Meet the YouTuber taking on the platform’s biggest creator

Pansino said she is also in contact with roughly 30 former and current MrBeast LLC employees about the workplace culture at Donaldson’s production company.

“I think that they feel that they can trust me because I am one of the only large creators that has spoke up about my negative experience working with Jimmy,” Pansino said, “and I also let it publicly be known that I am going to start speaking up more and trying to hold people accountable, especially him and the people at his company.”

Still, Donaldson’s YouTube channel has continued to gain millions of subscribers in the weeks since the controversies began, and he has carried on uploading his usual videos.

Ready for backlash

Several longtime friends of Pansino said they’ve never known her as one to insert herself in internet drama, but that they were also unsurprised to see her take a stand against Donaldson.

Jen Spada, a hometown friend who met Pansino more than a decade ago through her sister and managing director Molly Lu, said that the creator “cares deeply” about people and has always exhibited a “very strong sense of fairness.”

“Even though she hasn’t gotten involved in many controversies in the past, it’s more like [Creator Games 3] was one that was very obvious and really affected her,” Spada said. “And when she started to speak up more and more, people started reaching out to her, and then she recognized, ‘I can use my platform as a voice for these other people.’”

Joey Graceffa, a fellow OG YouTuber who has regularly collaborated with Pansino, said his friend of nearly 10 years still gives off a “sweet grandma vibe.” Recently, however, he said he has watched her evolve into someone who is more open to expressing her thoughts online, even as some online question her intentions for speaking out.

When she first shared on X her concerns around “Beast Games,” some users replied suggesting she held a personal vendetta against Donaldson for her past negative experience with him, or that she might be seeking attention by going after the world’s biggest creator. Pansino has also posted on X defending herself against someone who accused her of “grifting.”

“It’s really scary putting yourself out there and standing up for what you think is right, and the fear of the death threats and all that would be enough to stop anyone from continuing talking about something,” Graceffa said. “So for people who do think she’s just doing this for attention, I would have to say: Would you want that kind of negativity being thrown at you, those threats?”

Describing the harassment she received when she first spoke out about her Creator Games 3 experience with Donaldson, Pansino said she thought she was having a heart attack: “My heart started hurting so bad. I found out later that was a panic attack, but I started shaking, and I was on the ground, and I started vomiting and I just wanted it to stop.”

But Pansino said she’s more equipped to handle the backlash this time around.

“Being a baker online for so many years and just bringing joy to people, that was just very intense,” she said. “I’ve never been through something like that before. I think that it changed me, and it made me want to get smarter and stronger.”