Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of potentially triggering situations, such as racism, antisemitism and transphobia.
Media personality Trisha Paytas is not one to shy away from controversy — and that is evident through almost every one of her eras. These “eras” are how Paytas refers to her many different personas during her national tour. It’s a parody on Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour.” While she’s had a rocky past, many still choose to support her and hope her controversies are behind her.
Paytas is currently on “Trisha Paytas: The Eras of Trish Tour,” recounting her internet-ography mainly through her music videos. During the show, Paytas performs a song and then will talk about that song’s “era” after.
Paytas, who started YouTube in 2007 mainly creating videos about her celebrity crush Quentin Tarantino, has changed the direction of her videos countless times. She is now married to Moses Hacmon and has two kids, recently announcing the pregnancy of her third. She’s been focusing on her podcast, “Just Trish,” which came out in July 2023, while also making music videos for her songs.
Paytas has not always been in the spotlight for good reasons and has stirred countless controversies and been in many celebrity feuds. Despite her actions, some still choose to support her because she has taken accountability for her mistakes and publicly addressed her mental health issues.
Although she has taken accountability for some of her actions, many of her controversies are more serious than just influencer feuds. She has offended many communities by her actions, including pretending to be a Japanese pop star, facing accusations of racism and antisemitism and falsely coming out as transgender. Many of these serious controversies were a long time ago, however she was still an adult, and even many young people know better than to do these things.
Beauty influencer Nikita Dragun, who is transgender, has called out Paytas for trying to erase the success of the trans community during a feud they had in 2021. Additionally, many other people on social media have called her out for her racism and other controversies.
One influencer feud she had in 2020 was with influencers Charli and Dixie D’Amelio and James Charles. Paytas called out the D’Amelio's for being “entitled” and “ungrateful” because of a YouTube video the D’Amelio family posted with Charles where they were having dinner cooked by celebrity chef Aaron May. Charli and Dixie didn’t like the food he prepared, with Dixie spitting it out and Charli asking for “dino nuggets.” Paytas also called Charli “ungrateful” after the TikTok star made a comment about wanting more followers.
Paytas continued to make over 100 videos about the situation on her TikTok, even after the D’Amelios and Charles moved on. She’s confessed to trolling and creating content strictly for attention, and making over 100 videos about younger influencers is definitely one way to do it.
Controversy doesn’t follow Paytas, Paytas follows controversies, and despite harsh “cancel culture” on TikTok, Paytas somehow seems to persist through it all. While Paytas seems to be through her problematic eras for the most part and moving on from that stage in her life, many other influencers who make mistakes don’t get as many chances as Paytas has gotten.
One example of an influencer getting canceled and not getting as many chances as Paytas has gotten is TikToker OnlyJayus or Isabella Avila. Homophobic and racist messages from Avila were leaked, and many were not happy with her actions leading to her being canceled for it. While it is good that influencers are getting called out for problematic stuff they have done in the past, should influencers like Paytas be treated the same?
Despite her history, Paytas seems to be in a less problematic era of her life in the present.
Accountability seems to be a hard thing for many influencers, and they can’t own up to when they have done something wrong. Respectably, Paytas can usually own up to her mistakes.
Paytas is in a new era of her life with kids, a husband, and a successful podcast. She does have a controversial past but hopefully not a controversial future, and it is up to each person individually if they want to forgive and continue to support.
Paytas has a lot of loyal fans and has sold out countless of her shows. So far, she has performed 25 shows, her next being May 16 in Sacramento, California. Her tour will come to an end June 8 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
