Makeup Brand Morphe Under Pressure To Cut Ties With James Charles After Grooming Allegations
The internet is putting the pressure on makeup brand Morphe to cut ties with beauty influencer James Charles after he was accused of grooming underage fans. Morphe, who work with Charles, most notably stocking his popular eyeshadow palette, are being criticised for not publicly speaking out about the serious accusations being made against him.
The Grooming Allegations
In case you missed it this week, James Charles, who boasts more than 25 million YouTube subscribers, has once again found himself embroiled in scandal. James is currently facing serious allegations of grooming, after several underage boys came forward to detail explicit exchanges between themselves and the beauty influencer.
Initially, James posted on Twitter, responding to a claim made by an accuser known online as Isaiyah. In James' tweet, he claimed that once he started talking to Isaiyah, he "asked how old he was right away and he said he was 18," so Charles flirted back. Charles claimed that once discovering he was actually talking to a 16 year old, he apologised and tried to immediately cease the conversation.
Isaiyah, on the other hand, claims that he disclosed that he was 16 early on in the exchange, at which point James continued the conversation undeterred.
The Apology Video
On April 2, Charles uploaded a video to his YouTube channel called 'holding myself accountable'. In the apology video, which at time of writing has been viewed over six million times, Charles acknowledged the grooming allegations.
"I needed to take accountability for my actions and, most importantly, apologise to the people who were affected by them,” Charles said.
He says that he had decided to take a different approach to his infamous 'No More Lies' video, which he posted with 'receipts' in response to 'Drammagedon 2.0' which involved Tati Westbrook, Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson. That controversy saw James Charles lose over a million subscribers, so people are keenly watching Charles' subscriber count in wake of the latest allegations.
"In both of these situations, doing research into these people’s public social media profiles would have revealed their true ages, and therefore these conversations would have never happened in the first place. But I didn’t do the research, and that is what is so embarrassing," James Charles said in reference to the teenagers who have come forward.
He ends the video saying, "I promise that something like this will never ever happen again.”
Will Morphe Cut Ties With James Charles?
Morphe has yet to respond to the allegations and comment on their ongoing business relationship with James Charles. The internet is calling for Morphe to cut ties with the YouTuber, as they have with previous controversial figures who faced serious allegations. Last year, the makeup brand pulled all Shane Dawson products from shelves after horrific accusations were levelled against the YouTuber. Just over a week later, they posted to their social media that they were doing the same with Jeffree Star products; Morphe also massively discounted remaining Star products on their platform.
Morphe however did post this Instagram photo, where they had initially credit this person's makeup look to James Charles' Morphe palette.
Commenters flooded the image with questions about when Morphe would cut ties with Charles, leading them to delete the reference to the YouTuber from the caption.
Many people have taken to social media to criticise Morphe's inaction, including Trisha Paytas who called the company "embarrassing".
As always, we'll keep you across what happens next.
Written by Dani Leever, a writer and homosexual pop culture enthusiast. Find their words at @danileever or catch their gay DJ drag adventures at @djgaydad.
