YouTuber Zoella Faces Calls To Apologise After 'Homophobic' And Fat-Shaming Tweets Are Unearthed On Her Account

She has stayed silent after deleting the offending posts.

YouTube star Zoe Sugg - better known as Zoella - is under fire, after homophobic and fat-shaming tweets were unearthed on her Twitter account.

The vlogger is currently facing calls to apologise, having since deleted the offending tweets following an online backlash.

YouTube star Zoella
YouTube star Zoella
PA Wire/PA Images

Zoe initially came in for criticism over the price of her beauty advent calendar, which was on sale for £50 - a prize many claimed was too expensive.

However, attention soon moved to tweets previous sent from her Twitter handle @Zoella that made slurs against gay men and made comments about “fat chavs”.

I find it so funny how zoella has managed to rebrand herself as some kind of sweet, unproblematic saint pic.twitter.com/aiMpGIe7ER

— 🐝🐝 (@LHLX_) November 14, 2017

One tweet send in 2010 read: “I find it funny when gay men spit…it’s like they’re trying to be a bit macho but never works…”

Another sent in 2010 read: ”‘why are these clothes so expensive’ because they’re designer you tramp, that there in your hand is a dress worth over £2000. Haha”.

In others sent from 2010 to 2012, she also referred to an ‘X Factor’ contestant as a “fat chav”, and also said that an unidentified woman should “keep her legs shut”.

While it is unconfirmed if Zoe - who boasts nearly 12 million followers on the social networking site - sent the tweets herself, they have now been deleted.

However, the YouTuber has remained silent on the matter - something which many fans are not happy about:

Hi @Zoella, while you’re online and deleting your old homophobic tweets, will you also be apologising for them? Thanks

— Joshua Fox (@joshua_fox) November 15, 2017

Zoella has been awfully quiet on social media since the backlash of her calendar started, it's like she doesn't want to apologise for exploiting young kids and their parents 🙃

— ami 🍁 (@hxpeful_x) November 15, 2017

with the Zoella thing part of me wants to give her the benefit of the doubt because she wrote those tweets 7 years ago. In a completely different social climate. but part of me doesn’t and I want her to make a video and fucking apologise

— char misses h very much !¡! (@hschonce) November 15, 2017

I really couldn't give less of a fuck about Zoella's advent calendar but I will say this; if we don't want to be judged for the stuff we've said in the past, we must apologise. Own up to it. Hold ourselves accountable. The onus is on us to admit fault, not on others to forget.

— ☁️holly bolly☁️ (@hollycassell) November 14, 2017

@Zoella You should apologise for these tweets. You were 20 years old so you were in a position to know better. Can't use age as an excuse.

— James (@jxmeselliott) November 14, 2017

I’m disgusted at @Zoella

We love a homophobic, fat-shaming, classist https://t.co/VoqIDsm0BU

— taylor (@taylor_zamo) November 15, 2017

While some people were keen to point out some of the tweets were sent seven years ago and she will have since grown as a person, others were quick to point out she still would have been 20/21 at the time, and did not see this as an excuse:

I know those zoella tweets are old but she was like 20ish, you’d think she’d know better than to tweet fatphobic, transphobic, homophobic things like that uh

— gris (@duasharry) November 14, 2017

Fkn hell man it doesn’t fkn matter HAHA point is, it’s the 21st century & 20 has never been an acceptable age to be a homophobic overcharging rich snob

— Jen (@jenny_awright) November 14, 2017

She's famous, she should've removed the tweets and apologised. Transphobic, homophobic, fat phobic and slut shaming tweets are not okay from a 20+ year old. Tana mongoose got dragged cos she said the n word at 13, and zoella had 7+ years on her.

— Merry chrshmysh (@Youtubetrashxo) November 15, 2017

people making excuses for zoella and saying that she was ‘just young’ are ridiculous, age doesn’t allow you to be horribly rude and homophobic

— Amy 🌺 (@theauburnagenda) November 14, 2017

@Zoella You should apologise for these tweets. You were 20 years old so you were in a position to know better. Can't use age as an excuse.

— James (@jxmeselliott) November 14, 2017

I can’t believe anyone would think that Zoella isn’t accountable for tweets she wrote when she was 20 years old. that’s not that young and your basic morals and opinions are well and truly founded by that age

— Ellie Cooper 🏰 (@hrhelliecooper) November 14, 2017

HuffPost UK has contacted a representative for Zoella and is awaiting a response.

The 27-year-old has become an internet sensation since posting her first video on YouTube in 2009, and now has over 12 million subscribers who watch her posts.

Her content focuses primarily on beauty, and she has since gone onto launch various products in this space.

She previously came under fire last year when she was outed for having used a ghostwriter on her debut book ‘Girl Online’.

Zoe later spoke out about the controversy, claiming it had knocked her confidence.

“It was horrible. I worked really hard on the book and it was all me – the characters, the story,” she told Cosmopolitan. “I felt as if I was being attacked and I was like, ‘I’m going to shut my laptop, I can’t be bothered with all this’.

“It knocked my confidence massively. When it came round to the second book, I felt I couldn’t and that it had all been ruined. It took a lot for me to put that behind me and move forward.”

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