YouTuber James Charles slams media criticism of his show-stopping meet & greet

Popular YouTuber and makeup mogul James Charles is lashing out against widespread criticism of his Birmingham meet and greet, which ended up causing a gridlock due to the mass amount of fans drawn to his appearance at the city’s Bullring shopping center.

A reported number of 8,000 fans crowded all three floors of the shopping mall on January 26 to get a glimpse of Charles, who held a meet and greet event for the opening of a new Morphe makeup store.

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However, a few media outlets were highly critical of the incident, with some even calling Charles “virtually unknown” – despite his 13 million YouTube subscribers and three million Twitter followers.

In fact, Radio host James O’Brien expressed some disdain towards Charles’ popularity on his show ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’ – to which Charles had a surprising reaction.

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Charles himself popped onto the show as a suprise guest to educate O’Brien as to his internet fame, ending their call on a positive note that had the host calling their conversation a “lovely moment.”

Charles likewise hit out at the backlash via Twitter, writing, “It actually blows my mind that so many news outlets refuse to recognize the success of YouTubers, when there are creators pulling the same number of viewers in one month that these outlets are proud to pull in an entire year.”

Regardless of the media’s varied reactions, Charles’ explosive appearance in the Birmingham mall stirred up an important conversation regarding the changing state of who is considered “famous” in modern society.