Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 8 Tyler Oakley - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: November 15, 2013

Tyler Oakley, one of the Internet's most acclaimed vloggers, sits down with Rhett & Link to discuss his adolescent struggles with anorexia, coming out to family and friends at a young age, and his recent surge in popularity that has shot him to the top of the YouTube charts. *NOTE: This conversation contains adult themes and language. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another candid conversation with someone interesting from the internet. This week, that person is YouTube vlogger Tyler Oakley. We talked with him about his struggle with an eating disorder that began in middle school

and also him being outed as gay in a very dramatic way during high school. So yeah, we get in all these things. Stay tuned for that conversation. But first, I do want to talk to you about something, Link, that my life has been seriously affected by yet another documentary, and I feel like this directly affects you.

Now, we've discussed this on Good Mythical Morning before. We're avid Netflix watchers. There's a whole documentary section, which is very tempting. But you just have to know when you're clicking on a documentary that it could ruin something for you. It could enlighten you and simultaneously ruin something for you. And so we talked about the hot coffee thing. And that's where you're going with this, right? Well, yeah, but this one in particular

has not made its way to Netflix yet. CNN is now doing these things. It's called the CNN film where they document, I don't know how long they've done this, but they document something in a very impactful way that's obviously made to sort of like change your opinion about something. And so CNN Films recently released Blackfish, which is a film about orcas or killer whales in captivity,

specifically at SeaWorld. But they're, okay, at SeaWorld? Mostly, I mean, they were also at a place called Sealand, but then mostly at SeaWorld. It's really about SeaWorld today. They were also at a place called Sealand, but then mostly at SeaWorld. It's really about SeaWorld today. Well, first of all, did they dispel the myth that killer whales are mammals? Are they fish?

Are they black fish? Well, actually, the premise of the documentary is that they're not actual whales. They're people in suits. It's mind-blowing. It is absolutely mind-blowing. It's puppetry. I hate how these documentaries can ruin it for you. I mean, I went to SeaWorld.

I was like, this is amazing. But it's just a... There's no way is that a human in that huge suit. Yeah, and it's not animatronic because of the water. The whole thing would short out. It's a person inside there. One guy inside that thing, and he's got like pedals oh man do you believe he is getting a workout dude the stuff that that killer whale does okay well okay obviously uh that's not true but what is true is that maybe one day it will be a dude inside of a

killer whale suit because after this documentary if people people see, if you watch this documentary, you will not go back to SeaWorld. And this isn't one of those things where this is a, you know, oh, well, this is just one side of the story. If you guys see the other side of the story, you'll be all about SeaWorld. And really the orcas love it there at SeaWorld. No, no. This is the thing where these mammals, they are, yes, they are mammals that you are correct about that and incredibly intelligent mammals with brains larger than ours with emotional centers in their brains that are very powerful some may argue even more powerful than ours who are experiencing life in a bathtub essentially for years and becoming incredibly frustrated and suffering some physical problems

like dorsal fin collapse and that kind of thing. I could see how it would be sad. I mean, when I went to SeaWorld, I felt a tinge of sadness. You did. Just a tinge, though. That it kind of felt like exploitation. And then when Shamu splashed you and your kids you were like but it's all worth it yeah i ain't doing it again uh what no and i understand that

because you know first of all okay how deep does it go is it just oh they're in they're in small confined spaces and they belong in the ocean i mean i i get that, but... Well, there's two parts to it. There is, these killer whales are killers, and they have killed multiple trainers, especially this one, Tilikum? I can't remember. I can never remember how to pronounce his name, but he's the male, basically, who has sired most all killer whales that have been born in captivity. He was captured in the 70s, and he was kept around for a long time. He was at a place called Sealand, and then he was at SeaWorld. And he's killed, like, three trainers.

And, like, a dude that just happened to get into the tank one night. Happened to get into the tank? Yeah, some dude. And, I mean, this graphic stuff. I mean, like, this, you know, you can see the documentary, but, like, they come in one morning, You can see the documentary, but they come in one morning, and Tilikum has a naked man that he's parading around on his back.

He stripped the guy's clothes off? He had stripped his clothes off. Or the guy was skinny dipping in what he thought was a pond. No, and the freaking killer whale had bitten his genitals off. I mean, that's just a fact, people. The killer whale did that. And we're talking about a killer whale that is incredibly smart. They have complex language. They talk all about how they talk. They have a language that is specific to the pod that they grew up in, the family that they grew up in. And they stay with their mom for their entire life,

through adulthood, their entire life. And then they're putting these different killer whales from different pods in this little bathtub, essentially, and getting them to jump around for fish. And then they're like, oh, but they got this great relationship with the trainers. Yeah, until they kill the trainers. So now, actually, because of some law that was passed, the trainers can't be in the water with it. Right. When I went, there were no trainers in the water.

Right. So, I mean, what's the fun in that anyway? So anyway, it's just one of those things. I don't, you know, I'm not, the documentary does a much better job of summarizing this in the water. Right, so what's the fun in that anyway? So anyway, it's just one of those things. The documentary does a much better job of summarizing this whole thing, but it was just one of those things that got ruined for me because I went to-

Because this is about you. Yeah, right. This is all about me. This is all about me and my personal entertainment and potential weekend outings with my children to be a good dad, you know?

And so the flip side of the story is, oh, well, because of SeaWorld, we know all about killer whales and we're appreciative of, you know, marine life and we want to have them protected and all that. But, you know, the long story short is that- If you want to go to SeaWorld, don't watch the CNN documentary. That's the long story. Yeah, right. I'm not going to go to SeaWorld and you can't go anymore either. I'm sorry. Okay. Well, if anyone wants an annual pass to SeaWorld, I'm going to be making an

eBay listing very soon. No, I don't have an annual pass, but I don't need to see documentary and I don't need to go back. Let's shift gears to Tyler Oakley. I think it's, you know, it's going to go to some serious places kind of like this documentary conversation um no more talk about c world though but yeah i mean

tyler has i would say skyrocketed to vlogger fame on youtube by being uh himself and such a great personality he talks talks about that. He's approaching two and a half million subscribers on his YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Tyler Oakley. And this is a recent rise to fame, relatively recent. It happened in 2012 and of course in 2013. And we talked to him all about that from the very beginning to the present, and maybe even a little bit of the future.

Here it is. Our conversation with Tyler Oakley. All right, I'm going to airplane mode it up. Sound good? Uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, I'm on silent, but I'll go to airplane. I put it on airport. I've been calling it airport mode.

Yikes. By accident. Yeah, that's total Grandpa, right? Gotta go into airport mode. You can't go through security unless it's in airport mode. Well, that's the good thing about having a friend like Rhett here

who is always looking for the mistakes that I'm making so that he can brutally point them out. Now, are you the kind of person that puts your phone... Do you really cut the phone off when they say to cut it off, or do you do the thing where you hit the top and it goes black and they can't tell? Oh, on the flight.

No, I never put on airplane mode. Well, I do when I'm about to lose battery. But do you power the phone off and they're like, please power off all... No, but once... Both of you seem very angry about this. You're putting everyone's life at risk. Once a flight attendant was like,

there is one phone that our airplane has detected that is still on. And everyone on the flight was like scrambling to turn off their phone, like as if they could track the person down. Right. That was, and I was like, all of you are fools. That's a great technique though.

