Fans are congratulating YouTube star Gabbie Hanna after she uploaded a 17-minute-long apology video following a string of incidents that sparked concern from viewers.
Gabbie Hanna is an OG content creator who first found fame on Vine and went on to build a substantial presence on apps like TikTok and YouTube.
Over the last two years, Hanna has been a subject of worry for viewers, which started after she posted over one hundred videos to her TikTok profile in a single day back in August 2022.
Hanna later explained the incident as a manic episode brought on by her bipolar disorder. In 2023, she didn’t post on any of her accounts for a year… but since 2024, she’s returned to posting vlog-style content to her main YouTube channel, The Gabbie Show.
Gabbie Hanna concerned viewers during what she called a ‘manic’ episode where she posted hundreds of videos to social media about topics like religion and death.
On September 12, 2024, Gabbie uploaded a 17-minute-long video titled “A Long Overdue Apology.” In the video, Gabbie sat outside on the grass near some logs as she gave out lengthy apologies to her former collaborators, managers, agents, and even networks like MTV.
The YouTuber claimed that the ten-year anniversary of her YouTube channel prompted her to “reflect” on her past behavior, inspiring her to write down a long list of folks with whom she felt she needed to make things right.
“A special ‘I’m sorry’ goes out to MTV and YouTube and YouTube Originals, because I was difficult to work with,” she said. “I took a lot of opportunities that I didn’t deserve and had no business doing.”
“I was selfish,” she continued, reading out of her notes. “[I] only cared about how I could benefit. Thank you. I’m sorry, and I got my lick back.”
Gabbie went on to apologize to her friends for “gossiping” about them and being a “dark cloud” of negative energy during her career, as well as anyone who was the focus of “storytime” videos she shared with fans.
Throughout her video, Gabbie also referenced her newfound focus on religion, saying that “God humbled me and taught me empathy.” The YouTuber also explained that she is in the middle of deleting much of her old content as it no longer reflects her current beliefs and “wasn’t a representation of Christ.”
She gave out an apology to her fans for being a “bad role model,” saying she exhibited “poor and reckless behavior,” calling her old self “self-centered, vain, and prideful.”
At one point, Hanna even broke out into song for an apparent impromptu praise and worship session. The YouTuber called her old self an “NPC” and a “robot” for “not having the Holy Spirit” in her at the time.
For now, Gabbie says she’s “doing everything [she] can to counteract” her old content and claimed that she will try to be more consistent with her uploads and “do better” overall.
She ended her video with a five-minute-long prayer, during which the screen was blacked out.
Thus far, the response from fans has been extremely positive. Commenters say that Hanna has “grown” and “matured” from her past content, with one saying her video “felt so healing.”
A fellow creator, YouTuber Joey Graceffa, uploaded a TikTok video with his take on the situation, saying he accepts her apology and that he found her video “sincere.”
“I personally can see the growth that she has undergone, and I am happy to bury it,” he said.
He made a similar comment underneath her YouTube video, to which she responded with a heart emoji.
However, some viewers are demanding that Hanna mention Jessi Smiles, a fellow YouTuber with whom Gabbie had a dramatic and highly-publicized falling out in 2019-2020.
While Gabbie didn’t mention anyone by name in her video, many viewers are taking the generalized apology to include Smiles and other creators with whom she had a negative relationship.