He was born and named Shane Lee Yaw, but his stage name is Shane Dawson, and is an American professional YouTuber. Additionally, he is an author, comedian, actor, musician, and film director. Dawson has been on YouTube since 2008 when he uploaded his first video. Having been a professional for twelve years, let us dive in to find Shane Dawson’s net worth.
In the first nine years of his online career, he has directed and featured in a film that took the third position on the iTunes charts. As an author, he has written two New York Times bestsellers, before launching a successful podcast (Shane and Friends) which has a massive following. He was born and brought up in Long Beach California, and he runs a successful development show on YouTube Red. Dawson is a pioneer in the video-sharing website and has risen to fame and maintained his online relevance all those years.
Shane Dawson’s Net Worth
When Shane began making videos in the 2008 march, he was working at Jenny Craig with his mother and brother. His first video was titled “Kermit the Frog Me”, and his channel was known as “ShaneDawsonTV” and went live four months later. The footage had him pole dancing in the same building he worked and his mother, brother, and other six colleagues were also featured in the video. They were all laid off when the company viewed the video.
After the first video that costed his job, he uploaded another in September “Fred is Dead” which has received over 25 million views to date. He often appeared as a drug-addled, drunk, and a cultural stereotype in most of his skits. Most of these skits reflect on persons of color and other minority communities, which led to racism claims being leveled against him.
Earlier this year, the Chuck E. restaurant chain was accused in one of its videos of recycling uneaten pizza leftovers and then serving them to unsuspecting customers. The video appeared on his YouTube channel which has so far garnered over 22 million subscribers.
The 31-year-old won a massive following through his early comic skits and parodies, and they have been loyal to watch him evolve. Now he airs videos that run for as long as one hour, which is mostly documentaries on conspiracy theories and other artists on the same platform.
His videos have made him famous and rich with an estimated net worth of $12 million. His other specialties like podcasts and several TV appearances have also contributed to his fame and wealth. In October, he dropped a video documentary about his fellow YouTuber, Jeffree Star.
Shane Dawson Early Life
Shane Lee Yaw is a native of Long Beach California where he was born and raised on July 19, 1988. He went to Lakewood HighSchool, and he was an overweight kid. His alcoholic father was abusive, mentally and physically at home, which made his life a living hell.
Dawson was the third born after his two older brothers, Jacob Yaw and Jerid Yaw. Their family was poor, an aspect that contributed to his often bullying. Today, Shane has lost 150 pounds(68kgs) and is proud of his achievement. His potential and interest became apparent when he started making videos at school with his friends.
Career
During his days in high school, Dawson submitted his school projects in video format featuring his friends, and he found it fascinating. He gradually found his passion in video making which led him to become a big name on YouTube hence creating his channel. Before life online, Shane worked alongside his mum and brothers in a weight loss center although he later lost his job as mentioned before.
In 2009, the video, Fred is Dead earned him a massive following after the video had a whopping 24 million views prompting him to launch another channel ShaneDawsonTV2. A year later, he shot to fame after winning the Teen Choice Award and the Streamy Award for being the best blogger.
He also featured in the horror movie “Smiley” which was nominated as the worst movie for Fangoria Chainsaw, then later took part in “Not Cool”, another film he directed.
Career Controversies
Dawson’s local comedy has received appreciation and criticism in equal measure. Racial humor has specifically been perceived as racism for his use of blackface in some of his past skits. He has also been using the nigga term in his videos.
He often made ghetto pranks in 2012. Two years later he was highly criticized by his fellow YouTubers led by for his past actions citing racism. Sahne made a public apology for the jokes and labeled the controversy as a learning experience.
Four years later( 2018) Dawson was in the middle of another controversy over comments he had made about pedophilia in one of his podcasts, Shane and Friends. He made an apology for the same and published the video likening his comic style to that of shock jobs.
Later on, in 2019, the same comments were cited as controversial coupled with others he made in 2015 in an episode of the same podcast about engaging with his cat in sexual activities.
Shane Dawson’s Video Apology
Dawson’s controversial past again resurfaced this year in June. He made a 20-minute video on June 26th titled “Taking Accountability”. The video addressed the renewed criticism of his blackface usage, the name nigga, and the offensive comments he made since he launched his YouTube channel.
In his own words, Dawson said that he realized that those apologies he made in the past sucked, and he wonders who he was at that time. “I don’t know who that person is anymore”, he added as he further made remarks that he should have been punished.
He owned up to all accusations and admitted that accountability to him has much more worth and it’s worth losing everything. Shane offered personalized apologies to people like James Charles for describing him as “egocentric” and “power-hungry” barely a week earlier. The apology video concluded with him asking people to offer him another chance for he was ready to become better and if they don’t accept the apology, he understands.
Dawson blamed his difficult childhood where he was abused and bullied by claiming he got used to dealing with pain through inappropriate jokes. He claims to take the sick jokes for shock value which sounded funny to him. His admission that he now finds the whole scenario gross, he made a promise to become a better self.
Consequences
Once the video apology went live, Jaden smith quickly accused him of sexualizing his sister Willow Smith. Jaden expressed his disgust after a past video resurfaced of Shane acting like he was touching himself sexually while looking at a poster of Willow smith, his sister who was only 11 years old then.
Jaden and their mother Jada Smith sent a tweet to Shane in response saying they were done with his excuses. In the same month of June 2020, Dawson was faced with a new blow after two of his books, I Hate Myself, and It Gets Worse were removed from Target’s shelves, then by the end of June, YouTube suspended monetization privileges on his three channels.
Conclusion
Shane Dawson is now 31 years old, and he was at the peak of his online career before his past actions caught up with him. At his age, Shane Dawson’s net worth is $12 million which might dwindle to zero considering how life is throwing blows at him. Young people might not understand the value of character and accountability. However, after Shane’s story, it might serve as a lesson to many!
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