Reply All - #125 All My Pets

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

Taylor Nicole Dean was a self-described shut-in, a teenager who lived in her parent's home, surrounded by exotic pets. And then she started making videos on YouTube. Taylor's Youtube Channel Vote for your favorite reply all episodes - we'll run the winners in August! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Gimlet, this is Replyal. I'm Shrithy Pinnaminani. So basically what we're going to do today is I'm going to show you all of my animals. People just seem to be really confused about the number of animals I have. I get told... Maybe you've never heard of the masterpiece that is all my pets in one video. That's fine. A year ago, I hadn't either.

It was this random enchanting YouTube video that I had just stumbled across and could not stop watching. So a quick little spin around of my room. It's here and just goes around. You see this girl in what is any slightly messy teenage bedroom, but every inch of space is just filled with animal cages and fish tanks. So here we have asteroid. Pac-Man frogs literally do nothing, but I still love him. And he is a baby.

He is going to get about the size of a dinner plate one day. That's him. She's walking around, opening all her enclosures, which turn out to hold these, like, strange and deletions. delightful animals. There's crocodile skinks, hedgehogs, crested geckos. Echoes on the chunkier side. He has some rolls. Now, they're kept in different enclosures because males don't get along. I'm not an animal person. But last year, whenever I was stressed out, I would just come back to this video and watch it. It just makes me laugh.

This is Mushu. She's my axolotl. Nats exootl poop. That's so nice. Poop for the video. The most hypnotic part of this whole thing is the girl at the center, Taylor Nicole Dean. First off, she's beautiful. She has, like, hair that's always a different color, you know, silver when it's not shocking pink. And she's always in this bedroom, like bathed in the blue light of her aquariums. Sometimes watching it, I'd start to feel like she herself was another one of these strange, fragile creatures. Like, this bedroom is actually a little terrarium made for her. Hello.

Hi, Taylor. Hey. Hey. This is Shrithee. Almost exactly a year ago, I decided to call Taylor. So I'm sort of picturing where you're at based on your videos. Do you want to tell me, are you, like, sitting in a bedroom surrounded by Pokemon-like creatures? Yes.

I'm sitting on my bed right now. It's pretty much my only furniture that's really my own in my bedroom. Everything else has just been taken over by my animals. Taylor has lived her entire life in San Antonio, Texas. Her dad works in insurance and her mom stays at home to take care of her brother who has some health issues. And talking to her, she told me, like, that Rapunzel vibe I'd gotten from watching her videos, just like the trapped in your room kind of thing, she told me, like, that's actually kind of my life. In real life, it's been very, I don't know the right word for it. I'm very shut in in real life because

I live with my family. I don't really know people in this town, even though I've been here all my life. Because growing up, I actually had a lot of medical problems and this all ties in, I promise. Oh no, I'm sorry. What was that? I had, well, I still have it. It doesn't go away, but it was undiagnosed at the time. So no one really knew what to do. I would fall all the time, hurt myself. I just, I couldn't get to school. I was always sick to my stomach, migraines, so dizzy that I couldn't stand up, in and out of the hospital all the time, because we never knew it was wrong. Doctors eventually diagnosed Taylor with this thing called Ellers-Danlo syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. But before that, the family had no idea

what was going on. She was always covered in bruises. She would sprain her ankle just walking around her house. This one time she cracked her clavicle rolling over in her bed. So in the fifth grade, they took her out of school and she joined a homebound program. I got really depressed when I was younger and just because I was like in jail basically in my own home. I was too sick to go anywhere. But I guess maybe that's also why animals became such a big thing to me is because I didn't, I wasn't the most social person with people because I was very, I was very, I was very, disconnected from everyone my age because I wasn't at school. I wasn't like anything like that. So it was very easy for me to get, you know, get attached to these animals because they, they live in

my home and I take care of them every day. And it was kind of like a friendship almost. At the time I spoke to Taylor, she was 20 years old. She lived with her parents. And she spent all her time either on social media or taking care of her expensive animals. And she said that for years, her parents had been really worried about what exactly she was going to do with her life. But she also said that right at this moment when I called her, everything had started to change. She had just hit 500,000 subscribers, which meant that she'd been elevated to this different level in the YouTube hierarchy. People started calling her, asking if they could manage her. And she actually ended up signing with this one manager in L.A. She flew to L.A. for the first time,

