James Charles (Internet Personality)
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James Charles Dickinson (born May 23, 1999) is an American beauty YouTuber and makeup artist. While working as a local makeup artist in his hometown of
Bethlehem, New York Bethlehem is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. The town's population was 35,034 at the 2020 census. Bethlehem is located immediately to the south of the city of Albany and includes the following hamlets: Delmar, Elsmere, Gl ...
, Charles started a YouTube channel, where he began uploading makeup tutorials. In 2016, he became the first male
brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person paid by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the ...
for
CoverGirl CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989, and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics l ...
after a tweet featuring his makeup went viral online. In 2020, Charles hosted, directed, and co-produced the
YouTube Originals YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service that provides advertising-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline play and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to advertising-fr ...
reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
series ''Instant Influencer''. He has released an eyeshadow palette and created a makeup line in collaboration with Morphe Cosmetics, and has received numerous awards for his work on social media, including two
People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the fans and general public. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls un ...
, three
Streamy Awards The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are an awards show presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and wr ...
, one Shorty Award, and one
Teen Choice Award The Teen Choice Awards were an annual awards show that aired on the Fox television network between 1999 and 2019. The awards, based on a popularity vote that could be overridden by the producerswho reserved the right to choose the winnerscovered ...
. His career has included multiple online controversies, including a widely publicized feud with fellow beauty YouTuber
Tati Westbrook Tatiana Aleksandra Westbrook (born Tania Aleksandra Krievins; February 14, 1982), best known under her vlogger name Tati, is an American YouTuber and make-up artist, makeup artist. Career YouTube Westbrook, a former Image consulting, image ...
in 2019 and accusations of sexting with underage boys in 2021.


Early life

James Charles Dickinson was born on May 23, 1999 in
Bethlehem, New York Bethlehem is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. The town's population was 35,034 at the 2020 census. Bethlehem is located immediately to the south of the city of Albany and includes the following hamlets: Delmar, Elsmere, Gl ...
, to parents Skip, a contractor, and Christine Dickinson. His younger brother, Ian Jeffrey, works as a model. In 2010, James started a YouTube channel, JaysCoding, where he made song covers and videos about being in the
Mario Kart Wii is a 2008 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the sixth installment in the ''Mario Kart'' series, and was released in April 2008. In ''Mario Kart Wii,'' the player takes control of one of 24 ''Mario'' series c ...
competitive
modding Modding (from "modifying") is the act of modifying hardware, software, or anything else to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specification or appearance. The term is often used in reference to vid ...
community. He attended Bethlehem Central High School, where he graduated in 2017. Describing his high school experience, he stated, "I did get bullied a lot in high school and personally, I just ignored it." Charles began working as an amateur hairstylist and started doing makeup after being asked by a friend to do her makeup for a school dance. After teaching himself how to apply makeup, he soon began doing it professionally for girls in his area.


