Is it over? Grayson and Ethan Dolan — known as the Dolan twins on YouTube — announced that they are stepping back from posting weekly videos during an interview with Shane Dawson in a video called “It’s Time to Move On …” published on October 8. The 19-year-old brothers have been sharing videos every Tuesday for the past five years and the hectic schedule has taken time away from their family and their personal lives. Basically, Ethan summed it up by explaining that they no longer are “gonna make s—t to f—king make s—t.”
Don’t worry, they’re not leaving YouTube altogether, but the brothers are looking forward to focusing more on the content they produce. “I think now it’s time to get excited because we realized if we have the proper amount of time, we can create something that we really love that our viewers will love as well,” Ethan acknowledged.
Their decision to slow down is something they’ve been thinking about for a while but were afraid of “letting people down.” Ethan also confessed that “20 times in the last five years” he’s wanted to completely quit from feeling so overwhelmed.
“Usually, that happens when I’m going through something hard in my life and I’m like, ‘How am I going to fake my mood? How am I going to be happy the next two days because I have to film a happy video?'” he explained. “Not being able to recover from certain things I’m going through because I’ve been posting made me want to quit so many times. And I guess I’m proud of myself for pushing through but then I feel like I stunted my self-growth because of that.”
The YouTubers lost their father, Sean Dolan, in January after an almost three-year-long battle with cancer. Grayson said their dad was their “number one fan” and wanted them to “keep going” despite his illness, but their influencer responsibilities made them feel like they’ve missed out on time with their loved ones. “Had we not been filming a video every week, we would have been able to spend more time with our family around the time that they needed us,” Ethan noted.
“It’s a job you can’t really take off because there’s a fear of being irrelevant or losing the people that counted on you,” Grayson admitted. “I can’t even go home to see my mom even though I know she needs me because she’s in the house alone and has no one there. And, I know she would need us and not tell us that but I’m out here like, ‘F—k I need to make a video to get up on Tuesday.'”
All in all, the twins want to regroup and find themselves again. “We did set out with a goal to make people’s lives better and change a large amount of people’s lives for the better. I think we kind of lost sight of that,” Grayson said. “I think trying to fit that mold made us feel more like a brand than a person and the fear that people weren’t going to consume and absorb us as much if it wasn’t a goofy video took over and stopped us from being who we were.” He added, “It kind of makes you a fake version of yourself.”
Although they had a fear that 19 was “too early to stop” their weekly uploads, Shane offered them a great piece of advice. “You’ve been doing it for five years and you’re going to run out of ideas, energy, steam,” the 31-year-old acknowledged. “The fact that you guys are so young and you’re working nonstop, I’m assuming you don’t have a life … You’re 19, you should be doing fun stuff and hanging out … you shouldn’t be chained to your computer.”
Good luck on your new adventure, Grayson and Ethan!