In an interview, the creator of the petition to remove onlyjayus from TikTok revealed what her goals are and what she hopes to come of the situation, saying that it's up to the Black and Trans communities to give the TikTok star forgiveness.
Onlyjayus, a TikTok star often creating Life Hacks and Psychology Tricks videos, currently has over 13.6 million followers on the platform in addition to their 169,000 Twitch followers and 1.15 million YouTube subscribers. But like many content creators garnering this level of attention, onlyjayus has seen some controversy, especially in the past few months. A petition launched on Change.org about one week ago, getting signatures in an effort to remove onlyjayus from TikTok permanently due to their past use of racial slurs and ableism. With a goal of 500,000, the petition is currently at nearly 360,000 signatures.
The Tab spoke to the petition's creator, who goes by the alias Vanellope Von Addams for anonymity. Vanellope has grown close to Aunt Karen, a black TikTok creator who often exposes the racist behavior of others. After onlyjayus was called out for their use of racial slurs back in February, they released an apology video for their behavior, vowing to use their own platform to help Black creators educate others. However, onlyjayus never held up this promise, which is when Vanellope says she started to see their true colors.
After they failed to follow through with their promise, onlyjayus released an angry TikTok in April, blaming it on their forgetfulness, but still never kept their promise to lift Black voices. This led to Vanellope launching the petition against the TikTok star, but she also credits Aunt Karen, whom she calls a "great friend," for partially creating the idea and helping lead the charge as well as giving Vanellope the strength to do so.
Vanellope also revealed that the Call of Duty streamer has made an effort to find and dox her after launching the petition. Onlyjayus's reaction to the petition is a stark contrast to their first apology video, in which they cited their use of "racist rhetoric and derogatory language." Now, however, onlyjayus is mocking the petition's initiative, though the tweets and attention they've given it on TikTok have likely led to more signatures.
Finally, Vanellope hopes that people with this level of following will learn to take responsibility for their actions when held accountable instead of brushing it off because of their popularity. She believes onlyjayus's platform on TikTok can "easily be taken away" by the fans that gave it to them in the first place.