and he took her to this party. The entire party was all YouTubers. And, and, It was the first party I think I've ever been to. And, I mean... No. Yeah, at 20 years old, and I went to my first party. And it was crazy. The party was a bunch of other YouTubers jammed into one room and Taylor, who told me that she's deeply, socially anxious and completely froze up,

did not know how to chit-chat. I'm still learning how to, like, communicate with people, like, in person. I guess. I don't know. I'm so used to online stuff. Is the difference, like, when you're making a video, it's an internal monologue almost? Yes. And out there, it's like people just, they're saying whatever they want. Yeah, yeah. And it's all happening so fast and there's no editing. Like, I have to, like, there's body language to take into account and just there's all these other aspects that I don't have to deal with and I'm just talking to myself. Taylor seemed to be on the verge of weirdly some kind of stardom. And I was very curious about what it would look like for a 20-year-old self-described shut-in

to suddenly become famous for the videos that she made of her pets on YouTube. Like what does that kind of fame even look like and how would Taylor handle it? So if you don't mind, I'll just check in maybe in a week or two. And we'll just take it from there. Okay. Sounds good. So fun talking to you. Thank you. Yes, awesome talking to you too. Actually, it would be many months before I would talk to Taylor again. Because YouTube fame crashed into her like a tidal wave.

Right after this conversation, her audience numbers just went through the roof. And this whole new genre on YouTube, PetTube, grew rapidly around her. And with it, of course, came all these competitors like Amzotic. Hey guys, it's Em. Today I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite invertebrates, the Madagascan pissing cockroach. She's like Taylor, but British and really into cockroaches. Then there's Tyler Ruggie. Hey, what's up you guys? I'm going to show you guys all of my pets. He's like Taylor, if she were a cute boy with this helmet of hair sprayed hair. Today I am going to be showing you all of my pets, as you can tell by the title.

And those are just the big name competitors. Behind them are hundreds of a aspiring pet tube stars, all trying to just grab some of those subscribers. Now we're going to get onto my pet rats. He's my black pedigreed hall and lop rabbit. And this whole thing turns into an arms race. Because think about it. Every week, all of these kids have to make a new video with a new, weird-looking pet. She's a little hedgehog.

Her name is Momo. It's almost like how many pets can you fit into one bedroom. I went there looking for two snakes, and instead I came home with two daughters. and two cockroaches. And Taylor, she's always the one at the lead of this race, the person with the most followers and the most pets. One year ago, I wasn't even allowed to have snakes. But times have changed and now I own six.

I bought a $2,200 ball python. Oh, hey friend, what did you do for your weekend? Oh my god, I had so much fun. You know, you know, Beth, I went out with her and we went to six parties and we just got so wrong. It was the best weekend ever. What did you do for your weekend, Taylor? I got, I got five new pets. But then some of Taylor's viewers are starting to say, wait a minute. This whole pet thing is getting way out of control. And these people start making their own videos about Taylor. Taylor Nicole Dean, let's talk about her. If you didn't know, Taylor

Nicole Dean has a habit of acquiring animals a very, very, very quickly at an alarming rate. They're saying she's pet hoarding. She has no idea what she's doing. I talk to this one person. I'm going to call Sunny. I'm a freshwater tank enthusiast. So I know more about freshwater fish and saltwater fish. And I can tell you as someone who like keeps aquariums, like that is my top concern. Sunny is a member of this online forum called guru gossip, which is all about YouTube celebrities. And Sunny says that she used to be the world's biggest Taylor fan. But her eyes were opened when she first went on guru gossip and saw tens of thousands of posts, all dedicated to Taylor and the finer points of pet care.

Can you give me a specific example of a care thing that you were like, oh, shit, I didn't realize that that was an issue? She gets criticized a lot for, like, you know, two small enclosures and something specific regarding pain. She gets criticized a lot for putting incompatible species of fish together. According to Sunny, the thing that we should all really be asking ourselves is, is Taylor Nicole Dean really fit to be a pet mom? She says that, like, you know, she can't, like, get out of bed or do anything. But then it's like, how are you able to take care of all these animals? Like, aren't you stretching yourself thin if that's the case? But then you keep on getting more animals.

