YouTube Star Tyler Oakley Helped Ricky Martin Come Out

2 minute read
By The Hollywood Reporter

Tyler Oakley could hardly contain his excitement about being on Ellen.

The YouTube star with nearly seven million subscribers talked about his meteoric rise as a YouTube celebrity, his visit to the White House, and helping Ricky Martin come out of the closet.

“Back in 2008 I made a video about the importance of being authentic to yourself and about coming out and how you should wait till you’re ready,” Oakley told Ellen Degeneres. “A few years later I got a tweet one morning on National Coming Out Day and it was from Ricky Martin and he said that video was part of the reason he felt ready to share his story. It was like ‘Oh my god. I used to watch TRL and have a crush on him.'”

Oakley also talked about his two-word compliment to Barack Obama in the Oval Office: “Cute desk!”

“People just want to watch people live their authentic lives and share the good and the bad,” Oakley tells Degeneres. “You can have fun and be a positive influence and have a good impact. And it can still be entertaining.” Watch the full clip of Oakley on Ellen below.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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