Beauty influencer James Charles has completed his monthlong social media cleanse and now, free of toxic discourse, has returned to YouTube. His heart and his pores are open.
In his inaugural post–Tati Westbrook feud video, posted on Tuesday, Charles adopts a definitively positive attitude and jumps back into a rainbow makeup tutorial. But first, some mental health tea. “It feels so weird to be sitting here in the studio,” Charles says. “I basically just took a much-needed monthlong break from filming YouTube videos and also from social media. I’ve been posting here and there, easing my way back into everything, but it’s been a very, very crazy month.” This is currently the No. 1 trending video on YouTube.
If you don’t know why Charles left social media in the first place or tried to block it out, the gist of it is that his former mentor and fellow beauty influencer Tati Westbrook started public beef with him after he partnered with a supplement company in direct competition with her own. And friends don’t let friends be slightly opaque about interpersonal business without the whole world knowing about it. Hence, Charles was “canceled” in epic fashion, only to be sort of redeemed in a series of videos from him and Westbrook that took on the function of a daily soap.
But now the waters have calmed and Charles, having turned 20, is in a better place with his social media obsession, per Tuesday’s video:
It was so much fun, but it got to a point where it was incredibly toxic for me and my mental health and after everything that just went on on social media, I needed some time to detox and slow it down. Of course, still do what I absolutely love, which is handling business, playing with makeup, and seeing my friends, but just do it on a little bit of a lower scale … I’m really excited to say that after the last month, I’ve done a lot of growing and thinking and am now able to leave my phone in another room and walk out and, like, enjoy life.
Like, enjoy life.
