s why she’s singing. She claims that she’s only made this video to relay “the facts,” admitting that she would message her fans “many years ago” but “not in a creepy way.” She attributed her desire to connect with her fans to “wanting to be besties with everybody” and called herself a “weird aunt.”
Ballinger additionally says that she “changed,” “took accountability,” and no longer interacts with fans in the same way, continually singing about how the allegations have negatively impacted her and dismissing them as “mob mentality.”
The description of Ballinger’s YouTube video reads, “I do not condone or support any kind of online bullying or hate towards anyone. ever.”
McIntyre tweeted in response to Ballinger’s YouTube video, writing, “as much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, im glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes, the mask has slipped…everyone meet the REAL colleen ballinger.”
as much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, im glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes, the mask has slipped…everyone meet the REAL colleen ballinger.
— adam mcintyre (@theadammcintyre) June 28, 2023
Watch Ballinger’s video in full above.