It worked. I had, not for me. I had the woman next to me one time, just a stranger. I was finishing up a text. Oh my God. And she was like,

are you going to cut that off? And I was like, yeah. She said, well, you haven't yet. I'm like tweeting to the very last second. Truly.

Like until like my phone loses reception, I'm still like working on my phone. And are you tweeting as if it could be your last? Always. I always think, well, I'm morbid like that. Because I fly a lot. And I think, okay, well, if this is the one, what's my last tweet? Because I've seen some last celebrity tweets.

After they're gone, I go to their Twitter and I'm like, oh, that was not a good one. That's a hobby of yours? You know, if I were to list one hobby, that's it. Last tweets. Some people like famous last words. I like famous last tweets. Right. Well.

So you sincerely think about that. You're not joking. I'm literally not joking. And do you remember the last one that you decided to tweet on the last flight? I have. I love you all. Is it I love you, mom? No, probably not.

Um, it was probably something about a cute flight attendant. So I don't really, uh, take my own advice. I don't, I don't put out a good last tweet. You're flirting all the way to heaven. Okay. You're just saying that you like the idea of being prepared to have a last tweet. You think about it, but you actually don't practice. I guess I don't. Maybe, I think usually my last tweets when I'm leaving somewhere is like, it's been real, insert place here. But like, I guess it's not very epic for like a last tweet of all last tweets.

But you tweet a lot. I mean, how many times do you tweet in a day? Oh, goodness me, I don't know. Too many. Whoever has notifications for my tweets gotta be going through it. Their phone life has got to be going down. Especially because I delete tweets

like three times in a row because I see typos each time. So I fix it and then I see another typo and I delete it. Oh, really? So if they get my tweets to their phone, that's a lot to deal with. You delete tweets.

You're a deleter. I'm a deleter. Do you schedule tweets? I used to, but not anymore. You're just a real time in it. Yeah. But I do have on my computer, I have, you know how you can go to all your sticky notes or something? I have like 30, well, however many sticky notes fit.

It's all sticky notes, and it's all tweet ideas. And then the bottom row is all completed tweets that I know I want to tweet at some time. So if I'm, like, uninspired for the day, I can just take one, throw it up. Copy and paste it. So you do some observational tweets. It isn't just, like, I'm on a plane now. Yeah, yeah. It's very much just, like, you know what?

This is something I want to say. Or, like, if I have something, like, about Space Jam. Well, someday it'll trend on Twitter. And when it's trending, I have a tweet applicable for it. Oh, you have tweets loaded and ready to go. So if anything happens, I am ready. With Space Jam. Well, not necessarily Space Jam, but yes, I have one for Space Jam.

You know what? I would like to. Spoiler alert. What is it? I would never tell you. You're going to use it when it's trending. Now, I'm very interested in coming back to this because not necessarily specifically Space Jam, but the way that you think about social media,

because that's something that we discussed before when we talk about, you know, getting people to like our videos and that kind of thing. We're like, well, what does Tyler do here? Because it seems like... No, you do not. No, seriously. Oh, yeah. We've had multiple conversations where we've like gone to your Instagram and your YouTube, and we're like, look how he's asking them to like this, and he's a master of this interaction thing. I think it's all down to admitting to the people, yes, it is shameless, and yes, it's going to continue,

but it's all for the better cause of more shit. More shit is coming as long as y'all push like. Oh no, yeah. There's no shame in it. I'm just trying to emulate it. But I want to come back to that because we want to go back to the beginning. We want to go back to, you know, wherever you were conceived, wherever that happened. Jackson, Michigan.

What would have been your first tweet in Jackson, Michigan as an infant? You want to know what my first tweet was? I do know my actual first tweet. Okay. It was rubbing my on my Twitter. I looked it up. There's a website where you can look, and I'm like, what was I thinking back in 2008? And how do you feel about that now?

Well, I looked, and it has like 6,000 retweets because I mentioned it once in a video, and so I think everyone went to go find it and retweet it. So it must be successful in some capacity. Well, it rhymes. Anytime you can rhyme a tweet. That's what I'm here for. That one was on a sticky note years before Twitter was invented. It was on an actual

sticky note. Whenever this thing that requires 40 characters or less comes out, I know what I'm going to put on. That's 140, but I do think that that one would have fit under 40. You said 40. I wasn't going to call you out. I also said airport mode. That's 140, but I do think that that one would have fit under 40. 40? You said 40. You said 40. I wasn't going to call you out. I also said airport mode. That's why your tweets

are always so short. Yeah. I always wondered why your tweets are so short. Well, my standards are higher. I was like, man, he's only, you know, he does like four words.

So what would have been your first tweet as an infot? Infot? I don't know. Infot. It's just that. As an infot. Lord, I don't know. That's a hard question.

It's just my stupid way of saying talk about where you were born. Sure. It would probably be about something about my first, I think one of my first memories was watching Aladdin. And I don't know how old I was for that, so it would probably be about Aladdin. I just distinctly remember

being in my living room back in the day. Okay. So it would be about Aladdin. Jackson. Jackson, Michigan. Michigan. Where is that on the hand? We are going right here, right in the middle.

Right in the middle of the palm. Okay. If you're familiar with the way you can hold up your hand and see Michigan, that's what's happening here. Only people in the Midwest know that. So there's no lake there. Right in the middle? No. I can't offer that to you.

Bummer. So what was life like growing up there as a youngster? Life was... Watching some Aladdin. What else? Fine. So I kind of grew up in like a, I guess you would say like more urban area.

Okay. And I lived in like a i guess you would say like more urban area um and i lived in like a rural area so like i went to school like in very very what you would imagine michigan public schools are um like the stereotype of like detroit you know what i mean um kind of like hard you know and so clearly i thrived but um so hardened people yeah going to school at a young age like like kind of like prison it was it felt like that i don't know you said a suburb of detroit no no no no no but it's what you would imagine what you okay yeah that's how jackson was um i don't know what it's like now. I haven't been like forever. But yeah, I grew up there, but I lived kind of like in the country-ish. Okay. Like in a little neighborhood. So we're not talking raising animals on a farm.

No. Like in the woods kind of, I guess. Making goat cheese. No. I wish. I love goat cheese. It's really easy. You just put goat milk in like a bag and keep squeezing out the milk.

Eventually it becomes cheese. Yeah. I just learned about it this weekend. We'll talk about that later. What's the family situation? So the family situation at this point, my parents got divorced when I was super young. Maybe like two or three. Okay.

So that's all I ever knew. And so it was- Living with your mom? Living with my mom. Okay. My sister, who I was closest with your mom living with my mom okay my sister who I was closest with lived with my dad

and I didn't really get along with my dad my sister didn't really get along with my mom but me and my sister got along so we would kind of

relay information about what was going on with each family were they also in Jackson? were they also in Jackson? everybody was in Jackson so this was until I was like 12

okay how much older was your sister that was with your dad? Two years older. So, but I had tons of steps and halves and stuff because my parents both got remarried within the next like two years. Okay. So growing up, I like in my home, I had about, I think six kids probably. Really? If I were to count them, yeah. Of which you were the oldest. No, I was the youngest because the new steps were older.