Like, you can't have it both ways where you're, like, the perfect pet mom. But there are days where you're, like, suffering so bad and you're in so much pain that you can't get out of bed. You know what I mean? Like, there's some neglect going on there or, you know, you're not doing that bad. You know what I mean? For a long time, the posts on guru gossip are relatively tame. It's a lot of stuff about, like, the illegal turtle seller she bought those turtles from or whether she should actually be touching those Pac-Man frogs with her hands.

But then, in November, this thing happens that convinces all the guru gossipers that Taylor Nicole Dean has to be stopped. she gets a boyfriend. At the time, like, I didn't know who Johnny Craig was. I was just like, oh, this dude's like kind of weird. Why is he latching on to this young girl? The boyfriend, Johnny Craig, is this 32-year-old rock star. And there are some legitimately concerning things about him.

Like, previous partners have accused him of assault. He struggled with heroin addiction. He denies accusations, and he says that he's been clean. But the thing that guru gossip is mostly preoccupied with is that Johnny does not seem good for Taylor's pets. Hey guys, what's up? So today's video... Every single video Taylor releases after this

is turned over again and again for evidence that something dark is going on, like the gecko incident. There was a live stream of her and Johnny smoking marijuana. That's another guru gosper. And her gecko enclosure was

in the background. And what does that mean that it was in the background? Just that they were in the same room. poor ventilation for a very fragile animal. Or the kitten incident. Ugh, that was a mess. She found two kittens abandoned. And rather than turning them over to a shelter,

she decided to take them in herself. So I was like, you know what, this is meant to be. I'm going to take these two newborn kittens, and I'm going to raise them and love them. So this one's the boy. They don't have names yet or anything. Soon after, one of the kittens dies, and grew gossip,

Grue gossip is just a flame. They are sure that either Johnny drowned the kitten or Taylor didn't know how to take care of it. And you see Taylor on Twitter trying to defend herself. And she just looks like this girl who has never been to high school suddenly in high school on steroids. But it's unclear to me like how much of it is actually affecting her. It has been six months since I first spoke to her. And she's been just impossible to get on the phone. Every time we're supposed to talk, she just doesn't show up. But then in November, this thing happens. She gets into a public fight with her parents. It's over her boyfriend, Johnny. She moves out of their house and into a place of her own with Johnny and all her pets. It's this messy personal story. And Taylor started to retreat. She's just posting fewer and fewer videos.

Hey, what's up, guys? I know it's been a little bit yet again since I've made a video. But I, moving is hard. I don't even know if I remember how to talk in front of a camera. On top of all my things, my personal things I've been juggling, I just haven't been too proud of my work. So I've been in a, like a writer's block. I don't know what the YouTube version of that is.

A filmer's block. But if it looks like Taylor herself isn't in great shape, her YouTube career is skyrocketing. She blows past a million subscribers. She starts attracting six-figure advertisers. And then in March, she gets the invitation. It's to Playless Live, this huge YouTube event, which is like the equivalent of Taylor getting an invite to Woodstock or Coachella. It's going to be her first big public appearance ever.

I decided to go. End of April, I fly to Orlando, and I arrive a day before the conference is set to begin. It's at this bland Marriott right by Disney World. And when I get there, I meet Taylor just for a minute. She just arrived from Texas, was wearing, like, comfy airplane clothes. Her hair was candy pink. She said she'd just come to grab her pass for the conference. What's the meat and greet?

Me and greet, we stand there for three hours. She's a little nervous to meet her fans, but also excited. We make a concrete plan. And the panel is at 11, so half an hour before we get there at like 10.30. We say we're going to meet up just before her first event, this Pet Tube panel. And after that, she's going to do this big meetup with hundreds of her fans. And I thought, okay, cool, I'll follow her around the whole day. So the next morning, first day of Playless Live, I take the elevator down to the lobby.

The first surprise, the thing I am not prepared for it, is that there are a billion fans, all kids, and they're all vlogging their entire experience of Playless Live. All right, guys, so we just got to Playlist Live. Hi. Carol just got coffee. We're going to be on YouTube.

