Tana Marie Mongeaunote (born June 24, 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American internet personality, singer and model who is most famous for her YouTube channel, which grew popular with her "storytime" videos.
Mongeau has been open about the facts that her childhood was difficult and she didn't feel supported as she grew up, which she attributed to her parents lacking parenting skills. She started her YouTube channel in 2015 posting a variety of videos, including the aforementioned "storytime" videos which began gaining traction.
In 2017, Mongeau was involved in a public controversy surrounding a video she posted titled "The N Word", in which she described an encounter she had with a fan on a then-recent tour who told her to say the N-word, and said the full slur themselves. This "fan" was revealed to be another YouTuber, iDubbbzTV, who was confronting her in person after Mongeau criticized him on Twitter for his use of the N-word in his videos while being white, which he believed was hypocritical as old videos existed of Mongeau using the slur herself. This led to Mongeau facing online backlash. In 2023, iDubbbz denounced the "edgy" content and persona he was known for around the time of the controversy, and apologized to the YouTubers he made content criticizing. This included a specific apology to Mongeau, with him stating that he considered his online and in-person treatment of her to be harassment and "deplorable behavior".note
Later that year, Mongeau embarked on a music career, releasing her first single "Hefner". She has currently released four more singles: "W", "Fuck Up", "FaceTime", and "Without You".
In May 2018, Mongeau was declined the rights to appear as a featured creator at the 2017 VidCon event. In retaliation, she decided to host her own convention, TanaCon, on the same day as 2018's VidCon and in the same location (Anaheim, California). Over 80 creators were scheduled to appear at TanaCon, including Bella Thorne (Mongeau's then-girlfriend), Shane Dawson and Gabbie Hanna. However, the event was cancelled because the venue couldn't hold the amount of people that had turned up (20,000 according to Mongeau's claims, but approximately 4,000-5,000 in reality). Due to the poor organization, many guests didn't make it inside the venue itself and were left stranded under the hot sun, there was no food or water available, and there was insufficient security staff. Mongeau would later issue an apology and give out refunds to all affected. Shane Dawson later released a docu-series on his YouTube channel documenting Mongeau's perspective on the event and its organization.
In 2019, Mongeau announced that she would be starring in a new MTV series titled MTV No Filter: Tana Turns 21, showing her life and her 21st birthday. A second season was released in 2020 which detailed more of her life and her relationship with Jake Paul. In June of the same year, she and Paul announced that they were engaged, although many did not believe it was legitimate. While they had a ceremony on July 28, it was reported that they had not obtained a marriage license and that their officiant was not licensed by the state they were married in (Nevada), meaning that the marriage was not legally binding. The ceremony was recorded for Mongeau's MTV show and made available on pay-per-view for $50. The couple later announced in January 2020 that they had broken up. At the end of 2019, Mongeau also controversially won Creator of the Year at the 9th Streamy Awards over Ninja, David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain, Lilly Singh, and MrBeast. Since 2021, she hosts the podcast Cancelled with Tana Mongeau.
Mongeau is openly bisexual. Aside from Thorne and Paul, past romantic partners of hers include MOD SUN (with whom she and Thorne were at one point in a polyamorous relationship with), rappers Lil Xan and Chris Miles, and reality star Francesca Farago.
- Hefner (2017)
- Deadahh (2017)
- W (2018)
- Clout 9 (2018)
- Four Loko (2018)
- Fuck Up (2018)
- ''FaceTime'' (2019)
- Without You (2020)
- Shane And Friends (2016-2017)
- Escape the Night (2017 & 2019)
- No Filter Tana Turns 21 (2019-2020)
Trope examples:
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Subverted. Tana was involved with a questionable promotion deal with a brand named Kenza Cosmetics where she advertised to her audience make-up brushes that were being sold for nothing and consumers only had to pay for shipping. It turned out to be somewhat of a scam. Fellow YouTube creator, Gabbie Hanna also promoted the same thing but had much more backlash and criticism whereas Tana seemed to get away without much feedback at all.
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Creating "Tana Con" to be a rival event to VidCon was a great idea, but wasn't implemented in the best way. With more planning, it could have been a better alternative for creators.
- Spoiled Brat: During the second season of No Filter, Tana showed some bratty tendencies towards her manager, Jordan and a nurse when she was suffering with asthma attacks. Tana later stated she believed that MTV had edited her to look bad on purpose.