Gotcha. So it was very like mixed family, like a whole bunch of siblings from all different parents, like previous marriages upon previous marriages. So I was the youngest and me and my siblings were all very close. So we, and I always thought like we were kind of the outcasts of the neighborhood. Like that's how I always perceived it. I know like growing up we were really poor. And I always felt like. How poor are we talking here?

What do you mean? Give me a. Poor. Like poor. Like you didn't eat food type thing? No, we had food. But like my parents went out of, like their business failed. And I think there was like debt issues and like stuff like that. And what kind of business

was it? And then what did they go on to do after that? Well, let me tell you. Okay. So for the sake of taking out all the drama, but. No, we want the drama. I don't know if my parents want me to tell the drama. Okay. They don't listen. They'll listen. My mom listens to everything. You can just change their name. Sure. Well, I know one business that my parents ran that is actually really interesting. I've always wanted to make a video about it, but I didn't know how I would.

I think if I do, I need my mom to explain it because it's just so ludicrous. My stepdad was kind of like a carpenter in some capacity. I don't know like how official it was, but he made hutches and things. And they had a store called Papa Woody's Woodshop. And I don't know why it was called that. But my mom did crafts within the store. And so she made like scrunchies and seasonal scrunchies and like a Halloween scrunchie. It sounds like an assortment of just one thing.

It was just scrunchies. And plot twist, Papa Woody's wood shop one day was burned to the ground. Well, that happens when it's all wood. Scrunchies are highly flammable. You know the scrunchie industry. When you mix scrunchies and wood, there's just a fire

waiting to happen. Was this an accident? Or what? And that is the mystery. So, some speculate that it could have been some type of ex-lover situation. Some, like, ex-husband or ex-wife that had done the deed. Your dad? I don't know who's who.

But, because there are a lot of exes in this like equation. Everyone has been married and remarried multiple times. But some scream foul play. And so at the time, I'm like seven and I'm like thinking there is some type of conspiracy. People are trying to burn down my house. Like, so it was like rough times for young Tyler. But you were how old when you? I don't know when that happened old when you were going through this?

I think I was probably eight or something. So I knew that was going on, and I knew at the time my dad was trying to get custody of me. And so there was a lot of tension there. So my worst nightmare was parent-teacher conferences. Going to parent-teacher conferences knowing that my mom and dad would be in the same building. I would have panic building like I would have panic attacks I would like burst into tears like it was just too much for me

they were not civil oh no they hated each other at one point well yes they hated each other at one point at one point they hated each other so much that went down but that is beside the point not my story she put a scrunchie she put a scrunchie down his throat multiple uses for those yeah so that is I guess yeah what I've always known is that my parents,

I've never known my parents to enjoy each other's company. Did your dad get custody or was that? No. Because it sounds like you didn't want to live with your dad. No, but he fought and so I would always have to go to court. This is like before I was over 10. I would have to go to court and talk to the judge about who I wanted to live with and things like that. That's sad. It really is. It was very

stressful, but that was all I knew. I thought this was what people had to deal with. Was it just a spite kind of thing? It was just like, I'm going to get Tyler from you, or was it just like, I don't like the guy that you're with? A little bit of that, I think. A little bit of, I think I can raise

him better. A little bit of, I don't know, parenting styles. Well, I would assume if you hate your partner, you don't want your child to be with your partner. So I don't know if that was it, you know. What do you think was the key difference between the house that your mom was creating and the house that your dad had? Well, growing up, my dad and stepmom were wealthier and like my siblings that lived in that house went to like a private school stuff like that and then at my mom and stepdad's house it was like poor but like a lot more communal like you know it just felt like family-ish whereas over there didn't i didn't like like we didn't

i don't know if we hugged but but it wasn't, like, loving. Like, they loved, like, everyone loved each other, but nobody showed it, you know what I mean? Right. So, I don't know. Just different, different. But the house that you're living in is kind of like the Brady Bunch here. We've got six kids.

Yeah. And you're getting along with your stepbrothers and sisters. Yeah. I was a little shit, though. Like, they all hated me. And they tell me to this day, they're like, I don't know how you turned into who you are now because, like, growing up, you were the worst

f***ing piece of s***. Like, everyone was like, it was commonly known. What did you do? I was, I just f***ed with everything. Like, we had chores. I would, like... You didn't light stuff on fire, did you? No.

No, I did not. I did not burn down papa woody's workshop um but like i would instead of mopping like for example i would just toss the bucket of water everywhere and just walk out and just like or like you know it was just like a little um were you getting in trouble at school also or was it just like a messing with your brothers and sisters i think it was maybe it was some type of now that I'm like self-diagnosing, maybe I was just rebelling. I needed control of my life in some capacity. And how long did this behavior last?

Until I was like 18, Lord. No, I was always grounded all throughout middle school, all throughout high school. Like I was a bad kid. So what was your quality of life like getting into grade school, middle school years? Tell us about that. Sure. So I started in elementary school in Jackson. And then when I was in sixth grade, I moved to Okemos, which is about an hour away. So my whole mom and stepdad family moved to Okemos. And up until that point, I was pretty overweight. I was, like, very into the old Navy tech vests, like, just rocking that style and, like, camo pants.

Like, I had a bowl cut. It was just not a good look overall. So I was not popular. Okay. What were you doing for fun? For fun? What were you into? I was very into—so I was on the soccer team but i hated

it um what else did i do i was very into collecting things so i would collect depending on what i was obsessed with so first it was like power rangers and then it was pogs and then it was pokemon pokemon was like a big part of my life i would like go to competitions like at the local video game store. What was at stake? Cash or just more Pokemon? You know, I don't know. I never won. I don't know what I could have won.

I never realized the benefit. But you were obsessive about these type of things. Yeah. For fourth grade, I remember my birthday. I asked everyone that I invited to my birthday for a yo-yo, and I ended up with like 20 yo-yos. And my parents were furious. They were like, we have to take all these back, but one. All you need is one. So

we went to the kiosk in the mall where they sold yo-yos, and I returned all of them but one. And I never even know how to yo-yo. Like, I just, it was like a status symbol. Like, everyone else was yo-yoing. Yeah. Well, no, okay. As someone who grew up knowing this guy you know and knowing what he's pointing to me what he was like as a child and what he's

like now he's very much a collector too you know he would it was like if he had one of something he had to then get all the rest of those things is that that what you were doing? I probably had nine yo-yos, seriously, as a kid. That was me. Same with Beanie Babies. With Link, that's... I didn't have Beanie Babies. I was obsessed, and I had a valuation book, too. Is that because you were gay?

Yes, that was actually why I turned gay. Beanie Babies would do that to you. You sort of ended up, you're still very anal is the word. No, the yo-yos are like. The yo-yos. And very much about

having things orderly and that kind of thing. So, is that still part of your personality? Did that kind of carry through? I mean, maybe,

yeah. Like, to this day, when it comes to YouTube, I'm very all in. I'm very like, I want to, like, when it comes to my career, I maybe, yeah. Like, to this day, when it comes to YouTube, I'm very all in. I'm very, like, I want to, like, when it comes to my career, I guess, yeah. Like, I'm very focused on what, like, I want to obtain and I want it all. You know what I mean?

