Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, was the top-earning YouTuber last year, enticing more than 90 million subscribers with thumbnails optimized to perfection and tantalizing concepts like "I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive." Now, he's on the cover of Rolling Stone.
The publication has announced that its first-ever "Creators Issue" will hit stands today, April 19, with a feature on TikTokker Bella Poarch, a spotlight on Black creators, and a sweeping, 5000-word profile of the king of cash himself. We've collected the best bits below in a helpful TL;DR.
1. He wants to turn Greenville, North Carolina, into an entertainment hub for creators
MrBeastLLC is constructing three content and production hubs in his hometown to position the city as "a magnet for content creators in digital media" à la Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
2. "I wish the cool Jimmy was the real Jimmy"
According to writer EJ Dickson, Donaldson is pretty awkward in person. His best friend, Tyson, notes that Donaldson has "has a very hard time socializing" and "explaining to people what he wants and what he needs.”
A former employee told the New York Times in 2021 that Donaldson had fostered "a difficult work environment" and told Rolling Stone that on camera, "‘He’s such a cool dude.’" but IRL, "you’d be like, ‘Damn, I wish the cool Jimmy was the real Jimmy.’” To that Donaldson says. “I’ve literally worked with over a thousand people. Two people thought I was pretty demanding, which was perfectly fine,” he says. “We have high standards, but it’s not a toxic work environment.”
3. He's kind of a Musketeer
Donaldson has portraits of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk (dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte) in his office. When it comes to Musk, “I don’t support or look up to everything he does or how he treats people,” Donaldson says, “But I think it’s inspiring that he’s weaning the world off of oil and rebuilding imagination when it comes to space exploration and stuff like that.”
He’s also been reading biographies of successful men like Michael Jordan and recently hired a life coach that told him successful men peak at 40.
4. He keeps his business in the family
His mother Sue, a former prison warden, is MrBeast LLC’s chief compliance officer and oversees the company’s and her son's financials. His parents split when Donaldson was young, and he's not in contact with his father, but his stepfather, Tracy, is very much in the picture as an operations manager at MrBeast YouTube LLC.
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5. He's apolitical and agnostic but is still cagey about transphobic comments he made in 2016
Donaldson is apolitical, he says, because “it would be very silly of me to alienate basically half of America.” Though he attended Catholic school as a kid, he now identifies as agnostic in part due to the church's views on topics like homosexuality. When asked about anti-gay slurs and jokes he tweeted and used in videos before 2018, he explains that he grew up in the heart of the Bible Belt and was taught that "gay people are the reason God’s going to come and burn this Earth." Now, "I [wish I could] go back in time and be like, ‘Hey, stop.’”
But when it comes to his 2016 take on what Dickson calls "a fairly well-known transphobic joke at the time," Donaldson says, “I was just playing along with the meme like everyone else" and denies understanding the meme's origins. He calls the video — in which he says "I was born a tank, but sadly it wasn't one of our 52 genders. Is someone just sitting there and getting paid to think of genders?" — a "joke.”
6. He's competitive as hell and obsessed with work
MrBeast fans probably already know that Donaldson studied YouTube almost full-time on his way to becoming the platform's top-earning creator.
That singular focus doesn't leave room, or desire, for a personal life. “All my friends revolve around work" he tells Rolling Stone. Donaldson seems more interested in growing his brand, sub count, and business endeavors like MrBeast Burgers. He's getting a shower installed in his office so he doesn't have to go home.
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“I want to be the biggest YouTube channel ever,” he says. “Not even for my ego. I don’t know. I just want it. It just gives me something to strive for, to get out of bed and grind for. But it’s also just vanity.”
7. His battle with Crohn’s disease may have led him to YouTube dominance
Donaldson was sporty as a kid, but a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, an autoimmune disorder, led him to spend more time indoors. According to his mom, the change likely prompted his pivot to YouTube. He currently tries to manage flare-ups with medication and by working with a private chef.
8. Security is tight at MrBeast HQ
With so much money flying around, oftentimes in large physical stacks, security is crucial to Donaldson's business and safety. An apartment break-in a few years ago led to more serious measures. He now wanders around Greenville with a bodyguard and lives in a house in a gated community with bulletproof windows and triple-steel-reinforced doors.
9. It's not about the money… most of the time
Donaldson says he doesn’t “give a fuck about money" or "chasing the next shiny object to the next shiny object.” It simply "allows us to get views so I make more money and do bigger stuff." But Dickson notes that Donaldson does seem interested in how much some of those shiny objects cost, "pointing out that his custom-built, double-sided refrigerator… was 50 grand to install." He also thinks money can cure everything “If you have a trillion dollars, you don’t really have any problems,” he tells Dickson.
Ultimately, Donaldson says that "I think what I’ve done speaks for itself." CEO Darren Margolias of MrBeast Philanthropy, which oversees weekly food drives and helped launch Donaldson's viral #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas campaigns, says that "by championing various philanthropic causes, Donaldson wants to school an entirely new generation in the benefits of unconditional giving."
Topics YouTube
