--- title: Colleen Ballinger Makes YouTube Comeback description: Colleen Ballinger returned to YouTube months after allegations of inappropriate behavior canonical: https://time.com/6337683/colleen-ballinger-youtube-comeback-apology-video/ author: Moises Mendez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-20T21:54:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:44.744Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Colleen Ballinger Makes YouTube Comeback og:description: Colleen Ballinger returned to YouTube months after allegations of inappropriate behavior og:url: https://time.com/6337683/colleen-ballinger-youtube-comeback-apology-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfb7039b6ee3373e/698a428ce6e84a1e1c2b0b9b/GettyImages-1052673068.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: 2018 From Paris With Love Children's Hospital Los Angeles Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colleen Ballinger Makes YouTube Comeback twitter:description: Colleen Ballinger returned to YouTube months after allegations of inappropriate behavior twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfb7039b6ee3373e/698a428ce6e84a1e1c2b0b9b/GettyImages-1052673068.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colleen Ballinger Returns to YouTube Months After Viral Ukulele Apology Video > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Parasocial Relationships: How Admiring a Celeb Might Be Healthy [Watch (HLS stream): Parasocial Relationships: How Admiring a Celeb Might Be Healthy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YQnKt3Qu.m3u8) (5:52)  _Published 2023-07-13. There’s a good chance that you—yes, even you—have had a parasocial experience. Ever yell at the football player on your TV who just fumbled the ball, even though you knew he couldn’t hear you? That’s an example of a parasocial interaction, which can progress into a parasocial relationship—typically defined as a one-sided social and emotional connection developed with fictional characters or celebrities._  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Nov 20, 2023 9:54 PM UTC  Collleen Ballinger attends 2018 From Paris With Love Children's Hospital Los Angeles Gala at L.A. Live Event Deck on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Collleen Ballinger attends 2018 From Paris With Love Children's Hospital Los Angeles Gala at L.A. Live Event Deck on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Greg Doherty/WireImage  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Nov 20, 2023 9:54 PM UTC YouTuber [Colleen Ballinger has posted her first new videos](https://time.com/6286635/colleen-ballinger-allegations-controversy/) after being accused in June of having inappropriate conversations with minors online and inappropriate interactions onstage with fans who were minors at the time. Titled “Fall vlog,” it’s Ballinger’s first video since June, when she responded to the controversy via song in a 10-minute video that viewers did not receive well. In the new post, a 13-minute video uploaded to her secondary vlog channel, Ballinger begins by apologizing for being away for so long and calls her previous upload “embarrassing, to say the least.” “I was being accused of some pretty awful things and I was mad,” she says. “I should have handled that situation with maturity and empathy, but instead, I just let my ego take over, and I’m really disappointed in myself.” Ballinger is known for her character Miranda Sings, a parody of an overconfident theater kid who thinks she can sing but can’t. She has three YouTube channels—her main one where she posts videos as herself, about her family and life, with over 8.41 million subscribers; one for Miranda Sings, with over 10.6 million subscribers; and her vlog channel, where she has been posting these new videos, which has accumulated over 3.42 million subscribers. The allegations of inappropriate behavior began in 2020 when a YouTuber named Adam McIntyre made a video about his experience with Ballinger. [In his video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=969KK%5FKj38A), he said he came up with content ideas for her and was not paid. Among other things, he said that she and her best friend, Kory DeSoto, sent him lingerie when he was 13\. She later [apologized to him on Twitter](https://twitter.com/ColleenB123/status/1243614297105653760?s=20) and made a video addressing the situation. In early June 2023, a YouTuber named KodeeRants uploaded a video talking about their experience with Ballinger and it became the catalyst for others to speak up and speak about their interactions with her. They deemed the conversations to be inappropriate. On June 28, Ballinger addressed the controversy in a video with a song as she [played the ukulele](https://time.com/6286635/colleen-ballinger-allegations-controversy/). ### More From TIME In July, Trisha Paytas said the podcast she was hosting with Ballinger was ending after Johnny Silvestri, a fan who spoke with TIME about his experiences, said [Ballinger had sent him photos and videos from Paytas’ OnlyFans page](https://twitter.com/g3minij0hn/status/1675732535643623426) and had “viewing parties” of her content—which is meant only to be accessed by subscribers who are 18 or older. “I’m embarrassed for the fans that she messaged those to,” Paytas said [in a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=IocztEXv8s9H2m28&v=vj3D%5FXRowC8&feature=youtu.be) posted on July 3, adding that she was done speaking about the situation. “That should never have happened. And, again, this really hurts sex workers as a whole — this is out there and it looks like we’re some deviants because this is used in this way.” In the first new video, posted Nov. 18, Ballinger said, “Over the last 15 years of my career, there have been moments where I was immature and inappropriate with some of my comedy. There were times when I did not put enough thought into some of my fan interactions, and because of that behavior, people got hurt.” Ballinger said she feels “terrible” for hurting people, and that it was never her intention. She ended the