Comedy vlogging star Jenna Marbles quits YouTube after 10 years over past racist videos

Comedy vlogger Jenna Marbles has announced she is quitting YouTube over after fans asked her to apologise for her controversial past videos.

The US YouTube star, whose real name is Jenna Mourey, apologised for the "inexcusable" sketches she had performed over 10 years on the platform.

These include dressing in blackface imitating Nicki Minaj, shaming women “who slept around,” and making a racist joke about Asian men in a music video.

Her announcement and apology comes as the anti-racism momentum continues to grow around the world in the wake of George Floyd's death.

The US YouTube star, whose real name is Jenna Mourey, apologised for the "inexcusable" past sketches 
Jenna Marbles/YouTube

Mourey, who started rising to prominence on YouTube in 2010, told her fans on Thursday that she would be leaving YouTube, saying: “I want to make sure the things that I put into the world are not hurting anyone.”

In a video uploaded to to the platform titled "A message", Mourey said: "It feels like we’re at a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic.”

She said: "I want everyone to know that I’ve always been a two-way street, and that anytime that you criticise me and tell me that you would like me to do better or to do something differently, that I always try to do that.

"And I try to make fun content, inclusive content, things that don’t offend people or upset people, and that’s kind of where I am."

Speaking about her controversial sketches she said: "It's awful, it doesn't need to exist, it's inexcusable, it's not OK.

"I'm incredibly sorry if this offended then, now, whenever, it doesn't need to exist. It shouldn't have existed.

"I shouldn't have said that ever. It's not cool, it's not cute, it's not OK, and I'm embarrassed that I ever made that, period."

On how long she would be away from YouTube, Mourey said: “I don’t know if that’s forever, I don’t know how long it’s going to be."

The YouTuber said she had been getting messages from fans asking why she had put a lot of her old content, which contains offensive material, on private.

She said: “I’m sorry if any of [my old content] holds any nostalgia for you, but I’m literally not trying to put out negative things into the world.

"I think there was a time when having all of my old content exist on the internet showed how much I have grown up as a person, which I’m very proud of.

"I think now it’s hard for that content to exist at all because I think people watch it and don’t bother to look at when it was posted or care about what path I took to get to where I am."

“It offends them now, and, if that’s the case, where people will watch something and be offended now, I don’t want it to exist.”

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