Who is Eugenia Cooney? Petition to 'cancel' YouTube-Twitch streamer who looks 'emaciated' crosses 45K signatures
Social media influencer Eugenia Cooney’s dangerous “eating habits” have stirred controversy yet again as her fans have signed a petition to cancel her across platforms. The YouTuber and Twitch streamer, who has amazed millions of fans with her videos on gaming, beauty, and vlogs, is being severely criticized for her “underweight” which has given rise to speculation of her suffering from “eating disorders”.
The petition reads: “Eugenia has been the subject of public speculation over the years for one very apparent reason: that Eugenia is incredibly underweight and visibly suffering with an eating disorder.”
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Who is Eugenia Cooney?
Cooney is an American YouTube personality and Twitch broadcaster based in California. She started her YouTube channel in 2011, mainly focusing on videos around fashion and make-up tutorials. She has over 2 million subscribers on YouTube and over 100,000 on Twitch.
Around 2015, her fans began making remarks about her fragile frame, which became more and more apparent. The comments pointed out that her appearance showed “signs of anorexia”. In late 2015, her videos received more dislikes than likes with the majority of them expressing concerns over her live streams. However, she refrained from commenting on her weight.
A petition was previously started on Change.org to ban her on YouTube. However, it was eventually taken down by the website due to “violation of community standards”.
Petition gets over 45,000 signatures
The latest petition started by Lily Rose to the CEOs of YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and Twitter which, has received around 45,671 signatures when this article was published. It begins with the disclaimer “Please be advised that the following content contains triggering information regarding weight, BMI and appearance.”
It reads, “In February 2019, Eugenia was assessed by medical professionals in regards to her low body weight and put on an involuntary treatment order or a 5150 - a 72-hour psychiatric hold - for assessment of her mental and physical health. Eugenia was subsequently hospitalized for what many speculate to be Anorexia Nervosa, a deadly eating disorder with the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.”
It talks about Eugenia’s return to the public eye through Shane Dawson’s Dawson’s ‘documentary’, which sees Eugenia speak “vaguely, about her struggles with an eating disorder, however, does not divulge which eating disorder she suffers from, nor does she encourage others to get help. This video has been viewed 31.9 million times as of the 20th December 2020.”
“Eugenia has stated that she weighs 38.8kg/84lbs at a height of 170cm tall or 5’7. Using the Body Mass Index scale, that gives Eugenia an estimated BMI of 13.1. According to the Body Mass Index scale, a score of anything below 18 is considered to be underweight,” the petition states and establishes that she is “suffering from a life-threatening eating disorder.”
It demands YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms to ban from uploading videos as she is “considerably underweight”. It further stated, “Aside from the concern that many have for Eugenia, that she may lose her life in the near future, it is also important to consider the impact that her illness is having on her audience. It is saddening to know that many young people look up to Eugenia and wish to look as she does: emaciated.”
It also notes, “Similarly, Instagram have policies in place to protect their audiences from harmful content. At this point in time, Eugenia has 769,000 followers on Instagram. I can tell you, from personal experience, that reporting her content does not do a thing.”
Emily Rose was anorexic for 12 years
Towards the end, Rose said, she started the petition as she battled anorexia from the age of 12 until she was 24. She was also an influencer with 4,000 followers, with whom she often shared pictures of videos of herself at an “extremely unhealthy weight and with a naso-gastric feeding tube in.”
“I influenced a group of people to pursue unhealthy beauty standards. I consider the fact that I had a small audience of only 4000 followers aka 0.20% of Eugenia’s audience and that with my small audience I was still able to affect so many people in such a negative way,” Rose as written.