You're going to be on YouTube. You're going to be on YouTube. I love you. I feel like this vlog is such a mess because we're everywhere, we're walking so many places. Oh my goodness. Who is that? It's 10 o'clock in the morning, and I cannot find a single quiet spot

to stand, which hasn't been co-opted into some kind of stage where a person will drum up viewers for their amateur YouTube channels. This is my look for today. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They're so cute! I've always wanted to be in your blog. This is so excited.

And every 20 minutes or so, some actual star would show up, like a YouTube creator. And they would do this thing that real celebrities never do. They would wade into the crowd and chit-chat with their fans, like just hang out with them. with them. It becomes clear relatively quickly that this is actually the point of this whole place, of Playless Live. These creators aren't Hollywood actors or singers. The way they actually earn their fans is by just being incredibly available to them. It's like the extrovert Olympics. And in all of this, Taylor is nowhere to be seen. Instead, I meet one of her fans, this 15-year-old girl named Margaret, who is explaining to me why she's flown all the way from New York just to meet Taylor

Nicole Dean. She has, like, these pain issues and, like, other stuff. I know she actually, like, was homeschooled at one point in her life for it. And I totally relate because I'm to school out, because I have chronic migraines. I have vertigo. And, um, I just, so shy. I just watch Jesse Page walk by, sorry. I got, Jessie. I just wanted to say hi. Who's that? Jesse Page. Who is that? She's another YouTuber. I just wanted to say hi. I met her at a different event.

What does she do? It's like comedy, I guess, in a sense. But like, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. Everyone has their own thing. Yeah, but sorry, you were saying like, oh my god, oh my god. That's, sorry, I just freaked out. Who is it?

Scottie Sire. Scottie. Who is that? He's part of the vlog squad with David Dobrick. He's a really big YouTuber. He has a panel later that he's actually singing one of his songs. I keep getting sidetracked. There's so many people here.

I can't tell if you're having five. or if you're in pain? Both? Because it's like, I'll see them and I'll be like, that's not them, wait. I'm totally not seeing the correct person, wait, what? And then I'm like, wait, I need to go, oh my God, what? And it's kind of like you don't know how to react initially

because, like, you're you, and then they're like these famous people that everyone's here to see. For celebrities. Yeah, in a sense. Not like celebrities, like movie stars and everything, but like to us. I've never actually been to a place like this where teenage girls are completely free to freak out about their idols. without any restrictions.

No bodyguards, no guardrails. Tadier came downstairs in the lobby yesterday to leave because they have their own lives. They have other things that they need to do. I think it took him a good eight to ten minutes to get out of that lobby because it started a whole mob around him. And I was part of it.

I was in it. And I was actually like right behind him. But like he's trying to get through to go somewhere, but so many people just swarm. And what did they want to do? I mean, he probably wanted to go get food, honestly. Yeah, but what did the people? What did the swarm on?

We all wanted to hug him. We all wanted to say hi. and be like, oh my God, we want to have a conversation with you. You're famous. Someone's calling me. My mom is calling me. Right. Yes?

It's 11 a.m. And the Pet 2 panel, that first event that Taylor is in, it's about to start. So I head over there. It's in the crystal ballroom. Hi. Is ballroom? A big room with hotel carpeting and colored strobe lights. It's basically a conference hall meets shitty club.

And there's a guy up on stage. That's the moderator. You'd be surprised, how many people, And right people love horses. How many people love smelling horses? So I'm talking right there, dude. And right next to him, I see Tyler Ruggy

with lots of hairspray. And next to him, I'm Zodic. And other people love cockroaches and snails too. And there's no shame in loving cockroaches and snails, let me tell you. And right at the very end is an empty seat.

Taylor isn't there. Welcome back to the show. So Taylor never shows up for a pet two panel. It goes on for one hour. People talking about cockroaches or horses and whatever. Afterwards, I asked the pat-tubers if they have any clue where she is, and they say no. I do see someone in the crowd, though, who might have an idea what's going on, Taylor's mom and her brother, Tanner. I go up to them. Nice to meet you, Tanner. Hey. Tanner is in a wheelchair, his mom is pushing him,

