William Sledd
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William L. Sledd (born October 11, 1983 in Paducah, Kentucky) is a video blogger who came to international attention via YouTube, a popular video sharing site. William rapidly gained notoriety with his "Ask A Gay Man" series. Each of his videos regularly achieves in excess of 50,000 views and as of 30 January 2007, his most popular video "Ask A Gay Man: Denim Edition" had attracted over 1,500,000 views [1]), as result of having been a featured video by YouTube.
William lives in Paducah, Kentucky, USA and works at GAP. GAP products are occasionally featured in his program (although he has declared he is not paid for product placement or advertising by the company.[2])
YouTube fame
William's trademarks are his hair, clothes, flamboyance and referring to his viewers as "bitches". William is one of the fastest growing and most viewed director/bloggers on YouTube, ranking in the top ten Most Subscribed (All Time) category as of November 1, 2006.
On September 23, 2006, his personal YouTube account was illegally hacked and all his content (including videos, comments, honours, etc.) was deleted. William then recorded a brief response to the criminals and went on to re-upload select videos. (His response video has been removed by him at the moment).
On November 2, 2006, Woman's Wear Daily printed an article named Denim Dish. William Sledd was featured in the article as "Youtube's Fashion Find". The periodical interviewed William after his video "Ask A Gay Man: Denim Edition" was released.
On November 18, 2006, William Sledd posted a video named "Where In The World Is William Sledd", shot in the streets of Los Angeles. He explained he was there because certain producers invited him for a meeting. However, the nature of these meetings was not made clear. William then went on an unusually long (for him) hiatus, not posting any videos for several weeks. This fueled rumors among his fans that he had been killed, or his camera stolen, or worse, that he had a bad haircut and was trying to keep a low profile.[1]
To fend off such rumors, William finally posted on December 7, 2006, a 20 second video aptly titled simply "I'm NOT Dead", promising new video footage, for the following night. The promise went unfulfilled, as there was no new video in the following two days. In the comments for "I'm NOT Dead" William mentioned that the GAP was overloaded with work during the Christmas season, leaving him too busy. Coincidently, on the same day William returned to YouTube, his WikiPedia article was unlocked by the admin who had locked it, prompting a tongue-in-cheek video response from a fan regarding the event.
But William did reappear, on December 12, 2006, albeit four days late. His video entitled "Ask A Gay Man : Rodeo Dr. Edition" allowed some insight into what actually took place during his stay in Los Angeles. The title referred to Rodeo drive, a popular shopping spot, but the "Dr." abbreviation confused some viewers who took it to mean "Rodeo doctor". This video revealed a brand new title sequence and featured his new friend, newscaster Courtney Fiel, a young woman who appeared to know him from his videos. William did some night-time sightseeing, visiting the great stores, like Prada, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, among others. We finally see him wearing his "man bag", a Gucci item first featured in his birthday party video. It was one of the gifts. He remained mysterious regarding the deal with the producers, but was clear in saying he had rejected whatever contract had been offered. Thus, he returned to KY for the Gap Holiday Season. This video ended with some promise of further L.A. stories being revealed.
But a whole month passed and a new video did not materialise. Then, on the first day of January, 2007, William updated his official site. He explained that he had just been busy with work, and dispelled rumors that implied he required network approval to post new videos. This expanded version of his web site includes a blog section and a photo album. However, William is not allowing comments on his blog because his hosting company does not provide compatibility with his iWeb blog pages, and he lacks the funds to transfer his site to .Mac.
Starting January 1st, William Sledd added a "Donate" PayPal button on his site and began accepting monetary donations from his viewers. Among the first people to donate were noted Broadway actress Christine Ebersole and the grandson of Josef Mengele, which attests to the diversity in his fan base.
About the decision to run on donations, William stated: "i know all the drama that happened with other people when they started paypal donations and im hoping to skip out on that, i just am looking for a way to ease some of the crap in my life so i can make more videos cause i KNOW how much you guys LOVE them, and its not like i care how much anyones sends, it could be a dollar and i would be just as happy! I just want to be able to make videos all the time and not have to work as much!"[2]
Continuing to rise in the public eye, William was given a tribute song entitled "Cupcakes". It was played on the radio show "DeLuca in the Morning" on Q92 in Ohio.[3]
The holiday season being over, William Sledd was able to finish his first video of 2007. It was called "Ask a Gay Man: Closet Edition" and was the longest of his Youtube videos to date. One of its topics was his appearance in the January 2007 issue of Instinct Magazine in an small article on page 15, named "Sister Sledd", that included his photograph. In the video, William said he would be giving away a signed copy of the magazine to a random person who commented on his video. The movie was named "Closet Edition" because it featured a look into his large closet, showing all his garments are organised by colour. This was also the first William Sledd video to include an actual trailer to a video promised for "Next Week". This video also generated interest because William said he would be selecting questions from emails, and then calling the senders on the phone. He would then tape his conversations with his viewers for a possible future video. In this video, William also did his trademark "underwear dance" for a much longer period than in any of his old movies, cycling through several different pairs of American Apparel briefs. Finally, he dedicated a few seconds to show he was a big fan of Christine Ebersole, who in turn was a big fan of his.
Rumors flew around, in the thousands of comments, when the first 2007 video was released. They are listed here because they reveal what sort of buzz William has been generating. Some of the "rumors" may not be rumors at all, but factoids let out by those close to William as they often do comment on the videos.
- William signs 6 month hold with NBC to produce his own show.
- William speaks with Rosie O'Donnell about his videos
- William in talks with doing story with unnamed famous fashion designer for Yahoo news.
- William leaves for Texas next week to do a story with Elle magazine
- William talks with owner of mondonation for a William Sledd t-shirt collection.
- "Ask a Gay Man: The Book" is offered to William Sledd
The interesting thing about these rumors is that at least one has been confirmed so far. In a completely unexpected move, on January 19, 2007, William released a new, unannounced video named "Ask A Gay Man: Hair Edition 2". This was not the mysterious "overalls" video promised previously on the trailer, but an entirely new production, featuring two of William's previously featured friends, Karson Kelley and The Girl Known As "Stephanie". Karson had appeared much earlier in the original "Hair Edition" video. In this new video he looked quite different and not immediately recognisable. Throughout the video, William is getting highlights done for his trip to Texas, where he will be doing a story for ELLE magazine. At the end of the cut, William and The Girl Known As "Stephanie" re-enact a popular exchange from "Ask a gay man: Denim Edition". This went over well with the fans, who had often wanted to see both Stephanie and scene-stealing Karson Kelley again in more videos.
William has only ever dispelled one rumor: That he needed network approval before releasing videos. This was addressed in his official site. He does not have an official position on the others.
Other fan reaction has been that the Rodeo Dr. video might have been a turning point in the history of his productions. Fans argue among themselves that the transformation of William Sledd into a celebrity could take away from what attracted them to him. Others believe this is just due course and they will follow his career regardless.
See also
References
- ^ "Ask A Gay Man: Denim Edition". YouTube. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
- ^ "The Truth about William Sledd". YouTube. Retrieved 2006-11-03.