Right. You want to collect all of YouTube. All of YouTube. All the viewers. Okay, so you're collecting Beanie Babies and expanding these collections and moving from one thing to the next. Being obsessive, the weight thing, the whole not having friends,

what's the dynamic there? When I went, so I was moving off to a new school, sixth grade, moved to a new city, so I didn't know anybody. And I was overweight and just trying to figure out who I was at the time I was also kind of figuring out that I was gay and so it was just like a lot was working against me it felt like and at the time also I knew like my dad and stepmom were against you know the whole thing. My mom and stepdad had always been, like, very openly, like, supportive of anything, you know, that could ever be of any of their kids.

But just trying to figure that out was stressful. And so going into sixth grade was kind of, like, the worst because, like, I just didn't know anyone. And it was just, like, intimidating because I also also didn't I felt like I didn't know myself so like how do I like make friends if I don't even know how to present myself because I was figuring out like okay well I'm acting too feminine or I'm acting too this or I am too fat or like you know whatever so just figuring all that out was a stressor. How did you figure it out? I mean, as a sixth grader, that's a lot. I mean...

Well, no pun intended, but I feel like it's going to get heavy. Go for it. So, like, in seventh grade, I became anorexic. And I talked about this a little bit.

I made a video in 2008 about it. Okay. But I had never really talked about it again, and I didn't know if I even wanted to talk about it in my Draw My Life. But I felt like it was important to be honest about. So I vaguely mentioned it in my Draw My Life, but it was like terrible. Like I was really overweight at the beginning. And then I remember, and I don't know if my sense of time is like off, but it felt like within like a month period, I felt like I lost like 30 pounds.

Oh, wow. Like I stopped eating. And this was like sixth grade? This was seventh grade. Seventh grade. Like I stopped eating And this was like 6th grade? This was 7th grade 7th grade And do you remember the day that you made that choice? I don't remember the start How does that work?

I don't remember the start But I remember the progress Because I remember I had been going to the gym I had been like obsessively working really hard during gym class And even though that sounds ridiculous Likeively working really hard during gym class. And even though that sounds ridiculous, like I would push myself in gym class. And I like, I had joined the track team. I went to the, I went to a separate gym before school and I had gym class six hour. So I had two workouts a day and then track after school and I didn't eat in between. Oh, wow. So, like, there were times when I would actually, like,

I remember I fainted once in choir. And my choir teacher, like, talked to my parents about, like, what was going on. And I remember one day, really specifically, like, I was in science class and they were doing roll call, I guess, or whatever you would call it, attendance. And my science teacher didn't even, like, recognize me at first, and I realized, like, oh, this is, like, doing something.

Like, all my working out, none of my eating, like, it's all going toward, you know, progress. So you saw it as a reward that you were accomplishing what you wanted. I mean, would people call you the fat kid? Or was it just something in your mind? Yeah, I don't remember anybody making fun of me for being fat. But I remember hating myself for being fat. And so I lost, I did lose 30 pounds. I don't know if it was in that one month, but I'm sure it was a longer span of time. But I was down to 100 pounds, which is like skin and bones.

But I still like saw myself in the mirror. I was like disgustingly overweight. And so were the adults in your life, you know, you said that your teachers talked to your parents about it. So my teachers were talking to my parents. My parents were talking to each other, both families. So my mom and my dad were arguing about it. My dad was claiming that like my mom wasn't feeding me. So I was going to therapy,

but I was going to like into the room and I'm not speaking to the therapist. Just like, it was just a show. And what were you thinking at the time? We were like, oh, well they think something's wrong with me, but there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just watching my weight. I'm fixing the situation. Right. Yeah. Is what I was thinking. Um, and so like body image issues have been something that I've dealt with ever since. Just because like even when I was 100 pounds, I thought like I was disgusting. Like just so overweight and gross. And looking back at pictures of myself, I was like a skeleton.

Like my face was just empty and it like concaved in. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? So starting like ninth grade and 10th grade is kind of where I found a happy medium with like the weight issue. But it was a couple of years and it was like really difficult. A couple of years, everyone in your life kind of knowing that there was a problem, you were in denial about it, but they were still trying to like send you to therapy and this kind of thing. Yeah. And so what clicked i don't know well i mean i guess the time that it all went away was also the time that i came out really so so where you could have been it were you uh wrestling and coming to grips with realizing that you were gay that was a parallel i think it was a parallel yes it was it was definitely something that i was

currently struggling with at the exact same time so tell us tell us more about that experience sure parallel what was how does that work for you um well throughout middle school i knew i was like in love with like my best friend um who i'm still really good friends with um but i didn't know like if it was just a feeling like at the time I was dating girls and like going on dates and like, et cetera. But I didn't know like, I didn't know how I felt like I didn't know any gay people. I remember actually now I'm thinking about it in middle school. So my, like I said, my mom and my stepdad were always really supportive and they were always like, whenever they lectured me, they would say, if you ever get married, whoever you marry, like, you know, isn't going to tolerate this behavior.

He or she will, you know, blah, blah, blah. They would always use, like, gender neutral or, you know. And is that something that they said to all kids? Yes. Or is that something they said because they kind of saw where it was going with you? I think they only said it to all the kids because they didn't want me to feel like they were singling me out. Okay. But they definitely said it.

They were saying it for me to hear, which was really helpful. But that still didn't, like, help me come to terms with my own. So they knew you were gay before you did. Yeah. Well, I guess I don't know if I knew or not, but, like, I wasn't going to admit it. You know what I mean? But, yes, they knew. But I remember my brother-in-law took me to work with him one day.

He worked at the post office. And just so like I could like, you know, hang out with him at work all day and like do like a job shadow thing and like have fun and just bonding or whatever. And he introduced me to one of his coworkers who was gay. And he he's like if you ever need to talk to him about anything you can and I'm like what is he talking about but like looking back like I I remember now that like okay well he was trying to give me like somebody that I could come out to and just be you know whatever um which is super kind and nice but like also at the time I was like what, what? What do you even mean? So you don't, I mean, in retrospect, you don't feel like it would have been better if they would have said, hey, listen,

you're a sixth grader. You don't have life figured out. You may not understand yourself. But you're probably gay, dude. I think they kind of hinted toward things. And so in eighth, or no, not eighth grade, ninth grade, my mom, we were in line at the bank. We were banking at Flagstar at the time.

I don't know if you're familiar. Flagstar? Flagstar. Flagstar, with an L. So we were in line, and my mom just turns to me, and she's like, are you gay? And I was like, yes. And that was the end of that. When was this? Again?

Ninth grade. Ninth grade. Yeah. And I never came out to my stepdad. Like it was just never a thing. Like he, I guess after that, my mom was like, well, it's true. Like, or something. Was that, was that a moment of realization? Was that like, okay, well, you know what? Now that I think about it, yes. Or you know what? I realized this three months ago. I had realized it. I had realized it in middle school. Okay. And at the time I was still dating girls three months ago. I had realized it in middle school. Okay. And at the time I was still dating girls. And so like I had realized it and I was still lying to my friends. And I hadn't told nobody, like nobody knew.

