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LeafyIsHere
Personal information
Born
Calvin Lee Vail

(1995-08-18) August 18, 1995 (age 28)[1][2]
Utah, U.S.[1]
NationalityAmerican
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–2017, 2020
Subscribers4.9 million (before channel was terminated)[3][4]
Total views1.2 billion (before channel was terminated)[3][4]
100,000 subscribers2015
1,000,000 subscribers2016
Last updated: August 21, 2020

Calvin Lee Vail (born August 18, 1995), also known as Leafy or LeafyIsHere, is an American former YouTuber and former Twitch streamer who, from the years 2011 to 2017, and 2020, made reaction, drama, and Let's Play videos, but is mostly known for commentary.[5]

Beginning in 2016, Vail was involved in several conflicts with other YouTubers which led to allegations of cyberbullying. Vail was permanently banned by YouTube in 2020, citing repeated violations of their harassment policies.[1][6]

Career

Vail started his channel in 2011, and began uploading content in 2011. He focused primarily on Gaming Let's Plays. His videos often included him playing Minecraft. Later that year, he made commentary talking over gameplay footage of video games, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Superhot. Because of the style of his content and the way the YouTube algorithm would promote videos, he began to grow rapidly in April 2015 but only had less than 30,000 subscribers at the time. But later on, LeafyIsHere surpassed 1 million subscribers in early-February 2016, 2 million in early April 2016, 3 million in the later part of May 2016 and then 4 million in July 2016. That month would also be his channel's peak month where he garnered over 120 million views and 600,000 subscribers. Despite his rapid growth, his channel would slow down beginning later in July.[7] In September/October, he would be in major controversies that led to his downfall. He had amassed ~4.83 million subscribers before he slowed his uploading schedule down and went on a hiatus in December 2017.[8]

According to Bryan Menegus of Gizmodo, Vail mocked a man in 2016 with a learning disability, and had earlier made fun of an autistic man known as TommyNC2010, after which YouTube and Reddit communities rallied behind Tommy, prompting Vail to release an apology.[9]

In 2015 and 2016, Vail was the target of a swatting campaign, with repeated calls to the police between December 2015 and February 2016. At that time he resided in Layton, Utah.[10]

Controversies, channel terminations and returns

The LeafyIsHere channel was a drama, commentary, and storytime channel. On the channel, Vail mainly commented on gossip involving online content creators and made videos telling life stories. He had many dramas with popular YouTubers such as h3h3productions, Onision, DramaAlert (Keemstar) and others. [5]

In 2016, YouTuber iDubbbz featured Leafy in an episode of his "Content Cop" series, accusing him and his videos of cyberbullying, among other criticisms, causing his channel to receive massive negative attention. In October, one of his ex-animators uploaded a video saying Vail never gave him enough credit or attention.[11][12] Also in 2016, Vail accused YouTuber Evalion of supporting Nazism and antisemitism. Shortly after Vail drew attention to her, Evalion was banned by YouTube.[13] Later that year, Vail's statements regarding transgender vlogger Milo Stewart, in which he criticized the concept of gender identity, were taken down by YouTube for harassment.[14]

In 2019, iDubbbz's video criticizing Vail was taken down after it was determined to be in violation of YouTube's guidelines.[15]

Because of his break, he would decline to 4.15 million subscribers[16] at some point around the start of 2020. Additionally, he would gradually gain less and less views every month due to his lack of uploads. After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus Vail returned to YouTube with a video insulting iDubbbz in April 2020, following which he resumed posting frequently. Every month after his return, he would gradually gain more and more monthly views until August, gaining nearly 30 million in July 2020.In July, Vail began criticizing Twitch streamer Pokimane and her supporters based on speculation about her personal life. He published many videos on the streamer but later on, they would be less about them. [17][5]

On August 21, 2020, Vail's YouTube account was permanently terminated while at around 4.91 million subscribers.[17] According to The Verge, Vail's channel had three violations in the previous three months, such as cyberbullying and encouraging viewers to disrupt other people's streams. A YouTube spokesperson said the channel had repeatedly violated YouTube's policies on harassment.[6] Following the ban, Vail began streaming frequently on Twitch.[18] He has also posted on competing video platform StoryFire.[6] He also got into conflicts with YouTuber Ethan Klein, known as H3H3.[18]

On September 11, 2020, Vail's Twitch account was also banned. Earlier that day, Vail had tweeted about receiving a strike on his account from Twitch for "hateful conduct and threats of violence against a person or group of people". Twitch did not comment on the ban or indicate whether it was permanent.[18]

In December 2020, an account pretending to be him and posted a video on the 3rd. The video was titled "Im actually back... (LeafyIsHere)". However, Leafy himself never mentioned that he returned on this account. Sometime after, this account was terminated.

