Connor Franta reflects on coming out publicly in 2014, the same year he came out privately to loved ones
His coming out video garnered 12 million views and sparked widespread support from fans and the LGBTQ community
Franta says his YouTube career and personal life were deeply intertwined, making it natural to share his truth
Connor Franta likens his coming out process to his YouTube career: "slow, then all at once," he tells PEOPLE.
In 2014, when he was just 22 years old, Franta posted a video that would then rock the internet community, racking up 12 million views and nearly 160,000 comments.
"2014 is truly the year that I have accepted who I am and become happy with that person, so today I want to talk to you guys about that and be open and honest and tell you that I'm gay," a young Franta, clad in a plaid flannel over a gray shirt, told his audience at the time.
"I hope this doesn't change a thing," he wrote in the caption of the now 12-year-old video. However, like his rapidly evolving YouTube career, things would change — though perhaps not in the way he had braced himself for.
"I came out personally to the first person ever in the same year I came out publicly to my entire YouTube audience," he tells PEOPLE. "So it was a very fast-tracked process. I mean, in many ways that is kind of who I am as a person that once I want to go for something or once I accept something or I have a goal or a mission, it's kind of hard for me to not just seek it out. So I think once I'd come out to one person and then my family and then my friends, it was like, 'Well, why wouldn't I just come out to everyone? This is just what it is.'"
Maybe it was trust in his audience, or just naiveté, Connor says, but it made "no sense" to him to keep facets of himself "hidden" from anyone
He echoes a refrain to PEOPLE: "My life was my career" and vice versa. "I think it was the perfect combination that everything was growing — content was king," he recalls of those golden years of YouTube.
By no means did Franta invent the coming out video, he says, despite the eventual cultural impact his own would have. In fact, he had watched a few before making his own, realizing that it might be much simpler than he had imagined. "I thought, 'Oh, you really just sit down, tell your story and tell everyone and then hope for the best.'"
The response to his video was "unfiltered joy and support," which Franta took for granted at the time. "The fact that I was welcomed, I think that shaped who I am today in many ways, and that my experience could have been completely different."
His coming out video garnered 12 million views and sparked widespread support from fans and the LGBTQ community
Franta says his YouTube career and personal life were deeply intertwined, making it natural to share his truth
Connor Franta likens his coming out process to his YouTube career: "slow, then all at once," he tells PEOPLE.
In 2014, when he was just 22 years old, Franta posted a video that would then rock the internet community, racking up 12 million views and nearly 160,000 comments.
"2014 is truly the year that I have accepted who I am and become happy with that person, so today I want to talk to you guys about that and be open and honest and tell you that I'm gay," a young Franta, clad in a plaid flannel over a gray shirt, told his audience at the time.
"I hope this doesn't change a thing," he wrote in the caption of the now 12-year-old video. However, like his rapidly evolving YouTube career, things would change — though perhaps not in the way he had braced himself for.
"I came out personally to the first person ever in the same year I came out publicly to my entire YouTube audience," he tells PEOPLE. "So it was a very fast-tracked process. I mean, in many ways that is kind of who I am as a person that once I want to go for something or once I accept something or I have a goal or a mission, it's kind of hard for me to not just seek it out. So I think once I'd come out to one person and then my family and then my friends, it was like, 'Well, why wouldn't I just come out to everyone? This is just what it is.'"
Maybe it was trust in his audience, or just naiveté, Connor says, but it made "no sense" to him to keep facets of himself "hidden" from anyone
He echoes a refrain to PEOPLE: "My life was my career" and vice versa. "I think it was the perfect combination that everything was growing — content was king," he recalls of those golden years of YouTube.
By no means did Franta invent the coming out video, he says, despite the eventual cultural impact his own would have. In fact, he had watched a few before making his own, realizing that it might be much simpler than he had imagined. "I thought, 'Oh, you really just sit down, tell your story and tell everyone and then hope for the best.'"
The response to his video was "unfiltered joy and support," which Franta took for granted at the time. "The fact that I was welcomed, I think that shaped who I am today in many ways, and that my experience could have been completely different."
3 months ago
