A video of YouTube vlogger Jordan Cheyenne demanding her son pose for a photo while crying has gone viral.
The video has been viewed over 1 million times on Twitter and has reignited the debate around Cheyenne and her treatment of her son in her vlogs.
The mockingly edited video shows Cheyenne telling her crying son to rest his head on her shoulder to pose for a picture to be used as a YouTube video thumbnail.
so this youtuber and her son had a puppy that passed away and she forgot to edit out the clips of her forcing him to cry more for her video thumbnail so she could get more views 😭 the world has lost it pic.twitter.com/EHvFlKM8tW
— molls 𐐪𐑂♡☽☆ (@444molls) January 17, 2022
She tells her son, Christian, to make specific poses and to "act like [he's] crying" as she pulls her own sad face at the camera.
Her son remarks that he is genuinely crying and upset as Cheyenne continues to give him instructions on how to pose for the camera. Throughout the edited version of the clip, annotations highlight Cheyenne's response to her son. Sad music and raining effects have also been added.
The internet has quickly condemned Cheyenne and influencers on social media platforms, with many arguing that they trick young people into believing their videos are genuine.
The original clip of the interaction was posted in September 2021 and resulted in a backlash that led to the YouTube star releasing an apology video. This video is no longer available on Cheyenne's YouTube page but has been reuploaded by other users.
In her apology, entitled "we are heartbroken, she addressed the original video and explained to her then 537,000 subscribers that she and her son had genuinely been crying much of that day. It had been an emotional time as they had learned a puppy they had bought was suffering from canine parvovirus and was sent to the vet.
She did say that she felt her actions were "disgusting" and agreed with her critics that she should not have behaved that way. She also said that her son would no longer be in her videos going forward.
"I rewatched it and you guys are completely right, 100 million percent right," Cheyenne said.
She continued: "I was so flustered and emotional all day and trying to rush with Christian at the end and I told him 'hey, pose for a thumbnail, this is a sad video, act sad.'
"That is just... it is so wrong, I should have never done that, looking back at the footage I am so disgusted with myself."
When the video went viral for the first time, Cheyenne told Newsweek she had no one to blame but herself.
"I love my son with everything I have, he's my absolute best friend, I have no one else to blame but myself for this," she told Newsweek.
"He is completely off my YouTube channel for the foreseeable future, and I'm taking time away myself as well. I sincerely can't say how genuinely disappointed in myself I am, how horrifying and heartbreaking this has all been, nothing matters right now besides getting offline and prioritizing my son."
After the backlash, Cheyenne deleted some of her social media profiles. At the time of writing, her Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages are back up but she has not uploaded a YouTube video in over 4 months.
Newsweek has contacted Jordan Cheyenne for comment.