and both of them are wearing Taylor Nicole Dean T-T-shirts. Should I try? try calling her? I mean, I texted her. Her phone's turned out. Yeah, I have to call. Jennifer has no idea where Taylor is either. But at this point, she's not worried. She says she probably just overslept, which is fine. She's going to make it for her next event, the 2 p.m. meet and greet, that's the important one. We go get lunch, and while we're eating, she tells me that this trip is actually really important for her. She and Taylor have been in this fight the past few months over the boyfriend, Johnny Craig, and she has barely seen Taylor,

and so playlist is a chance for them to reconnect. She says even before the two of them started dating, Taylor had long been obsessed with Johnny. Like, his CD was the first one she ever bought when she was 12 years old. And so it was this very big deal when he started this, like, flirtation with her on Twitter. Was she excited when he wrote back to her

and they were, like, into each other? Yeah, I never saw her again. The moment it started happening, and she was gone. Like this, like this fast. Like, Taylor, Taylor. And like, just what's going on. I could not figure out as like, hello, hello. Like she didn't even know the world was around her from that moment on.

She said that when Taylor first moved out and wasn't returning her phone calls, she used to actually go to Johnny Craig's concerts just to get a glimpse of her daughter. Like she would stand in the crowd like a groupie and just watch her. We just sat there for a while waiting to see if Taylor would call or return our text messages. No word. It's almost 2 p.m. and we head to Taylor's next event. This is the meet and greet where a select group of YouTube celebrities are going to just meet their fans. We arrive at the entrance of the meetup room.

There's this bouncer type guy standing in front of these huge tall doors. And I can already hear the screams coming from inside, in waves. It's as if we're standing outside Space Mountain. Who is that? Oh, my God. Who is that that they're freaking out about? I don't know who they're freaking out about. No, I have to be Taylor.

No, that's not Taylor. They don't freak out about her like that. People are just nice. We go inside and I'm in this stadium-sized space. There's a bunch of tables set up at the front, just side by side for the creators. They're going to stand there. And in front of each one, there's an infinite row of chairs for the fans. And each section is roped off.

Basically, you sit in your chair and you wait your turn to go up and have a moment with your creator. I asked one of the fans who's waiting in the PetTube section about why she's here, like why she chose to be in Taylor's meetup. She is probably the most interesting in this whole group. and like all the meetups that you could get for Saturday. Why? I don't know. She's...

Who is that? He's another... I think he's a Instagram influencer, social media influencer. The creators start arriving one by one. And the pet tube section that we're in, it's the last one. And you can see people here just freaking in anticipation. God, people are freaking. Like they're getting up out of their chairs, craning their necks,

and just like waiting to see when the pet tubers are. going to arrive. And when they start to walk in, it's in reverse order of how many YouTube subscribers they have. So first comes Tyler Ruggy, then I'm Zotic, no Taylor. No Taylor. No Taylor. No Taylor. I'm going to be like... That's her mom. I can't even believe it. She bailed out on this. That's sad. At first, her mom is just bummed that Taylor is letting down all these fans. But then, this woman from Playless Live, she rushes over to us and she says, like, we've been trying to reach her daughter all day.

Is she okay? Yeah, I know. What hotel is she in? This one. Unless she left. Maybe somebody should go and have one of the staff going. Suddenly the whole mood of the place shifts. Some of the younger fans start crying.

And Jennifer's mom just starts to talk to a string of security people. And now that she didn't show up to the morning thing. And now this one. and nobody can contact her. We're getting a little worried. And I've been texting her and calling her all day, and she won't answer. I'm sure she's okay. I mean, honestly.

Well, at this point, I'm not sure. I want a feeling just to let you know that's one of the reasons I wanted to come was that something might happen, and then at least I could be here. Why? I don't know. Intuition? We walk up to Amzotic, who's, like, meeting and greeting all these fans. I know that she and Taylor hung out last night.

So I asked her if anything unusual happened. So last night, we were all in my room. It was very chilled. We went out down to the bar. They were all closed. I think she left at about 1.1.130 in an Uber. Tyler has all the details of the Uber. And I don't know after that what happened.

I know that she messaged either Tyler or Maddie this morning to say that she was feeling sick. I heard the word vomit, but I don't know for sure. At this point, we basically know two things. Taylor is not staying at this hotel. She's staying at some house with her boyfriend, Johnny. And we know nobody has been able to reach her all day. The local SWAT team shows up, and they surround Taylor's mom, and they're asking her all these questions.

