Online Community-Gabriella Demartino – Inside the mind of Chelsy

First Draft:

Growing up one may have many idols; someone they look up to and aspire to be. Our mom, dad, celebrities, are just a few. Think about your first idol. Did you like to dress like them, tried to talk like them and like the same things they do. Someone who I’ve loved since I was young gave me the idea of my first car, even my favorite color. He’s someone who has a kind heart and someone I wish I can meet in life. But this isn’t about my idol, it’s about the fans who idolize Gabriella Demartino. A YouTube star and lifestyle blogger. Gabi, which is what her fans like to call her, sings and loves Ariana Grande. Maybe just enough to look and dress like her. When you see someone you watch and follow everyday act like someone else how do you react? Do you support their decisions or oppose what they do?

We all know the fans of celebrities like to overreact at certain things or defend these celebrities so much that it seems like a war starts to happen. How do fans interact with each other and what is the result of drama with these celebrities? The fans of Gabi are called fancy babies and they love to flood her feed with comments of support and love. They think of her as a big sister and like to lift each other up in the comments. In one YouTube Video called “I had a sleepover with my subscribers!” fans post words of encouragements and reassurance that the still her no matter what. Lorena V. posted the following comment seven months ago, “I truly love gabi and her love for her fans and idc if someone syas she’s copying ari yo, she’s her own self get tf out. Btw love your videos” This comment sheds a light on the drama between Gabriella and her idol, Ariana Grande. Right under this comment Whitney S. posted, “Gabi is amazing. She really does love her subscribers. I really don’t understand why people hate her.” Gabriella took the time to go through her comments and love the ones she felt love from. These two subscribers were happy to see that Gabi Hearted their comments. Which is something that You Tubers can do when interacting with their fans on their YouTube videos.

There’s positive and negatives to every social platform. Some people love what you post, and others don’t. Under Whitney’s post Juli lol. Commented “bc she is a fake ass ariana wannabe.” This is when the interaction between fans go wrong. Usually this starts a commenting war on social media that leads to the Star turning off the comments in their videos. One thing I can say is that when this negative comment was posted, it was the end of the negative comments. Whitney didn’t respond and just let her fellow member say what she wanted to say about Gabriella. In this community there are times when the members let the negative comments be and not continue the hate. However, there are other times when they don’t hold back and argue with each other, especially when the drama between Gabriella Demartino and Ariana Grande occurred.

On February 28, 2017, Gabriella Demartino posted a video called ‘Dangerous Woman Tour Vlog “wannabe” meets Ariana (footage)’ in this video she talks about her experience with meeting Ariana Grande and how she was afraid of going because of the hate she was getting from Ariana’s fans. This is their interaction from the vlog:

Gabriella: “I’ve been influenced by you for years. I’ve gotten a lot of hate for it but I’ll never stop supporting you ari”

Ariana: “Omg thank you thank you, it’s nice to meet you. You look beautiful we have like the same thing going on, so cute.”

“I’m sorry that you got hate. Just keep being yourself”

Towards the end of the video she explains how she was feeling and how the words that Ariana said meant a lot to her. Gabi was getting so much hate that when it came to be going to an Ariana concert, she needed to have her own security detail and wanted to find a discreet place, in case something did happen. Gabi explained how she had an amazing time and was shocked by all the people who showed her love as well. She believed that Ariana’s fans were going to kill her. Of course, we love and follow many celebrities, and this is exactly one of those times when fans were ‘stuck in the middle’.

In this community some subscribers consider themselves fans of both Ariana Grande and Gabi Demartino. So, when this drama rose to the surface, I was able to see how fans were divided by this. One subscriber Katelyn Rose commented on how Ariana told Gabi to be herself. “I like how she said keep being yourself and now she shades her on Twitter.” This gets other members attention and they start to try to explain why Ariana posted what she posted on twitter. Aveda Rose specifically wrote that “Ari meets SO many people. She probably had no idea they were the same people.” Which then gets another member to take Ari’s side and say, “Ok but Gabi isn’t being herself, she’s trying to be like ari.” (Typical Jennifer) This interaction doesn’t seem to be that bad, there’s no bashing or the use of curse words. Just members simply stating their opinion on the matter. Which I would like to believe is what happens whenever there’s another drama alert.