And the reason, what were the reasons that you were kind of in the closet, I guess you'd say. I don't know why. Because it wasn't a fear of people not accepting me. I think it was just kind of like I just reasoned with myself that it was personal or that like nobody, why should I tell them? I don't know what it was. So where you were at in, I mean, how old are you now? You're 24.

So we're talking about the late 90s? Are we talking about the early? No, no, we're talking about like... I came out, so to my mom, this was what, ninth grade? I was 14, so 10 years ago. Okay, yeah, so we're talking about 2004. So 2004 in this part of Michigan, it wasn't like, oh, this is going to be a scandalous thing. No, and I was really fortunate because Okemos, where I grew up, was very liberal and very like just open-minded. Not necessarily liberal, but just more open-minded. There were like openly gay teachers. There were openly gay kids at the high school. Like it wasn't uncommon to come out.

Like it was, yes, a big deal, but like people were very supportive. And when you did, you went to the bank. And I did, yes. No, everything was ten times better after that. Now every time you go to a bank, you feel like you've really got to share something with someone. Well, the interesting thing is, if you think about this, is that technically that moment is probably on a security camera tape somewhere.

Oh, my God, wait, yes. I mean, was it in front of the ATM or was it like inside the bank? No, it was going through the drive-thru. Yeah, you were on camera. Oh, okay, so you were in the car. You were on camera. We were in the car, yes. You were like in the middle of the bank.

No, it was like a line of cars. There's probably no audio, but there's like your mom looking over to you and if you can, you know, if it was high resolution enough. You should talk to Flagstar and be like, listen, can you go into the archives? I wonder if they have that. That's like beautiful footage, I'm sure.

So, ninth grade, you're out. Yes. And after your mom asked you that question, is that when you said, okay, I'm going to start telling my friends. I'm going to be honest with my friends. I think actually before – well, I don't know when it was or who was first, if I told my mom first or told some of my friends first. But I remember the reason I came out in high school to all my friends was because I was kind of outed. the reason I came out in high school to all my friends was because I was kind of outed

I had told one of my friends who I don't even speak to I don't even know if I'm Facebook friends with her still, I had told her that I was like I had a super big crush on one of my best friends and she thought he was gay too and so she was

thinking oh okay well I'm gonna match make this up and I'm gonna make this happen, these two closeted gays. And lo and behold, he's straight. And so she goes to his girlfriend and says, Tyler has a crush on Eric. And she, the girlfriend, freaks out, thinks that me and Eric are, like, together. Something's going on there. She's starting to spread rumors about me and Eric.

Like, something's happening. and Eric doesn't even know that I like him and this is all like high school drama but I remember so I was in the musical Grease

at the time at the high school and we were about to go on for a performance for the high school we had previews before the opening weekend and I found out

that Ellie had told and I found out that everyone knew but I didn't know that everybody knew. And so this is like 10 minutes before going on stage. And so we all go on stage. The lights are off. I can feel myself crying. I have the opening line of the show.

In what role? I was Eugene, the nerd. Eugene, the nerd. And like I said, the opening line. So I'm crying on stage before the curtain goes up. And I'm just freaking out. And I wipe it all away. I'm like, I need to perform.

And the curtain goes up. And I deliver. And then as soon as my thing was done, I left stage, went to the green room, went to the boys' locker room, and just cried and cried and cried and cried and cried. And then as soon as it thing was done I left stage went to the green room went to the boys locker room and just cried and cried and cried and cried and cried and then as soon as it was done I avoided everyone I like ran home and I was like what am I gonna do like everyone knows I need to talk to Eric so I call Eric and I tell him like I'm gay I know you've heard like I don't I don't want this to affect our friendship I like I'm like leaving silence for him to be like I'm gay too let's throw the weight together but like clearly that didn't happen um and he's like don't worry everything's fine blah blah so like anybody can say that while they're pressured on the phone but I was just more concerned about

okay how's it going to be the next day when I go into school and so were the tears mostly related to how this was going to affect your relationship day when I go into school? And so were the tears mostly related to how this was going to affect your relationship with him? With all my friends. The fact that it just kind of came out in a way that you didn't have control. It was not at all how I planned. And I didn't know how I

had planned, but this was just out of my control. And as somebody who appreciates control, it was just ****. So the next day, I go into out of my control and like as somebody who appreciates control, it was just. So the next day I go into school and it's a long, long hallway from the entrance where all the buses drop off kids and like the classrooms and the lockers. So I'm walking down the hallway and I'm just dreading the first moment where I see Eric because I'm like he's going to just – he's going to hate me.

He's going to like not want to be friends. He's going to act like he's not even, he doesn't even know me because that was just how I thought people reacted to gays. And I remember I was at the far end of the hall. He was at the other far end of the hall and we were like kind of walking toward each other. We see each other and my heart is like racing because I'm like, this is going to determine how coming out goes like his response is going to like I guess either make me not come out to anybody or I guess

that was like very dramatic but like that's how I was thinking and when we were like approaching each other he just like hugged me like a very long extended hug and he like whispered to me he's like don't worry nothing is different we're still best friends everything is fine let's go to class and then it was like completely normal everything was fine and like I thought it was like the biggest most important thing and like it was

it was important but like so not important at the same time like it just didn't matter okay so a lot sorry that's a lot a lot went down right at the beginning of. Like, it just didn't matter. Okay, so a lot... Sorry, that's a lot. A lot went down right at the beginning of high school, which just the transition to high school is a big deal for a lot of people.

So you're coming to these very formative conclusions at the beginning of high school, and then I assume your friendship with Eric continues through high school. Of course, still friends. You stay at the same high school for four years, and so you get involved in drama club. What was the rest of high school like as you begin to figure out who you are? High school was great. High school was like the best and I think honestly it was because

I had the support group of my family, my friends in drama club, my choir. I became drama club president. I was very involved in like productions, talent show stuff. Um, I was very close with like the choir teacher. I was, um, yearbook editor in chief, like very involved in like everything in high school. Um, and I, I just loved, I just loved high school. It was like the best. Um, cause it was just social hour all the time for me. And especially now that I was like out and open and just like unapologetically me, it was like I could just like have fun.

And like I'd never felt like that in middle school. So did you become popular? I guess so yeah but like in a way that like a choir kid and a drama club drama club kid will be popular like

popular for the drama club now when you say choir are you talking like Glee Club or are you talking like no it was like singing like this

yes it was like that not like Glee Christmas carols with my mouth in a oval chorus yeah it was chorus chorus not like Glee Christmas carols yeah with my mouth in oval chorus yeah it was chorus

chorus they call that chorus oh they do so I was in that we were yeah yeah middle school chorus I took chorus

yeah I was in the band loser that's that's the difference right there but choir was good and like

I I took on I guess leadership roles within choir and drama and um you started figuring out more about long term what you want to do at that point yeah and i think my relationships with my choir teacher and my drama teacher and my um yearbook teacher inspired me to want to be a teacher um because that's what i always thought i was going to be okay um so i went through high school thinking, okay, well, this is the route I'm going to go. I'm going to go to Michigan State.

