Colleen Ballinger, the content creator and YouTube personality behind the popular Miranda Sings persona, is in hot water after allegations surfaced that she sent lingerie to an underage male fan.
According to Business Insider, 17-year-old vlogger Adam McIntyre claims that 33-year-old Ballinger sent him lingerie a few years ago in the mail (he was 13 and she was 29 at the time). The lingerie that Ballinger sent to McIntyre was worn by her best friend and fellow YouTuber Kory DeSoto during a live stream event, Insider also reports. (Ballinger has appeared in many videos with DeSoto, including a popular 2017 video where they discussed coming out.) Ballinger claims McIntyre asked for the lingerie on Twitter, but McIntyre did not say he asked for it.
McIntyre also alleges that he has been ghostwriting jokes, tweets, and similar content for her, though his work has gone unpaid.
Ballinger took to her own YouTube account to address the situation.
"In my mind at the time, this was no different than the other stuff I send to my fans as a joke," she says. "Now in hindsight, I realize how completely stupid of me...I should have realized and recognized how dumb that was and never sent it to him, But it was never a creepy, gross thing that I was doing in secret. It was a silly, stupid mistake, that now is being blown way out of proportion."
This isn't the first time this year Ballinger has found herself in the middle of controversy. Though Ballinger herself is presumably straight, back in March, she teased a "coming out" for the Miranda Sings character that ended up just being a big, fake joke. Rightfully, many of her LGBTQ+ fans were not too happy about the stunt.