Career

In December 2015, Charles started a YouTube channel where he began posting makeup tutorials. A tweet of him retaking his senior portrait with a ring light and makeup on went viral in September 2016. In October 2016, when he was 17, he became the first male brand ambassador for cosmetics brand
CoverGirl CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989, and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics l ...
. The appointment was met with significant praise on social media. His first appearance was in advertisements for CoverGirl's So Lashy mascara. He started a clothing line, Sisters Apparel, and a makeup collection, the Sister Collection, made in collaboration with cosmetics brand Morphe Cosmetics, in November 2018. Crowds at a Canadian mall, anticipating a Morphe Cosmetics appearance by James Charles. By early 2019, he had 10 million subscribers on YouTube. His January 2019 visit to
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
for the opening of Morphe Cosmetics' second
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
store caused gridlock in the city center. Charles did Australian rapper
Iggy Azalea Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), known professionally as Iggy Azalea ( ), is an Australian rapper. Born in Sydney, Azalea moved to the United States at the age of 16 in order to pursue a career in music. She earned public recognition ...
's makeup for promotional art for her single " Sally Walker" in March 2019 and appeared in the song's music video. He announced he would go on the Sisters Tour throughout the US in April 2019. However, the tour was canceled the following month following a highly publicized feud with American social media personality
Tati Westbrook Tatiana Aleksandra Westbrook (born Tania Aleksandra Krievins; February 14, 1982), best known under her vlogger name Tati, is an American YouTuber and make-up artist, makeup artist. Career YouTube Westbrook, a former Image consulting, image ...
. Charles hosted the first season of the
YouTube Originals YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service that provides advertising-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline play and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to advertising-fr ...
reality competition series ''Instant Influencer'', which premiered on his YouTube channel in April 2020. For his work on the show, he won the award for Show of the Year at the 10th Streamy Awards. In March 2021, YouTube announced that he would not return to host the second season of the show. In October 2020, Charles made a cameo appearance in the music video for American social media personality Larray's single " Canceled". Since the launch of his channel, Charles has made a number of collaborative videos, doing makeup on and with various public figures including:
Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...
,
Kylie Jenner Kylie Kristen Jenner (born August 10, 1997) is an American media personality, socialite and businesswoman. She starred in the E! reality television series ''Keeping Up with the Kardashians'' from 2007 to 2021 and then the Hulu reality televisi ...
,
Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...
,
Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...
,
Madison Beer Madison Elle Beer (born March 5, 1999) is an American singer and songwriter. Beer first gained substantial media coverage when Justin Bieber posted a link to one of her covers she posted on YouTube. In 2013, she released her debut single "Melo ...
,
Doja Cat Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCl ...
,
JoJo Siwa Joelle Joanie "JoJo" Siwa ( ; born May 19, 2003) is an American singer, dancer, actress, and media personality. From 2015 to 2016, she appeared as a dancer on two seasons of the reality television show '' Dance Moms'' alongside her mother, Jess ...
, Charli D'Amelio,
Addison Rae {{Infobox person , name = Addison Rae , image = Addison Rae Pandora ME 2021 02.jpg , caption = Rae in 2021 , birth_name = Addison Rae Easterling , birth_place = Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S ...
,
Trixie Mattel Brian Michael Firkus (born August 23, 1989), better known by the stage name Trixie Mattel, is an American drag queen, television personality, makeup entrepreneur, DJ and singer-songwriter originally from Silver Cliff, Wisconsin, Silver Cliff, Ma ...
, Avani Gregg, and
Bretman Rock Bretman Rock Sacayanan Laforga (born July 31, 1998) is a Filipino-American beauty influencer and social media personality based in Honolulu, Hawaii. He rose to fame as a creator on YouTube and Vine (service), Vine after one of his contouring v ...
. In January 2021, Charles sang a cover of "
Drivers License A driver's license, driving licence, or driving permit is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, car ...
". He released his debut single, "Call Me Back", in February 2024.


Public image

Charles in 2019 Early in his career, Charles received attention for being a young male makeup artist. Todd Spangler of '' Variety'' called him "YouTube's most famous beauty vlogger". Writing for the ''
Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
'', Caitlin McBride remarked that he "spearheaded a makeup revolution among men", while Amelia Tait of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' wrote that his online platform was "arguably revolutionary". ''
Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...
'' referred to him in 2019 as "one of the most famous YouTube makeup artists and beauty influencers around", while Noelle Faulkner of '' Vogue Australia'' wrote in 2018 that he had "one of the most engaged followings on YouTube". Charles refers to his fans as "sisters". He has cited Jaclyn Hill and Nikkie de Jager as his biggest influences. He has said that, for him, makeup is "a creative outlet and an art form". In May 2021, he was sued by a former employee of his for
wrongful termination In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been termination of employment, terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one o ...
. In May 2022, Charles posted a photo of him tucking himself, as well as a video of him twerking while tucked, after which he lost over 130,000 followers.