They have a great education program. I'm going to teach like middle school or high school or something like that. Also, I guess my relationship with my choir teacher from middle school, the one who would talk to my parents about my eating disorder, that really inspired me, who I'm still in contact with today, Facebook friends. So the teachers in my life really defined what I wanted to do, I guess. And who you wanted to be. So when did that path deviate and ultimately end up in YouTube land?

Sure. Did you go to Michigan State? Yes. So I went to Michigan State, Sure. Did you go to Michigan State? Yes. So I went to Michigan State, which is a five-minute drive from where my parents lived.

Okay. So not far at all. And I went to school thinking, okay, I'm going to go into education. I didn't have many scholarships. And being like one of a million kids in my family, I'm paying for everything myself. So I have loans up my ass. Um, and I know that I have to work through college and I had worked all throughout high school since I was 14. I've had jobs, um, from like Arby's to McDonald's to coffee shop back to McDonald's. And then like now in college I was working all throughout college so I was a

telemarketer um which I was so good at I was like selling I uh had to call alumni and ask them to donate to their graduating or the program that they graduated from so did you guilt trip these the alumnus oh my gosh yes well you can see who you're calling and I wasn't supposed to do this but I did it like their picture no no you could see like you're calling. And I wasn't supposed to do this, but I did it. Like their picture? No, no, no. You could see like statistics. So like their name, what year they graduated, what program they were in, how much they usually donate, stuff like that. So you can try to like get them to up, you know, how much they're donating this year, stuff like that. Wow.

But I'm very persuasive. And so you're not supposed to hang up on people before they answer, but I would if they were young. And I would just look for the old ladies because that's who I could speak to. And I could just get this is probably bad to admit, but I could get so much money out of them because I was just a sweet little boy

just talking to them about their grandkids and what it was like back in the day. And then I'd be like, oh, well, you know, I don't want to keep you too long, but I was just wondering if you'd donate like, oh, well, you know, I don't want to keep you too long, but I was just wondering if you'd donate to the school that's helped you out so much and that's currently helping me out so much.

And just like, I loved it. It was like a little game to me. They were like, honey, I won't give any amount of money. I'm pulling out the checkbook right now. No checkbooks. We took credit card. No. I don't have a credit card.

I'm going to direct my reverse mortgage right back into this account. I could get everyone. At one point, I was the number one caller in the room out of 200 people. I was very good at it. It was where I met

my first boyfriend. He sat across from me. He was straight at the time. You broke him. Well, I showed him the light. What's the proper terminology? I showed him the light. He gated him.

I gated him right up. Yeah, I just met up with him in San Francisco, him and his new boyfriend, like two weeks ago. But yeah, we met in telemarketing and then dated. That's its own story. It doesn't sound romantic, but... We were each other's first boyfriends. It was like a big deal.

It was like, you know, he's like one of the loves of my life. Did you only conduct your relationship with headsets on? No, things got... No, no, no. But that would be like kinky or something. I'm imagining it now. No, it would just be professional. Yeah, it's very, very professional.

Let's keep this relationship professional. All about board. I'll only speak. I would flirt with him all the time though at the telemarketing place. And then one weekend he was like, it was St. Patrick's Day. And he's like, what are you doing for St. Patrick's Day?

Let's like go out to like the frat house. And I'm like, okay. Thinking like this hot straight guy wants to hang out. And then like half a sip of a wine cooler later, he's like all over it. So very straight indeed. And then we dated for a year. Well, maybe it was just the wine cooler. Was it Bartleton James?

I don't know what it was. Actually, no, it was banana vodka is what it was just the wine cooler. Was it Bartleton James? I don't know what it was. Actually, no, it was banana vodka is what it was. Oh, that's not a wine cooler. Every time. Every time. It's a mixed drink. Okay, so. Got off on a tangent there. Sorry.

Okay. But at some point, I mean, so you're in college. What years are you in college? So I was. Pretty recently. Yeah. I mean, YouTube's already out. I started in 2007.

So, okay. So, yeah, I can get into that. So in 2007, again, I thought I was – Pretty recently. Yeah. I mean YouTube is already out. I started in 2007. So, okay. So, yeah, I can get into that. So in 2007, again, I thought I was going into education. And I realized very quickly that I hated teaching. I had TA'd a little bit in high school. I was like an assistant teacher. But that was like fun because it was like my friends. But then in college, I remember one class I had to tutor one guy.

He was like 30 years old. His name was Ibrahim Ibrahim. I don't know if you're out there, Ibrahim. Kind of redundant. Right? I had to teach him English, which was just – I had no patience whatsoever. And so I thought, okay, well, if I don't have the patience for one person, I'm not going to have patience for 30 of these people.

So I changed my major. I dropped that class, changed my major to communication because I knew communication was just very broad. You owe it all to Ibrahim Ibrahim. Ibrahim Ibrahim changed everything. And I went into communication with a focus in public relations, marketing, social media, that kind of stuff stuff and at the same time in 2007 it was September 18th

2007 probably a week prior I had started to watch YouTube but September 18th was when I made my account and I watched

there was this one guy I'm sure you guys know him William Sled you remember him he was the reason why I started watching YouTube he's a gay dude vlogger

yes so he was the southern vlogger just watching youtube gay dude vlogger yes so he was the southern vlogger just very fashion oriented he didn't really edit much he just talked into a camera he was like a full-blown personality and at the same time i i well i saw that he was just talking into his macbook and i had just bought my macbook and I was like, you know what? I could do that. And so September 18th, 2007, I made my account. And I was always so afraid, like, should I use my full name? Because I had always known, like, you're not supposed to use your name on the internet, blah, blah, blah. But William Sludd did.

So I was like, okay, I'm going to use Tyler Oakley. And I'm so glad I did because you see people with the most random usernames. I'm like, that must suck. Or like 11 numbers. Right. You want to avoid the numbers if you can. So I put up my first video. And at the time, I saw he was talking to his friends,

just talking about stories with his friends, stuff like that, going to the mall, making fun of people's clothes. So I was talking to my friends, Eric, who you all know, Dolan, who is my best friend from sixth grade, and Rachel, who is my co-editor-in-chief from yearbook class. So my three best friends, we had all gone off to different colleges. So my first video is literally just 10 minutes long, me talking to the three of them directly, is literally just 10 minutes long me talking to the three of them directly, showing them around my dorm room,

and just telling stories about orientation and just things like that. So at what point did it switch to being an audience at large? Well, it was a slow growth. So I remember very distinctly when one of my videos had 100 views because I was posting it on Facebook, but I didn't have 100 friends or people that cared. So I remember thinking, okay, well, there must be people that – William Sled has some type of viral appeal. He had 80,000 views on a video. That was insane. I got 100 views on a video.

