Controversies

A list of Kalel controversies. Here for archival purposes only and not mean to shame or upset Kalel.

Controversies without sufficient evidence will be removed.

## Her name

Kalel's name has been a topic of conversation among viewers since she began posting on YouTube.

Kalel's real name is Kristin Smith (although some sources say Kristen) and she has used the name Kalel online since she started her channel in 2009. It is unknown if Kalel has legally changed her name from Kristen to Kalel Smith or Kalel Cullen.

Earlier on in her YouTube career Kalel claimed Kalel Cullen was her real name:

In a Q&A posted on her channel in 2009:

* **Q:** Is That Your Real Name?
* **A:** YES. I was named after Clark Kent. My parents were huge fans. My father's family originated in Scotland, that's where Cullen came from...not Twilight, haha.

**Source:** Wayback Machine capture of the QueenBeeuty YouTube Channel, August 2009

Allegedly Kalel confessed in a video posted to her QueenBeeuty channel that Kalel was not her birth name, but did not reveal her real name. However this video has yet to resurface on the web, so it is unknown if this is just a rumor or the truth.

In April 2010 Kalel posted a picture to Twitter with her then boyfriend, Nick. Using the name Nick Jones and Missouri, an anonymous blogger was able to find Nick's Facebook account, which led them to finding Kalel's account in his friends list. The account was under the name Kristin Smith. (We will not be sharing Nick's Facebook account here for privacy reasons. Anyone linking to the account will receive a 1 week ban).

Some fans where upset at the revolution that Kalel was not using her real name. Some fans claimed Kalel had said she had legally changed her name to Kalel and when fans found this wasn't true they became upset at Kalel for "lying about her name again".

October 18th 2013, Kalel wrote a post on her then blog Frilly + Fancy titled "I am a not a liar" where she talked about her name controversy.

"I started posting videos on YouTube because I was bored. That is all. I had no intention of it getting popular and taking me to where I am today. So naturally, I didn't take it very seriously. My videos were getting about 500 views, so why would I hold back on having a little fun with it? I mean, imagine you met this cute guy online, and you started to chat, but found out he lives 3000 miles away, so you're like hey- I'll never meet this guy, why not embellish myself a bit, just for fun? That was me. But they were the TINIEST lies. My name. The story of how I got my name. What year I was in college. THE END. Those are the ONLY things I have ever lied about. People will try and tell you otherwise, but that is 100% the truth. So can you believe that just those tiny little lies have spiraled into this big, huge deal? I honestly still can't.

So fast forward to a few months later. I'm still making videos, but they're actually getting quite a lot of views! About 40,000-50,000/video (which believe it or not was considered A LOT for an average YouTuber back then, hahaha). And I have this moment where I'm like… "shit, I feel like I should come clean before this slaps me in the face!". So I make a video about it. \*sigh\* I shouldn't have done that. But I just felt like it was the right thing to do! So I made this dumb video called "I'm A Liar", and I came clean about it all. I apologized and I came clean."

## Sources

1. ↑ *Kalel = Kristin ?!* Via unkn0wncritic.blogspot.com [Archive.org]