Later in December 2020, on the 24th, Vail posted a video on a new channel called [19]"Weafy" as he was hired by a company called RedBloom.LLC. This video was titled "what really happened to leafy" in which he discussed his ban from YouTube and also said that YouTube would be part time for him. Despite this, the channel would be terminated four days later on the 28th of December while having amassed around 87.3K subscribers and over 200,000 views.

However, in August of 2021, Calvin returned on an account called "Lucky". He uploaded a few videos, one being about h3h3productions. In early September 2021, his channel was deleted. At that time, it had around 24.5K subscribers. The channel gained over 70,000 views.

In mid-December 2021, Leafy would regain access to his Twitter account.

Leafy would return for a fourth time in late December 2021 on an account finally called[20] "LeafyCast". However, it was renamed multiple times to finally that. He published a few videos including a premiere which gained over 700 concurrent views at one point. Quickly after, the channel was terminated. This one had gained over 20,000 subscribers and over 65,000 views.

Vail remains decently active on his Twitter account which currently has slightly less than 850,000 followers, down from its peak follower count of over one million.

References

  1. ^ a b c Kiberd, Roisin (August 5, 2016). "YouTube's Trolls Are Crying Censorship Over Cyberbullying Rules". Vice. Archived from the original on July 5, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  2. ^ Vail, Calvin (August 18, 2016). "Thanks for all the birthday wishes, you guys are seriously crazy No but seriously, I really appreciate it <3". Twitter. Archived from the original on September 16, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "LeafyIsHere's YouTube Stats". Social Blade. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "About LeafyIsHere". YouTube.
  5. ^ a b c D'Anistasio, Cecilia; Grey Ellis, Emma (July 31, 2020). "PokimaneBoyfriend and the Scandalous Reign of Drama YouTube". Wired. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Alexander, Julia (August 24, 2020). "YouTube permanently bans controversial creator LeafyIsHere". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  7. ^ "leafyishere Monthly YouTube Statistics - Socialblade.com". web.archive.org. December 18, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  8. ^ Teti, Julia (March 31, 2020). "Leafy Returns To YouTube For 1st Time In 2 Years To Call Out IDubbbz & Fans Go Wild — Watch". Hollywood Life. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  9. ^ Menegus, Bryan. "YouTube Star Makes Money Bullying People With Learning Disabilities [Updated]". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  10. ^ Reavy, Pat (August 4, 2016). "Popular Layton YouTuber target of 'swatting' pranks". KSL.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  11. ^ Alexander, Julia (December 16, 2019). "YouTube is growing up, and creators are frustrated by growing pains". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  12. ^ Romano, Aja (December 13, 2019). "YouTube just made sweeping positive changes to its harassment policy. So why all the backlash?". Vox. Archived from the original on May 14, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  13. ^ "Eva Lion, la youtubeuse fan d'Hitler". L'Express. May 31, 2016. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  14. ^ "Trans Activist Milo Stewart's Never-Ending War on Trolls". The Daily Dot. October 17, 2016. Archived from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  15. ^ Dodgson, Lindsay. "PewDiePie announced plans to take a break from YouTube, but it's not the first time the platform's biggest creator has struggled with burnout". Insider. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  16. ^ "LeafyIsHere's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  17. ^ a b Samuels, Alexandra (August 22, 2020). "Leafy banned from YouTube after targeting Pokimane". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  18. ^ a b c Grayson, Nathan (September 11, 2020). "Twitch Suspends Leafy, The Banned YouTuber Who Harassed Pokimane". Kotaku. Archived from the original on September 13, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  19. ^ "Weafy's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  20. ^ "LeafyCast's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
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