That's insane. So I knew people were watching for some capacity for whatever reason. And I remember just making more videos, making more general videos, talking about, like, pop culture, less about, like, specific things about my life, but more, like, broad stuff that anybody could relate to, not just Rachel Dole and Eric. And I remember one video, it was about, like, hate speech is video it was about like hate speech is what it was about I had asked a whole bunch of LGBT vloggers

that I had watched and loved to also make videos so it was like a big collaboration project that I had like orchestrated and YouTube

back in the day when it was like something worthwhile they put it on the front page and in that day I remember I was like freaking out I was crying called my mom I was like something worthwhile. They put it on the front page. And in that day, I remember I was like freaking out. I was crying, called my mom.

I was like, this is everything, blah, blah, blah. I gained like 3,000 subscribers that day, which was huge back then. So at that point, you were kind of off to the races of I'm going to target an audience. Did you get obsessed at that point? I didn't have a motive. I didn't have a motive of I want to be a YouTuber. Yeah, so what, I mean, because I was going to ask that question, that first video, because.

It was never in my plan to be a William Sled. Like I never thought that could happen. You were inspired by him. I was inspired by him. And you were like, that looks fun, but not I want to be the next William Sled. Well, at the time, I had just started to figure out, oh, some people are getting paid for this. That's crazy. That'll never happen.

That's the top ten people. That's it. So I never had an aspiration of I want this to be my full-time job. I never even knew it could be a full-time job. Because it wasn't a full-time job for anybody then. But I'm trying to think when it kind of hit that, like, it could be more than a hobby.

And that was probably after college. Because throughout college, I still thought, I'm going to do social media for companies. Okay. Or I'm going to do, you know, public relations. That was my focus, public relations. And that was, like, I had internships for public relations, public relations thinking like this is what I'm going to do. At the time, all the YouTube stuff was just like a fun hobby.

And it was getting me jobs throughout college. So I moved from telemarketing to making videos for the Career Services Network. So I would make videos about how to make a resume or how to go to an interview or how to write a thank you email, you know, stuff like that. So when did it switch to, I am a YouTuber. I'm going to give this a go or I'm responding to a particular opportunity or? I remember getting fan mail, I think was when it kind of like, like freaked me out, not freaked me out, but like opened my eyes

that this is like affecting people and this is something that could be something and it wasn't fan mail like PO box stuff it was in my YouTube inbox which nobody uses anymore but in my YouTube inbox somebody told me that they didn't commit suicide because they were watching my videos and I was like holy f*** this is something

it's not just somebody talking about fashion or somebody doing a makeup tutorial or somebody just talking's not just somebody talking about fashion or somebody doing a makeup tutorial or somebody just talking about whatever I was talking about. It was something that may have helped me or may have made things smoother for me if I had it when I was back in middle school. You know what I mean?

And what kind of mental shift did that create for you? Or change your goals? I don't think it changed my goals. It just made me more conscious of my impact and more careful of my message because it was like, okay, well, the things I'm saying could affect somebody's life. You suddenly realized like a new sense of responsibility. Yeah, yeah, which is like scary and terrifying. And like especially when it's just a fun hobby, it's like, okay, well, now there's like some social repercussions.

Like that could be, you know what I mean? But yeah, even to that point, even to when I graduated college, it was still just a hobby. So you must have taken some sort of normal job right after college. Yeah, so right after college. Yeah. So I graduated college. Um, my freshman year of college, I met Corey who was my RA and, um, he was one of my best friends. We did a collab channel together. He started doing YouTube too.

Um, he graduated a few years before me. So when I graduated college, I knew I didn't want to stay in Michigan because there's no public relations jobs that I wanted to take. I was thinking I wanted to do like celebrity PR or something like that. I knew I wanted to move to the West Coast. And in the meantime, Corey had just sat around. He was working at a bank and... Flagstar. Not Flagstar. No, no, no. He was manning the security tapes. Yes. Flagstar. So I told him, I was like, okay, well, I'm moving to the West Coast. You should come with me. Let's just pick up and go.

So I graduated high school. Him and I were thinking about different cities. Yes, college. I graduated college. Him and I were thinking about different places to go. One of them was San Francisco. So we flew out to San Francisco just to like check it out for the weekend. We fell in love with the city within a day.

We set up a meeting, not a meeting, just an open house to see an apartment, just to see what apartments were like. For the next day, we went to that open house or whatever it's called where you check out the apartment and signed the lease before leaving. Oh, wow. You were like, all right, we're in.

We're doing this. Which is kind of like, I guess, kind of like me. Like I'm just very like, if I just feel good about it, I'll do it. Whereas Corey's a lot more like, okay, well, I have to check this. I have to check that. I was just like, let's just do it. You forced his hand. I did.

So did that turn out to be a good decision? Oh, my God, it was the most important decision of my life. Moving away from Michigan was huge. Because I would have gotten stuck in what everybody gets stuck in, I feel. It's just what they think is an easy path to take. I was so glad that like I picked up a move and it was, yes, it was so expensive to make the move and to ship everything out and to, you know, do whatever. But it was like a whole new life. And like I didn't have a job.

So like I moved out there like just hoping I would find a job at some point, which I did. I found a job doing, I was a communication intern for a fashion website, which is not my passion, but it was just like something. And then it turned into a full-time job there. I got hired on full-time. And it was just a startup. So it it turned into a full-time job there. I got hired on full-time. And it was just a startup. So it was like five people in a room.

And I thought like, oh my God, I'm doing it. I'm living the dream. I have a career going on. I commute to work on the train. Like this is so adult of me. And at the same time, still doing YouTube stuff just as fun. Beginning to see any income through YouTube at that point? A little bit, but like not like anything.

It was like play money. And by play money, I mean like maybe the tiniest bit, like nothing. I never had like a brand deal. I never did anything like paid. A couple hundred bucks here and there. A couple hundred bucks here and there, yes, which still felt like awesome to me because it was not my intention to make money from it um and i uh so i i had that job for about a year i got a new job with a um lgbt non-profit doing social media stuff

i'm helping them out with that doing like social media correspondent work and also producing stuff so we produced a lot of like video content and i kind of saw like, oh my God, there's like more production value that I could do because I had always just talked into a camera. I could, I felt like, oh my gosh, there's a whole world out here. And I was traveling to LA for that a lot. And I was like, okay, well, LA is where a lot of YouTubers are. So we would use like YouTubers and and the content and stuff like that. And that was when I started having more of a relationship with the YouTube community in LA and kind of seeing that work out.

And then that job kind of ran its course. And the business was not doing so well. And it was just me and my boss. And so it was a lot of stress between two people. boss and so like it was like a lot of stress between two people um and as far as like paying me it was getting more and more difficult to do because i could tell like it was not going well um and so i was like i was talking to cory about it one day and i was like you know what what if i just like tried youtube because at the time a lot of youtubers were doing it and i had just gone to vidcon um which was probably like my second vidCon or my third VidCon or something by then.

And this is... Or it could have been... I think it was second VidCon. It had to be second. I remember we met before you moved or right after you moved. Okay. I think it was 2012 is when everything changed. It was summer 2012.

