Ash Hardell

Ash Hardell
Personal information
Occupations
Websitewww.hardellmedia.com
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2009–present[1]
Subscribers738 thousand (combined)[2][3]
Total views65.1 million (combined)[2][3]
Last updated: 13 April 2024

Ash Hardell (born Mardell) is an American author and YouTuber.[a]

They focus on being a voice for the LGBTQIA+ community and creating education content about sexual and gender diversity.[5][4]

Career

YouTube

Hardell started video blogging in 2009. Their videos focus on their own experience in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as educational content on different identities and orientations of the gender, romantic and sexual spectrum.[6]

In 2017, YouTube came under scrutiny for censoring LGBTQ content. After wide criticism, YouTube apologized for mistakes in their censorship of restricted mode that mistakenly censored LGBTQ content and mentioned Hardell's channel as one of the examples where their algorithm mistakenly classified their content as restricted.[7][8][9]

In 2019, YouTube came under further scrutiny for their weak response to harassment of LGBTQ content creators. Hardell was quoted in The Guardian that they received little support from the company despite years of harassment.[10] Hardell talked about hoping that YouTube revamps their harassment policy and more specifically lays out their rules.[11][12]

Hardell took a break from posting videos at the end of 2019 and returned to posting content in 2022 after a two and a half year break in their video titled Trauma. Transphobia. And the Internet. (why I left for 2.5 years) in which they talk about the extensive harassment they received from social media audiences as well as other transphobic content creators and their followers.[13][14][15]

Second YouTube channel

They also sometimes post on their second YouTube channel titled More Ash and Gray that focuses on more personal content, alongside their partner Gray.[16]

Book

Hardell published the book ABC's of LGBT+ in 2016, which has been widely cited for its in-depth definitions of LGBT+ terms. The book was a #1 best seller on Amazon.[17] The book was based on a videos series of the same name that Hardell created on their YouTube channel in 2014.[18][19]

In November 2017, they published a free accompaniment to the book, titled The GayBC's of LGBTQ+.[20]

In 2022, Hardell published a Companion Guide to the book, titled ABCs of LGBT+ Guided Journal: A Companion Guide to Ash Hardell’s The ABC’s of LBGT (Teen & Young Adult Social Issues, LGBTQ+, Gender Expression).[21]

Media and events

  • In February 2017, they appeared as guest star on the online radio show The Hannah Witton Show with British personality Hannah Witton.[22]
  • In June 2017, Hardell appeared as a guest on the Podcast Transmission with author and content creator Jackson Bird during an appearance at VidCon.[23]
  • In 2019, Hardell was a panelist at the 7th annual Buffer Festival in Toronto.[24]

Awards and recognitions

In 2017, Hardell was nominated for a Shorty Award in the LGBTQ+ YouTube Channel category.[5][25]

The book "ABC's of LGBT+" was recognized in 2018 in the ALA Rainbow Book List in the Young Adult Nonfiction category.[26]

Bibliography

  • The ABC's of LGBT+ (Mango Media, 2016, ISBN 9781633534094)

Personal life

Hardell is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota.[21]

Ash identifies as non-binary, transgender,[27] and pansexual.[28]

They are married to their spouse Grayson Hardell.[4][29]

Notes

  1. ^ Hardell uses any and all pronouns.[4] This article uses they/them for consistency.

References

  1. ^ "Ash Hardell - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "More Ash and Gray - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "About Ash Hardell". YouTube.
  4. ^ a b c "Ash Hardell". Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Ash Hardell - LGBTQ+ YouTube Channel - The Shorty Awards". Shorty Awards. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  6. ^ "Pride Month Spotlight: Ash Hardell". nerdsandbeyond.com. June 17, 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  7. ^ "YouTube apologizes for hiding LGBTQ users' videos in its Restricted Mode". The Verge. March 19, 2017. Archived from the original on March 23, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  8. ^ "Restricted Mode: How it works and what we can do better". YouTube Official Blog. March 20, 2017. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  9. ^ "YouTube Apologises For Restricted Mode LGBTQ+ Controversy". TenEighty. March 22, 2017. Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  10. ^ "'Being mean is lucrative': queer users condemn YouTube over homophobic content". The Guardian. June 7, 2019. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  11. ^ "LGBT Creators Say YouTube Doesn't Actually Value Queer And Trans Creators". BuzzFeed News. June 5, 2019. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  12. ^ "Transgender people find a home on YouTube but challenges remain". CNN. June 25, 2019. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  13. ^ "Trauma. Transphobia. And the Internet. (why I left for 2.5 years)". YouTube. March 4, 2022. Archived from the original on January 24, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  14. ^ "There is only the dissonance between us: a reflection on Ash Hardell's video essay". sceneandheardnu.com. June 12, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  15. ^ Glatt, Zoë (2023). "The intimacy triple bind: Structural inequalities and relational labour in the influencer industry". European Journal of Cultural Studies. 27 (3): 424–440. doi:10.1177/13675494231194156.
  16. ^ "More Ash and Gray". YouTube. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  17. ^ "The ABC's of LGBT+". WorldCat. 2016. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  18. ^ "The ABC's of LGBT+". YouTube. November 24, 2014. Archived from the original on July 19, 2023. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
  19. ^ "How well do you know your 'ABC's of LGBT'?". Daily Dot. April 3, 2015. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  20. ^ "The GayBC's of LGBTQ+". Mango Publishing. November 9, 2017. Archived from the original on January 25, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  21. ^ a b Hardell, Ash (2022). ABCs of LGBT+ Guided Journal. Mango Media. ISBN 978-1-64250-947-2. Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  22. ^ "Episode 25 - Ash Hardell". Fubar Radio. February 8, 2024. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  23. ^ "Not Trans Enough - Ash Hardell". libsyn.com. July 4, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  24. ^ "MacDoesIt, Ash Hardell, Freddie Ransome To Headline 7th Annual Buffer Festival". Tubefilter. July 18, 2019. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  25. ^ "Shorty Awards Nominees Include Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Bell, Leslie Jones (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. January 17, 2017. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  26. ^ "2018 Rainbow List". American Library Association. February 11, 2018. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  27. ^ "I'm Trans". YouTube. November 14, 2017. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  28. ^ "Coming out". YouTube. October 10, 2023. Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  29. ^ "our low-key wedding". YouTube. December 29, 2016. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2024.