formal apology portion of the video by saying that she took time away to focus on herself and her family. Moving forward, she said, she plans to be more mindful about the space she creates for her fans online and wants to serve as an example of someone who can grow and learn from their mistakes. Ballinger then gave an update on what she’s been up to since June, saying she spent most of that time in therapy. The remainder of the video is a more traditional vlog, featuring Ballinger doing things around the house, talking about her chicken coop, and talking to her fans. And on Sunday, Ballinger followed up with a second vlog post titled “What I’ve Been Up To.” The overwhelming reaction was positive, with many responses in the comments section saying, “So glad you’re back!” and “We missed you!” But a growing number of critics are speaking out on the video, both in and outside of the comments section. In a video reacting to Ballinger’s post, McIntyre called it a “slap in the face,” saying it was just a tactical move on Ballinger’s part because if she did not post a new video within six months of her last one, her channel would be demonetized. [According to YouTube’s monetization guidelines](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9235997?hl=en#:~:text=However,%20YouTube%20does%20reserve%20the,for%206%20months%20or%20more.), the platform reserves the right to demonetize a channel if it is inactive for six months or more. ## Transcript Really my whole career has been a series of case studies, the fans and some Bruce, Springsteen Madonna Prince Paul McCartney. After you've done your 15th case study you start to say well you know the case studies is a generalizable but well. Okay there's some commonalities here. Parasocial is defined as non reciprocated. I know you, you don't know me back, a pair of social, interaction is what happens while you're consuming media, think of yourself at home, watching a sporting event and the guy just dropped the ball, and you're sitting there yelling at him, for being an idiot for dropping the ball. That's a social interaction. That's watching Stephen Colbert, and he's talking to me and I'm talking back. I know he can't hear me, but I feel like, because he's talking to the audience somehow I should respond. Now, the pair of social interactions during media consumption, if I walk away from the media and I'm still thinking about the person I'm talking about what I would have done. If I'd been that character in that movie or maybe I'm thinking about what I would have said that person that would have been better than what they said. Her social attachment is when I derive Comfort from that person most often through their work. They interviewed once Josh Groban fan who had stage 4 cancer, and she said, I don't go to my chemotherapy without my iPod with my Josh Groban. Music, it makes me feel better being in the time were born or sort of metaphorically, hardwired to be attracted to the familiar faces and voices of other people. And if you look particularly what happens in digital media, and internet media, there's a Tennessee when you find someone whose work you like to sort of do this immersion in their work, so that you're looking at them, their face during their voice over and over and over and over. And when you think about that much exposure to the station voice of a person, This is what is the foundation for what we call attachment? Back in the 1980s, when they began to study this, the two main kinds of parasocial relationships and so poppers and intended to be a middle-aged to elderly population. Were forming those attachments. And what the research has shown, is that one of the things of her social relationship can do is to mitigate loneliness. So that person who's may be socially isolated because they're elderly and their family, never meet visits them have formed a social Shoes that are meaningful and it helps them feel less isolated. And then if they have access to the internet, then they can do all these other things we've already talked about, which is not only reach out to the celebrity, but more commonly, reach out to other fans. Besides the lack of reciprocity, I know them, they don't know any back, there's usually a difference in status. So they're at a higher status than you are. And you heard of the pair of social thing can be that you aspire to that their state is the convention. She was the first woman in space and she got on stage with Michelle Nichols from Star Trek. The Original Series and said, I saw the shell Nichols is Lieutenant Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise. And I thought I could be there in space. There, I am. I represent it. I met so many young people during the Michael Jackson study, who told me that they realized, they could become an Entertainer. After they saw the Jackson 5 on Ed Sullivan, I had fans that interview. Where is the business who were in Hollywood working and entertainment? Who said this is where I realized I could do that. I had these models of these five young men who are doing it very well and it was meaningful to me because they look like me. Listen to development and lessons in general. 10 to number one become focused and intense about things and also did not always show the best judgment. The upside of that is that if they're developmentally not ready for a real relationship, there in a social relationships, have sex with them or whatever, there's no danger that if you're a teenager and you know that I have a crush on this person and it's not going to get complicated. I actually followed some Michael Jackson Bad Tour 1988 and I saw them again twenty years later and every one of these people have gone on to have a positive normal life and they were among the people that were Maybe they were following him around, maybe they were really, really into him but that it's for the temperature, warm feeling they had about, I haven't been a fan and what those experiences represented. So I do think that that, you know, there is the potential if kids get, you know, in over their heads. 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