With his gaming channel and daily vlog, Joey Graceffa has over six million subscribers on YouTube. He recently released a song and music video titled “Don’t Wait,” which depicts his character falling in love with another man. The video generated quite a response, including a parody reaction from popular YouTuber Miranda Sings. Two days after its release, Joey officially came out as gay.
Joey recently sat down with GLAAD’s Claire Pires to discuss his coming out and the response both the music video and his personal video received, as well as his memoir In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World. The book chronicles Graceffa’s difficult relationship with his mother, dating experiences and the heartbreak that went along with them, and is a detailed account of his road to self-acceptance.
When asked about the goal for his music video, Graceffa explained, “I needed something to encompass my book in a video format … so I thought it would be really cool to incorporate three main things in the music video — bullying, dealing with alcoholism, and coming to terms with your sexuality and accepting yourself.”
Joey described the writing process for In Real Life as therapeutic. “Talking about my history with my mom and her alcoholism was definitely really tough reliving those moments because there was a lot of stuff that I kind of like pushed aside and didn’t process,” he explained. “I guess I just have this thing of just like pushing things aside in the back of my mind and writing this, I had to go back through it all and re-read it, and re-read it, and re-read it, and I’ve finally like processed it.”
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The YouTuber-turned-author hopes that people find his story relatable. “I remember growing up and feeling like my story was so different from everyone else’s because there wasn’t really anyone openly talking about what was going on in their life. Like, celebrities or people. I mean, there wasn’t really a YouTube at the time to hear people talk about their stories, so, yeah, I guess I just want people to not feel so alone.”
Graceffa also voiced his support for GLAAD’s #GotYourBack campaign, which empowers LGBT people and their allies to speak out in support of acceptance. Watch the full video interview below.
Xzamilio
Then maybe he should have just come out instead of turning it into a money-making opportunity that screamed advertising for his book and YouTube channel, which had begun to decline in views. But, I feel that was more the people around him than anything else, because he really does come off as naive and endearing in most of his videos, even if his whole “anya” shtick and extremely childish persona is grating. It’s undeniable that him finally coming out has helped many in his fanbase to also be honest about their own orientations and to bring in more accepting people, so keep doing you, man. Live your truth…
Desert Boy
Never heard of him.
Patrick Cremeans
“YouTube Star” will never be anything but an oxymoron.
Victor Barry
Was he ever in the closet?
avesraggiana
Who?
Cagnazzo82
He was closeted?
JessPH
Every knew that he’s gay even before he knew that he is.
JessPH
@JessPH: I mean, EVERYONE
redcarpet30
I know the kids are all into youtube, but this whole “youtube star comes out” post EVERY DAMN WEEK is getting ridiculous. No one but youtube obsessives know who the hell they are.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I think it’s cute that his subscribers didn’t know that he’s gay – I think most folks should come out to their parents/community when they are financially independent of them.
ingyaom
Like, so what?
crowebobby
I know I’ll get hate mail for this, but I found his screaming queen act annoying as hell when he was claiming to be straight and quite adorable now that he admits to being gay. I’m not sure exactly why but I do.
Cagnazzo82
@crowebobby: He was claiming to be straight? I’ve never really followed him, but from the videos I’ve seen I always he assumed he was thoroughly out.
ParisNat
This sure is headline news!
Merv
Who did this latter day Richard Simmons think he was fooling? He was so obviously gay that his previous denials were laughable. If he is really doing this to help people then wouldn’t he have maximized his audience by doing it during his participation in The Amazing Race TV show rather than while promoting his own book and video?
tdh1980
Not for nothing, but can we please stop calling these internet-famous people stars? Serena Williams is a star. George Clooney is a star. Beyonce Knowles is a star. A star transcends his or her niche or field to become well-known the world over. This Joey Whoever is someone with a large social media following. Nothing more.
robho3
And people thought he wasn’t gay before?
Jon Mackey
Wasn’t lonely too begin with.
Curty
I’ve seen a few of his videos and assumed he was gay and out. Apparently he thinks his announcement was this transcendental moment in pop culture. Dude, you make youtube video’s, you are not a famous singer, actor, news anchor…etc. The ego of these people are laughable…
Stache99
Wow. I’m as shocked today as when I found out Liberace was gay.
Oh yeah, (You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.” I’ll go real…..slowwwww.
Stache99
Ok i went and looked at one of this videos. Act stupid, queeny, pimp your book, and look cute. Have I missed anything?
BGinBigD
Who in the world ever thought he was straight??? Even straight nerds would have immediately figured that out.
Dale Allen DeVore III
whatisthis
I hate his face. I don’t know why but I just can’t look at him for more than five seconds before I start feeling really uncomfortable.
Rohan Patel
There hasn’t been one positive comment in this thread. You guys love ganging up on someone who’s attractive and successful. He has over 5 millions followers on youtube so he must be doing something right. Just because he’s feminine you all bash him for being “queeny”? So many negative commenters on this this site.
Black Pegasus
And in other news: Water is wet…
SonOfKings
He’s got this major “Gay face” thing going on that is, ahem… unsettling. Young men, don’t arch your eyebrows or gel up your hair. You’ll end up looking like a cartoon.
SonOfKings
@Rohan Patel: You can stop defending him. He’s not going to date you.
Realityis
@Xzamilio: “Then maybe he should have just come out instead of turning it into a money-making opportunity that screamed advertising for his book and YouTube channel, which had begun to decline in views.”
HA HA LOL….. I love that you are calling this guy out and shaming him for how he came out but just wrote a very high praising comment about Caitlyn Jenner. Same concept, different person.