Tati Westbrook feud

In 2019, Tati Westbrook, a fellow makeup artist and frequent collaborator with Charles, uploaded a 43-minute video titled ''Bye Sister'', accusing him of disloyalty and attempting to seduce a heterosexual man with the knowledge of the man's sexuality. YouTuber Jeffree Star and singer
Zara Larsson Zara Maria Larsson (; born 16 December 1997) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and dancer. She first rose to prominence in 2008 after winning the Talang 2008, second season of ''Talang (Swedish TV show), Talang'', the Swedish version of the ''Got T ...
corroborated Westbrook's claims and Charles became the first YouTuber to lose one million subscribers in 24 hours. He uploaded an eight-minute apology video to Westbrook, which became one of the most disliked videos on YouTube before it was deleted. He posted a second 41-minute video titled ''No More Lies'' addressing and refuting the comments made by Westbrook, which led to renewed online support for Charles and criticism of Westbrook. Westbrook later removed the original video and, in 2020, posted a follow-up video in which she stated that Star and Shane Dawson manipulated her into making the original video. This series of events sparked media analysis relating to
cancel culture Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...
, allegations of
toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacteria, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect o ...
against YouTube's beauty community, stereotypes of gay men as
predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
, and the profits made from online feuds.


Child grooming allegations

In February 2021, a 16-year-old boy named Isaiyah posted a video to
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
alleging that Charles groomed him by sending him nude photos and pressuring him into sexting with him despite knowing his age. Charles responded to the video with a tweet denying the grooming accusations and stating that the boy initially claimed to be 18 years old. In March 2021, other underage boys accused Charles of sending unsolicited nude photos and pressuring them into sexting with him. In April 2021, Charles posted a 14-minute-long video titled ''Holding Myself Accountable'', in which he stated that he sent sexually explicit messages to "two different people, both under the age of 18", denying knowing that they were underage at the time. Charles called his past behavior "reckless" and "desperate", stating, "to the guys involved in the situation, I wanna say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I flirted with you and I'm really sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable. It is completely unacceptable". Later that month, Morphe released a statement saying they would cut business ties with Charles and YouTube temporarily demonetized his channel. He returned to YouTube with a video titled ''An Open Conversation'' in July 2021. In a July 2023 interview with ''
Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...
'', Charles denied grooming allegations and alleged that screenshots from several accusers that went viral on social media were faked. He also stated that his brother had not spoken to him since the allegations were made and that he had contemplated suicide because of them. One of the initial underage accusers told ''Cosmopolitan'' that he falsely told Charles he was 18 years old at the time.


Involvement with Evan Johnson

In April 2025, Australian influencer Mikaela Testa posted a video on TikTok criticizing Charles for allegedly associating with Evan Johnson, an influencer whose former girlfriend Kayla Malec had accused him of domestic violence that same month. Zack Sellars, a man with whom Johnson once shared a friendship, claimed on an episode of the ''Bee Better'' podcast that Charles had housed Johnson during the investigation against the latter, and that Charles and Johnson had shared a sexual relationship. The allegations resulted in Charles losing over 700,000 followers on TikTok. On May 6, Charles responded to the rumors in a video where he denied that any sexual encounters between himself and Johnson occurred, described his relationship with Johnson as a "brief friendship," and stated that he ceased contact with Johnson "well before eever learned about any of the violence that was going on behind the scenes." Charles also announced his intent to sue Sellars for spreading "defamatory and slanderous lies, disinformation, completely… made-up stories for the sake of views, likes, engagement, and galaxies." The same day, Charles reaffirmed via his Instagram story that he did not support Johnson, and expressed hope that Malec would receive justice for the abuse she faced.


Personal life

Charles came out as gay to his parents at age 12. Addressing questions about his
gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...
, he stated, "I'm confident in myself and my gender identity – 'mhappy being a boy. But at the same time, I love makeup. I have a full set of nails on all the time." As of 2019, his net worth was estimated to be US$12 million. In 2020, he purchased a US$7 million mansion in Los Angeles.


Filmography


Discography

All credits adapted from
Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
and
Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
.


As lead artist


Singles


Music videos


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, James 1999 births American make-up artists American TikTokers Beauty and makeup YouTubers Fashion influencers Fashion YouTubers American gay artists American gay entertainers LGBTQ people from New York (state) LGBTQ TikTokers LGBTQ YouTubers Living people American male bloggers American bloggers People from Bethlehem, New York Streamy Award winners American YouTube vloggers 21st-century American LGBTQ people YouTubers from New York (state) American YouTubers