Final Draft:

Growing up one may have many idols; someone they look up to and aspire to be. Our mom, dad, celebrities, are just a few. Think about your first idol. Did you like to dress like them? tried to talk like them and like the same things they do? Someone who I’ve loved since I was young gave me the idea of my first car, even my favorite color. He’s someone who has a kind heart and someone I wish I can meet in life. But this isn’t about my idol, it’s about the fans who idolize Gabriella Demartino. A YouTube star and lifestyle blogger. Gabi, which is what her fans like to call her, sings and loves Ariana Grande. Maybe just enough to look and dress like her. When you see someone you watch and follow everyday act like someone else how do you react? Do you support their decisions or oppose what they do?

We all know the fans of celebrities like to overreact at certain things or defend these celebrities so much that it seems like a war starts to happen. How do fans interact with each other and what is the result of drama with these celebrities? The fans of Gabi are called “fancy babies” and they love to flood her feed with comments of support and love. They think of her as a big sister and like to lift each other up in the comments. In one YouTube Video called “I had a sleepover with my subscribers!” fans post words of encouragements and reassurance that the still her no matter what. Lorena V. ( December 19, 2018). posted the following comment seven months ago, “I truly love gabi and her love for her fans and idc if someone says she’s copying ari yo, she’s her own self get tf out. Btw love your videos” This comment sheds a light on the drama between Gabriella and her idol, Ariana Grande. Right under this comment Whitney S. posted (December 19, 2018), “Gabi is amazing. She really does love her subscribers. I really don’t understand why people hate her.” Gabriella took the time to go through her comments and love the ones she felt love from. These two subscribers were happy to see that Gabi Hearted their comments. Which is something that You Tubers can do when interacting with their fans on their YouTube videos.

You may be wondering why I brought up Ariana Grande. Just like many of us, Ariana, is someone that Gabi goes to for inspiration. It’s hard to find your identity in general but figuring out who you are in the spotlight of millions is even harder. Especially for Gabi who is also a twin and grew upon social media as her YouTube career grew up. This artist helped Gabi find a way to who she is today, she helped her become a stronger person mentally, and helped her stand her ground on what she likes to wear and the lifestyle she likes to live. One comment that really stood out to me was, Forevergirl,(February 28, 2017) “…. I’m glad Gabi found her authentic self now and she is happy, she deserves it.” Its comments like this that can make someone’s day, reassurance from her own fans made Gabi realize that it’s okay to struggle in finding out who you are. Identity is something we all struggle with at one moment in time and any positivity helps. Being supported by those you love; help you continue with what you’re doing. Which is something that these members did for Gabi. This community reminded Gabi that it’s okay to find yourself, it’s okay to change your hair and clothes. She even made a video recently about her identity crisis and a member of this community commented “Yes girl! YouTube and the internet is shit right now and your here speaking your truth and opening up about yourself! I love it! Always stay true to who you are! And YOU are BEAUTIFUL, Gab!! Love you always.” (Chelsea Babyyyyy. December 19, 2018) At the end of the day the only way we are truly is happy is when we are happy with ourselves.

Gabriella: “I’ve been influenced by you for years. I’ve gotten a lot of hate for it but I’ll never stop supporting you ari”

Ariana: “Omg thank you thank you, it’s nice to meet you. You look beautiful we have like the same thing going on, so cute.”

