Updated: June 11th, 2023
Trent Ballinger, the brother of mega-YouTube star Colleen Ballinger, has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a young fan of his sister’s.
Trent has been featured on Colleen’s channels over the years, most notably in 2018 when Colleen documented his experience getting a cochlear implant for his hearing impairment.
Trent also features on Rachel Ballinger’s channel, their youngest sister.
In a lengthy Twitter thread posted on June 8th, a user named Oliver (Ollie) shared multiple screenshots of alleged messages sent to them from Trent when they were 13-14 years old and Trent was in his 30s. Ollie also included a screen recording to verify the messages.
Ollie now uses they/he pronouns but was using she/her at the time of the messages.
The messages start with Trent telling Ollie not to share their conversation with anyone and that anything they speak about stays between them.
“Im told not to speak to people under 18,” Trent wrote. “I do so just to spread positivity.”
Throughout the messages, Trent discussed Ollie’s sexual orientation, got possessive over the minor, and gave Ollie the nickname “peapod.” He guilted Ollie over the prospect of them forgetting about him one day and on more than one occasion, he appeared very concerned over Ollie labeling themselves as bisexual and gay.
Ollie also claims that Trent sometimes sent them their own photos with different edits, writing, “to think of those pics being in his camera roll now.”
In one alleged message, Trent told 13-year-old Ollie that they “kinda look like” his last girlfriend and in other messages, tried to coax them into talking about sex.
Ollie shared multiple messages in which Trent seemed to get upset when they were going to sleep for the night or wanted to take a break from Twitter.
Trent often called Ollie “cute” and “pretty”, told them multiple times to visit him, and asked Ollie to send him a “special video” just for him. In one message he told Ollie that they would “look good” pregnant and on Ollie’s 14th birthday Trent wrote “4 more years and ur 18.”
He seemingly admitted to video-chatting with Colleen’s underage fans in the past and told Ollie that he stopped because his parents said that could get him in trouble.
“I stopped cuz parents were like that can get u in trouble and colleen posted a video I got mad at,” he writes. “Cuz ur parents could take it the wrong way like Id do something horrible to u.”
Ollie confirmed to Centennial World that they “never” video-chatted with Trent despite discussing it.
After being questioned on the validity of the messages, Ollie uploaded a video of them scrolling through their messages to prove they were not doctored.
Following Ollie’s thread, other former fans of Colleen have come forward saying they also messaged members of the Ballinger family while they were minors.
Some have come to Trent’s defense, claiming he has a disability and does not possess the mental maturity of a man in his 30s. Others claim this is no excuse, as he allegedly states in the messages shared by Ollie that he knows he should not be messaging minors but is choosing to do so anyways.
These accusations come off the back of a tumultuous week for Colleen and her fandom.
On June 3rd, KodeeRants, a drama channel and longtime follower of viral culture, came forward about their experience as a Colleen Ballinger fan.
After a nearly four-month hiatus from the internet, Kodee uploaded a YouTube video titled “why I left the colleen ballinger fandom…” in which they broke down the dynamics of the fandom— discussing their parasocial relationship with Colleen and how this bond prevented them from recognising the influencer’s problematic behaviour.
Kodee also validated Adam McIntyre’s story— another former fan of Colleen’s who shared his experience being part of her fandom back in 2020. His experience included being sent lingerie from Colleen when she was in her 30s and he was 13 years old.
Kodee has since removed all content from their channel following a video by commentary creator Dustin Dailey who called them out for also being in Colleen fandom group chats with minors (something Kodee did address in their video).
Colleen has not addressed the mounting backlash at the time of writing.