Who is Kayla Malec? Creator grows audience with her ‘crazy’ storytimes

Kayla Malec is a Gen Z influencer with over 12 million followers on TikTok and 1.32 million subscribers on YouTube, where she documents her self-described “crazy” life.

The 18-year-old entered the influencer scene via social media in 2019 and joined TikTok in 2020.

Malec is best known for her signature nose rings and storytime videos, where she retells stories about different situations in her life, such as sleeping in and trying to sneak past her dad’s cameras to get to school, going on adventures at the airport or the time she flirted with a guy at a grocery store only for his mom to request she take a pre-dating survey.

Why is Kayla Malec so popular?

The majority of Malec’s TikToks are somewhat simplistic compared to some of her influencer peers and feature her talking directly into the camera, frequently showing off a spattering of her signature faux freckles.

She is also known for her antics on camera, some of which are viewer-suggested. She has done everything from staining her lips with a Sharpie:

To eating two-month-old frozen candy:

To waxing her armpits on camera:

What are Kayla Malec’s past controversies?

Malec’s appearance, from her eyebrows to her makeup application to her freckles, is a frequent topic in her videos and her comment sections. In late August, beauty influencer James Charles reacted to one of her videos saying he wanted to do her makeup.

So that’s exactly what happened. Charles did Malec’s makeup in a series of highly viewed TikTok videos, with Malec dubbing the result as “insane.”

Not everyone appreciated the collab. In 2021, Charles was accused of grooming and inappropriately messaging multiple underage men.

A TikTok gossip subreddit also discussed the potential backlash Malec could face for collaborating with Charles. Beyond working with Charles, Redditors were surprised Malec even wanted the makeover, given how she’s branded herself online.

“Isn’t that her whole shtick… bad makeup, bad (fecking ridiculous) freckles, bad brows, bad painted nose rings?” one person pointed out.

“There is a 0% chance that you exist on the internet in any way and you aren’t aware of James Charles’ scandals. She knows,” another Reddit user alleged. Malec has not commented on the accusations against Charles. “I have no idea who this girl is, but if she is collabing with James, she knows exactly what she is doing.”

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