Infamous YouTube and and TikTok personality Trisha Paytas has run into trouble for her controversial beliefs and actions, including racist and homophobic comments and even “coming out” as different races. With a recently-launched podcast, Paytas is sure to spread her questionable ideals to a greater audience.
Since 2007, Paytas, a 35-year-old from Riverside, Calif., with more than five million followers on Youtube, 897,000 thousand on Instagram, and 8.5 million on TikTok, has continuously made controversial posts, and sought fame in other mediums. She has auditioned as a rapper for season seven of “American Idol,” and claimed she had an addiction to tanning for the TLC reality show “My Strange Addiction.” Paytas has also tried to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for talking fast.
“I never cared about being rich or anything, still don’t,” Paytas said in an interview with The Insider. “I just have always had this constant need for attention. Maybe that’s a bad thing, maybe not, but it’s how I thrive.”
A junior who wishes to remain anonymous thinks Trisha’s controversial opinions are simply a way for her to gain viewers and earn money any way possible.
“Trisha used her controversial presence on the internet to build a reputation and a brand for herself,” the student said. “She uses that to provide for her daughter, whose birth drastically changed her lifestyle and views.”
Paytas had a baby on Sept. 14, 2022. She named her “Malibu Barbie.”
Aerin Kelly ’24 feels Paytas’ podcast, “Just Trish,” is a way to for the pseudo-celebrity to process her own trauma.
“I think Trisha Paytas is a very wounded soul whose controversy sparks from her own deep trauma,” she said.
Paytas’ videos also act as a kind of support for some viewers who have gone through tough childhoods or have mental problems. Paytas herself admits to struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic, consisting of the “presence of two or more distinct personality states.”
In one video posted on Christmas Day 2020, Moses Hacmon proposed to Trisha on the Imperial Sand Dunes in Imperial County, Calif., dressed up in traditional Arabian clothing. The video got more than 1.6 million views.
In another TikTok posted by Paytas, she is dressed in an offensive ancient Cleopatra costume and dancing to a song called “King Tut.” The video has more than 47 million views and 10 million likes.
Paytas has made it clear to her viewers that it’s okay to be authentic, and to be vulnerable around people. She has posted many videos of herself crying to the camera, and videos like this, some say, give much needed reassurance to younger kids that everyone has struggles, no matter what age or level of fame.