YouTube Star Joey Graceffa Talks Coming Out

Joey Graceffa, 24, has garnered over 600 million views with his YouTube channels in which he uploads a video every day about his life. On May 16, 2015, he released a music video titled "Don't Wait," in which Graceffa's character falls in love with another man. Two days later, on May 18, Graceffa came out as gay in a YouTube video. Then he released a memoir on May 19 titled In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World where he talks about his road to self-acceptance.

In an interview with GLAAD, Graceffa talks about why he came out through a music video, the responses he received, and how he gathered up the courage to write about his relationship with his mother and coming out.

On writing the difficult parts of the book, Joey said:
"Talking about my history with my mom and her alcoholism was definitely really tough reliving those moments because there was a lot of stuff that I kind of like pushed aside and didn't process. But, also, talking about like my first like dating experiences and getting my heart broken and re-living those moments 'cause I guess I just have this thing of just like pushing things aside in the back of my mind and writing this, I had to go back through it all and re-read it, and re-read it, and re-read it, and I've finally like processed it. And I feel like I learned a lot about myself, and it was very therapeutic so, I'm very happy I did it."

On what he hopes people take away from the memoir:
"I hope in some formal way, it's a relatable story to them. I remember growing up and feeling like my story was so different from everyone else's because there wasn't really anyone openly talking about what was going on in their life. Like, celebrities or people. I mean, there wasn't really a YouTube at the time to hear people talk about their stories, so, yeah, I guess I just want people to not feel so alone."

Watch the video below: