Imagine your child starts posting videos online. Within a few weeks your child becomes an internet sensation. It seems like one day you wake up to your daughter effortlessly striking it rich on YouTube. Cash just magically starts rolling in.
Your daughter is offered a handsome contract with a new hip live streaming site for teens called YouNow. The clothing companies start calling wanting to pay her tens of thousands of dollars to model their latest fashion. So what if the weird alternative brands just want to exploit your daughter’s unique appearance so they can sell more clothes to the gen z emo kids? The whole family is benefiting.
Sure your daughter is really thin, but she’s beautiful. She has a charismatic personality that is easily honed into an online persona. The risk of strange men watching her online for less than legitimate reasons is there. The risk to your daughter and your families privacy is elevated. Even so, it’s worth it because of the new online cash cow you never saw coming.
How could a parent predict this scenario? Neither a father nor a mother could plan for a situation where your child goes rouge but ends up finding financial success quickly online, as well as attention and notoriety.
Now imagine you are the mother. Your daughter’s unexpected career as an internet star lifts the heavy financial burden you were carrying by yourself just one year earlier. It’s tough trying to take care of your daughter who’s showing signs of narcissism, personality disorder, and an unhealthy obsession with food and weight. Not to mention satiating your younger child, maybe an overweight son who is constantly begging for food.
On top of raising the two children, maybe things are not going so well in your relationship with the their father. Your daughter’s fame is a nice distraction from the bleak reality of a cold loveless marriage. Perhaps the father has a drinking problem, had 3 DWI’s, and has never held the family down financially, or emotionally like a man should.
Now imagine, recently the cashflow coming in several times a month from video hosting sites, crowdfunding platforms, and many brand sponsorship deals. Life all of a sudden becomes a lot easier financially, and as a bonus offers a tangible escape from the mundane life of a mother to a family with some problems from New England.
Well YouTube star Eugenia Cooney’s mother found herself in a similar situation. Though the details don’t match up exactly, her skinny, dark haired daughter started posting videos around the age of 16, quickly gaining thousands of followers. All of a sudden clothing brands start calling asking her newly famous Eugenia to model their latest fasion for thousands of dollars, and maybe a cut of every peice sold.
The best part, as long as Eugenia keeps uploading videos she receives steady monthly checks for tens of thousands of dollars. For some parents it would be a miracle to see your child on livestream for an hour a day to make a couple thousand in tips. Sure beats paying fifty grand for college education that will only lead to a job at Starbucks.
Try to imagine what that scenario would really be like. Try to imagine the temptation to keep this going at all cost. Think of all the possible mistakes that could have been made by Eugenia Cooney or her mother. What would you have done with this new gold mine of online income for teenagers they stumble upon?
Now that Eugenia is supposedly in treatment at 25 years old for an eating disorder and depression, many people online seem to blame Eugenia’s mother for Eugenia’s condition. On February 10th Eugenia posted on her Twitter claiming “I’m taking a break from social media and quietly working with my doctor. Please respect that.”
As vague as that sounds, at face value the cryptic statement informs us that something changed. Couple that with her absence from creating videos, it’s probably safe to say that Eugenia is either in the hospital, some kind of treatment facility, or resting at home in bed.
There are darker rumors online pointing more towards the possibility she is trolling all of us just for content. Or worst case scenario possibly she is dead. On the conspiracy theory side of YouTube, some speculate Eugenia is long gone and someone is impersonating Eugenia with her Twitter account. Who would that be? The only person who stands to gain from such a lie…
A more realistic speculation my brother Andrew Marlowe offers in a video entitled The Shocking Eugenia Cooney Reddit Files And More he states “I have a very strong hunch that Eugenia probably fainted in public or had some kind of collapse.”
Andrew also said that “I think it sounds really out of Eugenia Cooney’s character to just all of a sudden go get help, it doesn’t sound like something she would do at all,” implying that the latest Twitter post from Eugenia was written by someone else, or that Eugenia is trolling viewers.
Andrew argues that the Twitter post is so vague it really doesn’t mean anything. Boldly he says Eugenia’s mother, or one of her YouTube friends, should elaborate on what’s going on, how Eugenia is doing, and where she is.
My brother goes even further arguing Eugenia’s mother should do more to come out publicly to clear her own name, considering so many people think she is the main enabler of Eugenia’s eating disorder and addiction to online fame. The mother has been seen on many of her skeleton queen daughters YouTube videos, and even attends YouTube conferences with Eugenia. For some that’s enough to support the idea that her mother is responsible and owes the public an explanation.
Andrew’s arguments are understandable. Many people want someone to blame. They want to blame everyone and everything other than Eugenia for her possible eating disorder or depression. Many people see Eugenia as the victim of circumstances, perhaps the product of a tormenting childhood of physical or emotional abuse, the abuse exacerbated by an online following and a sense of fame.
In an earlier video my brother Andrew posted entitled My Thoughts On The Eugenia Cooney News, right after she tweeted about getting help, he admits skepticism, thinking it’s unlikely Eugenia would reach out for help on her own unless there was a medical emergency such as fainting in public.
There are two main speculations articulated by Andrew, representing many viewers. Firstly Eugenia may not be in treatment because it’s unlikely she would surrender to professionals on her own. Secondly, if she is in treatment, it’s because of a grave medical emergency, not because she turned her will or her life over to the care of a doctor. Both speculations disregard Eugenia on her own accord allowing a professional into her life, because according to my brother Andrew “it’s too sudden!” Eugenia would never surrender! It has to be a catastrophe that lead to her seeing a doctor.
What many online have missed, including my brother, is that if you look at the past couple of months on Eugenia’s Twitter account, it’s obvious that something was building up for a long time. Whatever lead to Eugenia possibly being in therapy didn’t just happen “all of a sudden.”
Eugenia, and probably her mother, for a long time have been dealing with trolls, haters, and people threatening the family’s livelihood. Andrew mentioned that many people online gloat about calling the cops on Eugenia in her local hometown, informing police she is a danger to herself.
On January 28th, almost a month ago, Eugenia tweeted out “Hey guys! I’ve been offline for a while so I’m sorry if I worried anyone! That was not my intention at all. I’ve just been taken a much need break from the negativity and having some positive time offline. I’ll be back soon! :).”
Then a few hours later, something else must have happened which trigger another tweet. Eugenia addressing the situation a second time tweets “btw I’m so sorry people make up such crazy stuff, but I am alive and definitely not dead. I was really surprised to hear that going around about me, but everything is fine!.”
Disregarding my brothers original suspicious that someone else may be tweeting for her, it’s obvious from the two tweets that day Eugenia, and probably her whole family, have been dealing with the pressure of online rumors ruining Eugenia Cooney’s image. Twice in one day she (or someone) felt the need to post that on Twitter because of all the negative blogs and videos produced about her.
To relieve some of my brothers doubts about Eugenia getting help “all of a sudden”, obviously from her tweets on January 28th something had been dragging on for quite some time that may have lead to the tweet a month later in February claiming she is working with a doctor.
Eugenia Cooney content is an entire format for some online creators. Entire YouTube channels are devoted to hating, trolling, or just spreading gossip about Eugenia and her family. A good example of this is the YouTube channel The Most Skinniest Girl In The World, currently The Most Beautiful Girl In The World. The channel alternates back and forth between the two name changes quite often. They basically are stalking Eugenia Cooney online. Whoever runs the obscure channel with only a little over five thousand subscribers, will upload clips from Eugenia Cooney’s live streams with slanderous titles, intending on hurting her reputation.
In one clip on The Most Skinniest Girl In The World entitled “Young Girl Pleas To Eugenia Cooney”, someone has clipped a moment from a livestream where a young girl was guesting, or featured for a few minutes on Eugenia’s livestream via video. The girl is crying and telling Eugenia she is going to die. Eugenia politely tells the young girl she is fine and that she appreciates her concern.
Now imagine every bad moment taken out of context from hundreds of hours of live streaming content you produced. Imagine every awkward moment that you did not want uploaded elsewhere after the livestream was over, and someone out there is deliberately stalking you and re uploading your video content without permission.
The Most Skinniest Girl In The World channel is just one example. On the more mainstream side of YouTube, Eugenia Cooney and the speculations around her eating disorder have been the topic for many videos in the past. Though YouTube generally no longer allows these videos to be monetized, creators still produce Eugenia Cooney videos almost on a weekly basis. You can still catch hundreds of thousands of views, post your PayPal and Patreon links in the description, and viewers who want to see more Eugenia content from you might donate money.
On my brothers channel Andrew Marlowe, with a little over five thousand subscribers, a video entitled The Shocking Eugenia Cooney Reddit Files And More over a four day period got almost thirty thousand views. To imagine how many overall views it may get in the future I’ll refer to a video from two years ago on the channel TheGamerFromMars entitled The Worlds Skinniest YouTuber: Eugenia Cooney- Internet Hall Of Fame. That video currently has 295 thousand views.
The infamous YouTuber Onision catches millions of views monthly for Eugenia Cooney topic videos. Onision built an entire format around Eugenia and the wild rumors and speculations he spreads about her.
To reiterate I am not suggesting these videos can’t be made, or should be taken down, or that the creators are unethical for producing such obsessive content over one individual. I’m simply pointing out how popular the Eugenia Cooney videos are. It’s an entire genre of its own.
Going back to Eugenia Cooney’s Twitter, from a tweet on Jan 18, before she tweeted out clarifying she was not dead, she says “My mom just texted me happy Winnie The Pooh Day” with a meme of the beloved cartoon honey loving bear. Perhaps even mentioning her mother on Twitter sparked enough controversy in the thread, leading to Eugenia posting the tweets about her still being alive and well.
If you go back a month earlier right after Christmas on Dec 28th, Eugenia tweeted “I’ll never understand why anyone gets enjoyment out of trying to ruin things for other people.”
A hater responded in the thread underneath, and happens to be the top comment reading “I’ll never understand why anyone gets enjoyment out of posting pictures of their emaciated body to be seen as queen of an eating disorder and to please their money hungry mother!”
I won’t mention the account by name because it’s some random loser with 300 followers and its relevant to my point that Eugenia Cooney has been stalked online for years. She and her mother have probably had to deal with obsessive speculation, gossip, and hate for a long time now.
Because of everything I’ve pointed out above, I find it hard to relate to the feeling of demanding Eugenia Cooney or her mother to clarify anything. My brother Andrew, and his viewers, are upset about Eugenia’s mother giving only small public statements. Many online feel entitled to know about Eugenia Cooney’s personal life or her personal health conditions. Despite rumors and questions in her comment section, the controversial YouTuber has never made her personal life part of her public image. In my opinion her videos are mindless content about clothes, emo music, and how much she loves Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
To be fair and balanced, there is a lot of genuine concern out there for Eugenia. The reason the public wants a statement from her mother, or wants Eugenia herself to clarify her latest tweet about working with her doctor, is because people do genuinely care. I’m not disregarding the fact that many fans of hers, or people that just follow her for the drama, are worried about her. Most viewers do want to see her recover from whatever is going on with her weight. It’s not only haters in her comment section. Still, even supporters of Eugenia pressure her to talk about her weight and her thoughts on all the hate.
As we have noticed from Eugenia’s Twitter feed, there are people that hold her mother responsible for her condition, and blame her for Eugenia’s appearance on video. Many assume that Eugenia’s mother is pressuring her to make videos, directly benefiting financially from her daughter. Many express how they feel bad for Eugenia, and only want the best for the girl, even if that means deleting her entire channel, or in totalitarian fashion having it deleted for her, wiping out her online income. Maybe the families only income. What a horrible thought, whether or not Eugenia is exploited by her mother financially.
My final point to make is that Eugenia Cooney, as sweet as she is, as pretty as she is, as loveable as she is, is a fully grown adult. A lot of the people making commentary about her like to push the blame of her weight and the social media hate on to her mother, or on the corporations that use her to sell clothes, or on YouTube itself for allowing her to post. While some tend to make Eugenia a victim in their opinion of her, an alternative viewpoint is that she deserves the credit for making the decisions she has. Despite all the infantilized victimization projected onto the controversial personality, undeniably Eugenia is not a little kids. She’s an adult. I think the public should treat her like one, not as a person being held against her will to be famous on the internet.
Yes, she may have an eating disorder. She’s never stated that publicly but that is the consensus. Yes, her mother may be involved in her platforms to a great extent, possibly acting as a manager or an accountant. And yes, the video sites and the clothing companies do enable Eugenia to do her thing online, which is pose scantily clad in gothic lingerie and the latest punk rock fashions.
Even with all the speculations out there that Eugenia is a victim of her mother, a victim of the corporations, a victim of circumstance, Eugenia is still a fully grown adult women responsible for her decisions. She decided to make videos all these years. She decided to continue her live streaming carrier on Twitch after her first platform YouNow died. She decided to suppress her appetite and appear on camera as sickly thin as she does. We must hold Eugenia responsible for her own life and for her own decisions.
If she wants to get help she will get it. If she doesn’t want to get help than she won’t. For the public to impose their wants and needs onto a YouTuber is selfish. If Eugenia Cooney has never made her personal life a part of her content, what makes people think she will now? Eugenia Cooney doesn’t owe anyone anything more than what she gives. Sure some people think that she is a bad influence, some people believe she should be banned from YouTube.
Just imagine if you had the amount of followers Eugenia Cooney has. And not to support your content that you produce, but to impose themselves on your personal life. Imagine dozens of creators writing slanderous video titles about you, and stalking your every move on lifestream to clip and repost. Of course Eugenia is going to keep her personal health issues private and between her and like she said “her doctor.”
If Eugenia is in treatment on her own accord, whatever lead to that decision wasn’t something that just happened all of a sudden. We can tell by looking at her Twitter at least two months prior to her tweet about working with a doctor she had been addressing rumors publicly.
I want to remind people that we are not entitled to anything else from her. She’s a fully grown adult and only she is responsible for what happens to her, or what direction her channel goes. If she wants to keep being the skeleton queen that’s what she’s going to do. No amount of pleading or begging her online will change that. Everyone should grow up, stop infantilizing Eugenia Cooney, and respectfully allow her the time she needs to figure everything out.
CMC Broadcasting 