ICYMI: Kayla Malec Deserves Online Justice, Too

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim explain the situation surrounding influencer Kayla Malec and beauty YouTuber James Charles. Malec is a 19-year-old TikToker who was in a 9-month relationship with a content creator named Evan Johnson. After their breakup, Malec posted a YouTube video accusing her ex-boyfriend of domestic abuse and violence. Days later, Johnson was charged by officials in Tennessee with domestic assault, and last week, he pled guilty to those charges and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. While Malec did win this case, somehow, the controversial makeup influencer James Charles entered the scene and caused more drama than necessary. ICYMI will explain how Malec’s story got sabotaged and overshadowed by influencers who may be trying to get clout off of her trauma, and why James Charles is somehow always involved in internet drama. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Candice Lim.
0:14.6	And I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I see why am I.
0:18.8	In case you missed it.
0:20.3	Slate's podcast about internet culture.
0:23.2	And before we dive in today, how are our weekends?
0:26.2	You know, it was good.
0:27.2	Went outside, enjoyed the sun, did watch Goodwill Hunting for the first time.
0:31.2	And guess what, Kate?
0:32.1	Good movie.
0:33.0	I enjoyed it.
0:34.3	Wow.
0:35.5	Someone should have brought up that that's a good movie.
0:39.0	Yep, yep, yep. Someone should have brought up that that's a good movie. Yep, yep, yep.
0:41.2	Someone should have told you before this. Exactly.
0:55.9	Well, I'm glad you at a good weekend because my weekend was spent many hours deep into a story that is developing on TikTok right now that kind of started earlier this month and then again this past week and
1:00.0	it's still developing on my TikTok for you page. We're talking about what's going on with
1:04.9	Kayla Malick and James Charles. And I want to note up top that today's episode will include
1:10.5	discussion of domestic violence and abuse.
1:13.1	So let's start with a YouTube video that was posted by one of our main characters today, influencer Kayla Malik.
1:20.0	Back in April, Malik posted a two-hour-long video, and she starts by saying this.
1:24.8	For the past nine months, I have been in arguably one of the worst mentally, mentally, physically abusive relationships
1:47.0	I could ever imagine something I never thought
	...

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