Does she have a car, a rental car, a personal car? No. Is her phone ring or is it going straight to voicemail? The questions quickly turned to Taylor's boyfriend. He met her October 21st online, and a week later, moved in with her and has kept her away from all of us ever since. And he's... The hotel security, they just pulled up her Twitter that had the picture on it,

so they're going to be around and pass the picture around to the rest of the hotel security as well. They tell Taylor's mom, look, if we find her, we'll call you. She's exhausted. She and Tanner leave the Marriott, which leaves me alone in the halls of the hotel where I keep getting stopped by teenage Taylor fans who I had interviewed earlier in the and they all look really worried. They asked me if I know anything. They are hearing these rumors that Johnny maybe got Taylor High on heroin, maybe she OD'd.

I don't know what to tell them. I, at this point, just want to find a quiet place. I step outside into the pool area and just close my eyes for a second. Music starts to play. I open my eyes to see the most obnoxious spectacle I've seen at Playlist Live. there's this guy in a pink speedo named Spandie Andy dancing around holding a boombox while his friend rubs donuts on him.

There's a cameraman, of course, filming the whole thing. I think about how somewhere inside the hotel the SWAT team is probably going door to door with a picture of Taylor. It's 5 p.m. I head back to my hotel room. And the moment I walk in, I get a text from Taylor's mom. Open Twitter now. Taylor has posted a tweet.

She's safe and she's essentially pleading for her fans to forgive her. She says, accidentally ate gluten. She goes on. I let so many people down today and I don't even know how to begin to make up for it. If you're at playlist and came to the meetup I was supposed to be at, I want to meet with you all in a few hours. if you want to give me another chance. She tells her fans,

meet me at the hotel driveway 8 p.m. Hmm. Where are the Taylor fans? I feel like I'm losing my mind. Oh, hi. Hey. Are you guys waiting for Taylor? Yeah, she should be pulling up in a minute.

And I just want to see her because, like, I'm going to die. I just want to see her. You're going to die? Okay. She says, I'm on the way to the hotel now. I'm really, or wait, no. That was a few minutes. And suddenly, they see her.

Oh, go, look there. Wait, what? Wait, I don't see her. Do you see her? Taylor walks into the driveway. She's wearing this see-through black romper printed with red roses. And the girls just start fanning themselves with their bare hands. She is talking fast, seems nervous and freaked out.

I hear fans telling Taylor, I thought you were dead. And she says, oh, fun. Oh, fun. Yeah. I'm not dead. I hear fan after fan using their, like, one minute with Taylor to tell her how much like her they are, like how they too love animals, how they too have issues with anxiety. And then one fan that I'd seen earlier, she gets to the front of the line, talks to Taylor, takes a photo,

and then I see her walk away. Oh, well, you have to tell me how it went. Are you okay? No. You're crying? No. You're crying a little. I mean, my eyes are watering because I'm so like...

They're cool tears. Oh, God. I don't... We're okay. We're good. You're good? All right. Was it everything you wanted it to be?

Yes. Taylor's still dealing with a long line of fans. And after what feels like several hours, I go up and say hello. She seems kind of blank. Like, her eyes are just glazed over. Her mom comes up and asks if she's doing okay. Are you feeling okay right now? No?

I'm not going to do it. I'll let's just again. I need to get some water. Should I get you some water? Yeah, I would love the water. Yeah, use it in here. I'll get it for you. I get back, and Taylor says she's still not feeling great.

She needs to find a bathroom. And so we go inside the hotel. There's just hordes of people watching some other YouTuber. Taylor looks like she's about to have a panic attack. And so I tell her, you know what? Let's just go to the bathroom in my room. It's on the 21st floor. Let's just take the elevator up.

Here you go. Here, take this. I pointed her to the bathroom. I'm just going to, yeah. She's in there for an extremely long time. And when she comes out, I think this is actually the only time I'm going to be alone with her. She looks completely drained, though. So I tell her, listen, I know we talked about doing an interview, but how about we just sit on the couch for a sec, take a breather.