I had just gone to VidCon. I had a meeting with um my management company that i now work with my network big frame um and i at the time i had not taken any meetings because i had seen like other youtubers taking meetings going off and like signing and just signing away their youtube lives and i'm like okay well i've been doing this for how long i don't need anybody taking a cut of my hundred dollars every couple months. I don't need anybody's help like setting things up because at the time, like I had done a couple speaking gigs and I had negotiated that myself. So they were telling me like, oh, we can negotiate deals for you. I'm

like, I do all this myself. I don't need anybody's help. And I was glad I took the meeting because I had just reluctantly said no to everything. But I took the meeting and we talked about career possibilities and about possibly doing YouTube full time and possibly doing this or that or like directions that I wanted to go. And I had never really considered like, oh, not only can I do YouTube full-time, but I can use YouTube in my hobby of YouTube to attain even bigger things. Like I never thought like I could do speaking things or I never thought that I could work with brands or I never thought that I could do red carpet things or anything like that like that just never processed in my mind that was something I could do like celebrity stuff like being on a red carpet or you know what I mean like that just seemed so far away and distant from the hobby that was YouTube

for me so talking to them and seeing that like, oh, I could do hosting things, or I could do red carpet things or anything like that. It opened my eyes that like, okay, well, if I want to take a chance, I can. And so at the time when I was hating my job, and it was not really doing well, I decided, I'm gonna just try to do full time YouTube. And so what changed? I mean, how did you do that? Like, what was the transition? Well, at the time, a lot of things were picking up on my channel. In January of that year, I had decided to commit myself to a video every week, whereas before I would do it maybe every couple months. So there was no consistency.

So when I made the announcement and when I told my people, like, it's coming every week, at the time, I was getting probably 30,000 views of video in that January. And then I was making a video every single week, and it was very consistent, and I was being really creative, and I was just really dedicating myself to editing and just being better at editing and filming and everything like that. My views picked up and picked up and picked up and picked up. And I remember it went huge right before VidCon when I made a video about One Direction. And it was the first time I ever mentioned them. It was me just going through tween magazines, looking at One Direction and talking about One Direction. And it went, I guess I always think it went viral, but like numbers wise, it didn't really. Like it got like 300,000 views, which was just out of

control for me. And I had never seen anything like that. And from there, my subscriber amount grew a lot. My views were starting to like pick up and waterfall and like just spill over to like all my old videos and like new videos were getting more and more views. And then in October, you were a Supernote captain. Yeah, wait, yeah, that was 2012, right? Yeah. Holy crap.

Wait, that was forever ago. That's how we met. That's nuts. Through that, yeah. Oh my God. What about the people who I would assume would label you or characterize you as, okay, the gay vlogger, whether they would say it that way or think of it that way, versus the vlogger who happens to be gay.

I mean, how do you feel about that? How does that? You know what weirds me out? People always say like I'm putting on a lisp. I never even thought I had a lisp. But then I complained about this, and all my friends were like, you have a lisp. I, like, didn't even... I don't think I do still.

Still. We'll analyze the tape. Is there a question mark? I don't know. Wait, do you think I have a lisp? I have not. The heck with that one. I mean, I haven't been thinking about that. I think I have an extended S, is what I've't know. Wait, do you think I have a list? I have not. What the heck was that about? I mean, I haven't been thinking about that.

I think I have an extended S is what I've been told is what it is. I mean, if anything, it is the slightest. Like we're talking about a 10% maybe. Okay, well. That 10%. It's so weird because once people know that I'm gay on YouTube, they seem to critique everything that I do around the gay community like oh he's a bad example for the gay community

he thinks he's like the spokesperson for the gays or blah blah blah or he's putting on a list or he's trying to be over effeminate or trying to be a stereotype blah blah blah I'm just being me like it's just very like it's weird for me to see that critique and the weirdest part is it usually comes from the gay community

right well it seems to me that there's And the weirdest part is it usually comes from the gay community. Right. Well, it seems to me that there's a little bit of, you know, it kind of cuts both ways because, you know, being gay is exceptional in one sense

in the fact that you're in the minority, right? And so you're in the minority on YouTube, which is going to bring a certain kind of audience at the same time, a certain set of responsibilities and probably give you a certain kind of audience at the same time, a certain set of responsibilities,

and probably give you a certain kind of opportunity, but then give you these expectations that your fans place on you. So how do you live in that exceptionality? It's frustrating sometimes. Like I said, because all I'm trying to do is just be my best self. I understand that there's a sense of responsibility to be a good representation, but I'm not, I've never claimed to be the voice of the gays on YouTube. I've never claimed to be, you know, anything like that. And I see that thrown around

all the time. Like he thinks he's the voice of all the gays. Like, I'm just like, what are you, like, where is this coming from? Um, so I always think, okay, well, if people are going to have this expectation of me, I can only be my best self and I can only put my best foot forward and I can only be the, you know, the gay that I am. I can't represent everybody and I never claim to be, never claim to or never want to. So in the same light, okay, well, if I have this influence, then I should use it to help give exposure to other facets of the LGBTQ community. So when it comes to sharing up-and-coming YouTubers that are different representations of the community, that's how I reconcile that kind of responsibility.

What's next for Tyler Oakley? What's next? YouTube is always next. I've always said I want to do it until I hate it, and it hasn't even slightly bugged me yet. You know what I mean? So I imagine YouTube will be part of the story for a long, long, long, long time.

Well, listen, man, I really appreciate this. I feel like we've gotten to know you a lot better. I'm sorry I talked your ear off. Well, listen, man, I really appreciate this. I feel like we've gotten to know you a lot better. I'm sorry I talked your ear off. No, this is great. This is by design. You made quite a beautiful biscuit.

Ear biscuit. Thank you. That's what you just made. That's the kindest thing anybody's ever said to me. And there it was, a

convulsation with Tyler Oakley. Yeah, we'll be contacting Flagstar Bank if there are any representatives out there. I don't know if Flagstar is still around, but we're going to see if those security tapes are still available. And we'll be analyzing this podcast to see what kind of lisp Tyler has just for his, you know, just for personal feedback, just to tell him how he's coming across. And we are thankful to Tyler for being so honest and having such a sincere conversation with us. After we were done recording, he said to us that there were some things that he hadn't shared publicly before. And, you know, that's what you get with an ear biscuit, people. You know, this isn't just the same old biscuit.

You know, this isn't, you know, you haven't had this biscuit before. You know, this isn't a frozen thing. This isn't a put in the microwave kind of thing. This is your grandma invited you over, set you down, put in some fresh ingredients. She does it a little bit different every time. The bottom line here is we're your grandmother. We are your grandmother. These two middle-aged men are your grandmother now,

and you just need to accept that. Some grandmothers have facial hair. My grandmother did. Once you reach a certain age, it don't matter. My grandmother had a pretty strong beard. I mean, it was like peach fuzz. But you know, like when you got close to her and you kissed on her cheek or something,

you were like, yep, she's got peach fuzz all over the bottom of her face. Really? And I liked it because it was soft. Did she charge admission when you came over? She was not the bearded lady. It wasn't that kind of thing. You had to get close.

You had to be her grandson. You had to be in a kissing scenario. Thank you for being a loyal listener and ear biscuit partaker. I like to say ear biscoteer, but nobody's really into that yet. Yeah, no one is into it. I mean, I can just feel the vibe.

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