YouTuber Colleen Ballinger Apologizes After ‘Culturally Insensitive’ Video Resurfaces

YouTube star Colleen Ballinger is apologizing for a recently resurfaced video from her past which she acknowledges was “completely based in racial stereotypes.” The Miranda Sings personality was called out for racism after a 14-year-old video reemerged in which she and her sister impersonated Latinx women. Tuesday, she shared an apologetic video titled “addressing everything.”

“It is not funny, and it is completely hurtful,” she said in the video. “I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I ever thought this was okay. I was a sheltered teenager who was stupid and ignorant and clearly extremely culturally insensitive. Racial stereotypes are not funny, they’re not a joke, and they should never be joked about.”

Ballinger called herself one of the “dumb ones” who engaged with the offensive and “hurtful” humor of the time in which the video was made, but “grew from it and learned from it and realized how hurtful it could be.” She added, “Now I want to right my wrongs and make a difference so that other people don’t make the same mistakes that I made when I was a kid.”

She also apologized for a past video of herself making body-shaming comments about a woman who sat next to her on a plane, saying she felt “appalled and shocked” to rewatch the video and see herself make such offensive comments. “That is not the woman that I am today,” she said. “I’m such a huge advocate for women and women’s bodies and loving every shape and every size, and the fact that I talked negatively about someone who was overweight is absolutely disgusting to me.”

Overall, Ballinger said she “should have known better,” adding that she is “extremely embarrassed” by her past videos. “To anyone and everyone who was hurt or offended by the statements I made when I was younger, I am so, so sorry. I hope you all can see that the person I am today is so far from that ignorant person I was over a decade ago,” she said. “And to those of you who might say, ‘Well, I knew better when I was that age,’ or ’14 years ago I knew right from wrong,’ I’m so glad that you did, because that means that there’s one less person making the stupid mistakes that I did.”