This place is very crazy. I think it's a very, like. Let me see if I had the video when I first walked into the, um, when I, it's like a plastic video, just when I first walked into the hotel, the lobby yesterday when I just had gotten here, it was like, this was what the lobby looked like. And, and I was just like, how is people, like, you could see, what was happening there? You could see them all jumping up and down. He was, uh, it was a YouTuber that was just walking through this. But he was just walking

Toddy. His name's Toddy Smith. He just walked through the lobby and that's the people just mass hysteria. He didn't even, he didn't announce that he was walking through it. Like he didn't tweet it or post it or anything. And that many people still happened to be in the lobby that recognized them.

And he was just trying to get through the lobby. People were pulling at them and jumping on them. Once upon a time, Taylor was a lonely, teenager trapped in her bedroom in her parents' house. And she started making videos. And these videos got her so much. Money, a boyfriend, adoring fans. And now the two of us were in this Marriott hotel room.

And I felt like I was watching her realize the full terms of the bargain she'd made. Do you like any time, like, at this point to just kind of like be in equilibrium? Like, kind of, is it when you're home? somewhat, but not really, because at home I don't have a lot of time to just chill. First of all, I live with my boyfriend, so I don't have much alone time ever because we're in an apartment together. So he tours, he does music, but when he's not touring, he doesn't leave the house unless, like, we're both going somewhere. So I don't ever have time just to, like, sit by myself other than, like, when I take a bath or something. Like, we sleep in the same bed.

He's always around constantly. And then I have all my animals that I'm constantly having to think about and feed and take care of and clean everything. And so... Your mom is texting. Oh, okay. Oh, I just saw. Oh, shit. Tell her there's a big fan out here waiting.

That boy who's waiting in the first row of the app. Okay, one second. Lobby in front of registration. Okay, I guess we've got to go down. Back to the madness. After this, I was going to... I'm supposed to go back to my boyfriend's where we're staying, and he just texting that he's at the bar. I'm like, really?

Like, him, everyone in the house left, so now I can't get into the apartment. Yeah, your mom's asking if you're sick, and I just said I think she just needs a minute. Yeah. So buy yourself a minute, man. Yeah, that's a woman. One minute with no talking. Can you hear of her? Yes.

Okay, coming. Hi. Hi. Hi. My name's David. David. Thank you so much. coming back out. I'm so sorry about it.

It's okay. Not I understand. It was so bad. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's so amazing to meet you. Thank you. After a couple minutes, they leave, and at this point, I tell Taylor, you can just stay here and just take whatever time you need.

She sits down on the couch and stares at the wall. I sit on my bed and awkwardly read a magazine story. She continues staring at the wall for the next 45 minutes. And finally, she gets up. Johnny's texted. He says, come to the bar, pick me up. We say goodbye, and she leaves. Shruthy Pinnaminani is a producer for our show.

By All is hosted by PJ Vote and me, Alex Goldman. Our show is produced by Shruthy Pinnabin, Fianna, Damiano Marquetti, and Anna Fully. Our intern is Jessica Young. editors are Tim Howard and Sarah Saracen. Very quickly, we need your help with something. We are not going to be producing new episodes in August. Instead, we are going to be running some of our favorite episodes of the show. Actually, we're going to be running some of your favorite episodes of the show.

And we need your help picking those favorites, figuring out which episodes we should play. So, if you want to help us, go to replyall.limo slash August, and take our one question poll and tell us your favorite reply-all episode. Thanks. We were mixed by Rick Kwan and Bobby Lord. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. This week, Shruthy wanted to thank Devin Gwynn, our former intern who did a ton of work on this story. Also thank you to Stephanie Shee and the many pet tubers who talk to her, all the critics and all the Taylor Nicolene fans. Particularly Tony Ann Janachorus.

She has a YouTube channel called It's Tony Ann. David Hernandez, who has a YouTube channel called David HZ official. and Tanner Dean, Taylor's brother, who has a channel called Everyday Dean, his mom strongly recommends it, and says that you should start with a video called Caveability. This boy is amazing.

Our theme song is by the Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Matt Lieber is driving with the Windows Down and the Music Hub. You can find more episodes of the show on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you soon. I still have the slow motion chip. You need to put it back in me, but only for a second.

Not even a second. Pull it out the moment it's in. Time will stretch out for me and I'll be able to hit the switch at the exact moment the box lights up. Wherever we land, that's the planet that's making this box flip out. So let's check it out. Here, trade me seats.