“I’m sorry that you got hate. Just keep being yourself”

Towards the end of the video she explains how she was feeling and how the words that Ariana said meant a lot to her. Gabi was getting so much hate that when it came to be going to an Ariana concert, she needed to have her own security detail and wanted to find a discreet place, in case something did happen. Gabi explained how she had an amazing time and was shocked by all the people who showed her love as well. She believed that Ariana’s fans were going to kill her and was afraid that the crowd of people that surrounded her that night, were there to hurt her. Causing her to get anxious and leave the scene. Of course, we love and follow many celebrities, and this is exactly one of those times when fans were ‘stuck in the middle’.

In this community some subscribers consider themselves fans of both Ariana Grande and Gabi Demartino. So, when this drama rose to the surface, I was able to see how fans were divided by this. One subscriber Katelyn Rose (February 28, 2017) commented on how Ariana told Gabi to be herself. “I like how she said keep being yourself and now she shades her on Twitter.” This gets other members attention and they start to try to explain why Ariana posted what she posted on twitter. Aveda Rose ( Febryary 28, 2017 specifically wrote that “Ari meets SO many people. She probably had no idea they were the same people.” Which then gets another member to take Ari’s side and say, “Ok but Gabi isn’t being herself, she’s trying to be like ari.” (Typical Jennifer. February 28, 2017) This interaction doesn’t seem to be that bad, there’s no bashing or the use of curse words. Just members simply stating their opinion on the matter. Which I would like to believe is what happens whenever there’s another drama alert.

There’s positive and negatives to every social media platform. Some people love what you post, and others don’t. Under every video or picture being posted, there is always that person that hates on you. Whenever Gabi post anything pertaining to her identity and those who inspire her, she gets a lot of backlash from it, as if she can’t have her own idols. Someone named Pumpin Pie (January 27th, 2019) commented “No hate or anything but this was cringe.” Members even end up arguing with each other under videos, that has resulted in Gabi disabling her comments in the past. For example, Jahquez Vaughn (January 27th, 2019) commented under one of the members joke and said “Xø Queen ain’t nobody hating on her she is copying somebody else she needs to be self-acting like she Ariana Grande that stupid.” This resulted in other members saying that it doesn’t matter who she acts like, it’s not affecting us, that they need to support her, and that a lot of these videos are just for jokes. Which is true, after going through so much Gabi has learned to joke a lot about the things, she has experienced. I love that about her because I do the same. It’s like if I can joke about it then what others say don’t matter.

A lot of the time we forget that these celebrities and social media stars are human just like us. We forget that they have feelings and go through a lot of the same things we deal with every day. Just like it’s hard for us to open up and admit to things, it’s hard for them too. I admire that Gabi tries to break that barrier between member and gatekeeper, not many do. She holds contest and events to meet and spend quality time with the people that follow and support her every day. There was even a time when she organized a sleep over with 50 of her members and recorder the whole thing. Gabi wanted to show that we are the same and that they can go to her for anything. It’s easy to forget that those who are always watched don’t have superpowers, that they break and make mistakes too. When your actually with that person your able to see how you’re not so different from each other. You’ll connect in a way that you won’t do over a screen or a comment section. Allie Van garen (December 19th, 2018) commented under the Youtube video that was recorded when the first sleepover occurred: “They were all so emotional!…You may not realize it, but you change lives of many people..” And she does.

Looking back at these videos and reading the comments of the subscribers, I’ve realized that being in the spotlight is hard. Growing up is hard and finding ourselves is hard. We take years and months just to feel comfortable in our own skin, our own bodies. Support is one of the biggest things needed to feel okay and sane, when we feel like we’re not ourselves.

Reference:

Allie Van garen (December 19th , 2018). I had a sleepover with my subscribers!

Gabi Demartino [ Comment as a response to the video].

Retrieved

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opqm8wq1GBo

Aveda Rose ( February 28th, 2017). DANGEROUS WOMAN TOUR VLOG!

“wannabe” meets ariana (FOOTAGE) [ Comment as a response to the video].

Retrieved

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsfKIGC2QzM

Chelsea Babyyyyy (May 17th, 2019). My identity crisis caught on camera

(exposing myself + admitting) .[Comment as a response to the video].

Retrieved