If you’re a big consumer of social media content, whether or not you’re also a vaper, you may have heard of someone called the Vape Queen or the Vape Queen of TikTok.

But who does this refer to? How did she gain this title? And what does she actually have to do with vaping anyway? To give you all the answers you need, in this post, we look at the question, who is the Vape Queen?

Who is the Vape Queen? A popular TikTok star

If you’ve heard of someone being called the “Vape Queen”, it was almost certainly referring to a social media personality named Charli D’Amelio.

Hailing from Norwalk in Connecticut and born in 2004, D’Amelio shot to fame in 2019 during the covid pandemic and the enforced lockdowns that ensued by uploading videos that mostly consisted of her dancing.

Her videos became wildly popular, and she quickly managed to garner huge numbers of views and amass vast numbers of followers.

This led to her becoming the first TikTok star to pass both the 50 million-follower and the 100 million-follower marks. Her number of followers currently exceeds 150 million, and her videos have received a total of over 11.5 billion likes.

At one point, she was TikTok’s most followed personality – although she has since lost this position – and she was the platform’s highest-earning female personality in 2019 as well as the outright highest earner on TikTok in 2022.

All of this meant she soon became known as the “Queen of TikTok”.

But how did a teenager who made a name producing wholesome content mostly aimed at younger teenagers and even children also become known as the Vape Queen?

It’s an interesting story, so let’s look at how it happened now.

So why is she called the “Vape Queen”?

Charli D’Amelio exploded onto the TikTok scene in 2019, but then a year later, American blogger, media personality and celebrity gossip king Perez Hilton uploaded a leaked video of D’Amelio apparently vaping.

In the clip, which only lasts a couple of seconds, we see D’Amelio apparently taking a puff from what appears to be a Juul vape pen before exhaling and then giggling.

Hilton accompanied the video clip with the words “#TikTok’s most followed creator, @CharliDamelio, who turned 16 in May, is all smiles after taking a hit of whatever she’s vaping.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone whose videos are watched daily by her millions of fans and whose life is under constant social media scrutiny, this prompted an outpouring of discussion on the topic of her vaping.

As part of the subsequent chatter, one person wrote “Can we all agree to make Charli the Vape Queen?” – and with other similar comments echoing this idea, the name quickly stuck.

This is despite the fact that D’Amelio has only ever been seen vaping in this one clip and that it’s not known if she is a regular vaper or if this was a one-off. And since she never addressed the issue herself, it’s never even been confirmed that the clip shows her vaping at all.

So this short clip of a 16-year-old girl allegedly having a quick puff on a vape was the reason for D’Amelio becoming known as the Vape Queen, although this is the only connection she has to the practice.

But this being the internet, social media and TikTok, the controversy quickly deepened – especially since Charli D’Amelio was so famous, so popular and so young.

A big controversy (or a storm in a teacup?)

Although lots of social media users love a bit of gossip and will happily pick over even the most meagre scraps of info about their heroes’ lives, much of the controversy surrounding D’Amelio was her age – along with her wholesome reputation and her appeal among younger TikTokers.

At the time when the video was supposedly filmed, D’Amelio would have been only 16 years old – but the legal vaping age in the US is 18, so if she was indeed vaping, the video would seem to show her breaking the law.

This means if the video really does show her vaping, then it shows an internet celebrity with a squeaky-clean reputation doing something that the parents of a great number of her fans would disapprove of.

Part of the uproar consisted of the idea that if young fans see Charli D’Amelio vaping, then they’re also much more likely to try it – and this connection to an activity usually associated with rule-breaking and rebelliousness would seriously tarnish her reputation.

And of course, the whole internet then piled in.

Many of her fans tried to claim that she wasn’t vaping at all and that she was actually using an anxiety pen to help her control her well-documented issues with anxiety.

Others, though, were outraged, expressing disappointment that someone with such huge reach and influence would do such a thing, especially since she was – and still is – so popular among younger, easily influenced TikTok users.

However, yet others responded with a big “so what?”, saying that she was simply a teenage girl doing teenage things and it’s hardly a big deal.

With hindsight, since she was only ever caught once and has never been seen vaping since, it does all seem like a huge storm in a teacup.

And yet, four years later, this teenage TikToker who was seen supposedly vaping just once for a couple of seconds is still known as the Vape Queen.

Such is the online environment of the internet and social media.

Is vaping even that bad?

While it’s easy to understand the disappointment among her well-behaved, non-vaping fans – and presumably their parents – it’s also not hard to sympathize with D’Amelio.

After all, despite her fame, she is still just a teenage girl, and many teenagers vape, smoke – and do things that are a whole lot worse too. The only difference here is the intense glare of the media spotlight under which she lives her life.

The thing is, although it’s not a good look for teenagers to vape – and the explosion of underage vaping is a serious and growing problem around the world – for all we know, she just had that one puff on a vape or only vapes extremely infrequently.

However, for smokers, vaping can be a helpful replacement for tobacco cigarettes, and since cigarettes contain over 7,000 harmful compounds, many of which are known to be carcinogenic, vaping is likely to be a far healthier alternative.

This means if you are a smoker, switching to vaping can help you quit your tobacco habit and improve your health.

In the video, most people think D’Amelio was puffing on a Juul vape, but nowadays there are many other high-quality products on the market.

For example, if you are trying to quit smoking, something like the Katana BP10000 from Spiritbar could be an excellent option.

This vape, inspired by the iconic Japanese katana sword, provides users with up to 10,000 puffs of high-quality vape juice containing 50mg/ml of nicotine to help you kick your smoking habit.

It’s also a stylish and attractive vape that combines a classy design with ease of use and the utmost convenience, making it a great option for new and experienced vapers alike.

Does she really vape?

But does D’Amelio vape now? The answer is that nobody really knows. The only direct evidence we have is that one video, and if you’ve seen it, you’ll be able to draw your own conclusions – but there’s no real way to tell for sure.

And for those who haven’t seen it, you can find it here!

What is D’Amelio famous for other than vaping?

So apart from vaping – or not – what else is D’Amelio famous for?

Before she became a TikTok celebrity, she had been a competitive dancer for over 10 years, having first started dancing at the age of three.

After finding fame – and due to the vaping incident, a certain amount of notoriety – on TikTok, she diversified into a number of other interests.

She debuted in her first feature film when she did voice work for the animated movie StarDog and TurboCat, and she also appeared in her own docuseries The D’Amelio Show as well as the reality show Charli vs Dixie alongside her sister, a fellow social media personality.

She has also published two books, has a podcast and has put her name to lines of nail polish, a mattress, makeup and clothing.

She continues to work on both social media and mainstream media projects.

A vaping queen who may or not even vape

So there you have it – the so-called Vape Queen is actually a social media personality who was once filmed perhaps vaping or perhaps using an anxiety pen and who has never been definitively confirmed as having vaped and who has never addressed the issue herself.

However, with social media being the hysterical and frenzied place it is – and with all the intense scrutiny on the stars it throws up, Charli D’Amelio is still known as the Vape Queen, even four years after the short clip lasting just a couple of seconds first emerged.

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