The Sad Reason A Young MrBeast Decided To Heavily Focus On Youtube

Whether you've watched his content religiously or just heard about some of his over the top giveaway stunts, you've probably encountered MrBeast's content in some way. One of the most popular YouTubers in the game, MrBeast has racked up over 105 million subscribers and several videos garnering over 100 million views, carving out a pretty big spot on the internet for himself. But that success didn't happen overnight, as MrBeast has been at this for quite some time. In fact, according to Rolling Stone, he's been enjoying his time on the platform since he was just 11 years old, taking on the "MrBeast" moniker at the age of 13.

However, things haven't always looked as bright for the YouTube star – he's seen his share of tragic events throughout his life. In particular, he's spoken many times about a medical diagnosis that's had a pretty significant impact on his life. As it turns out, his early jump onto YouTube was partially motivated by a medical issue. In an interview from 2022, MrBeast gave a bit more insight into the diagnosis and how it actually pushed him to focus on his YouTube channel at an early age.

While being interviewed by Rolling Stone, MrBeast explained that he used to love playing sports like baseball when he was a child. However, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease during his sophomore year of high school, which caused him to drop out of the sport and lose that method of socializing with people his age.

According to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, Crohn's disease is a disease that impacts the GI tract and causes chronic inflammation and pain. The stress and fatigue caused by his Crohn's disease also caused him to stay home a lot, which led to him turning his sights to YouTube. Though he still has days where he doesn't have much energy to spare, the move was clearly the right one for the budding entrepreneur.

However, this career path hasn't always been an easy one, and it can actually be quite lonely. The YouTuber admitted to Rolling Stone that he's not great at keeping friends around unless they're connected to work in some way. Fortunately, his YouTube operation is always growing, which gives him a way to stay connected with people outside of his family. This can lead to another unfortunate side effect of Crohn's disease that MrBeast has talked about before, though: Socializing is still difficult, because he has to follow such a strict diet and many people socialize in ways that revolve around food.

Luckily for MrBeast, his success on YouTube has also allowed him the funds to properly take care of his body, including having a personal chef bring him his meals while he's working. Overall, he doesn't talk too much about his diagnosis, explaining in a video covering his condition that he feels like he doesn't have it much worse than other people with chronic illnesses.

MrBeast has actually found a few occasions over the years to explore his condition into his YouTube work. In 2022, he made a video in which he challenged himself to fast for a full month. The YouTuber only managed to make it through 14 days before he had to tap out of the self-imposed challenge, losing a total of 18 pounds in the process. In a turn he may not have expected, this video ended up causing quite a bit of controversy. 

In the replies to the video and responses on other social media platforms, fans debated the perceived irresponsibility of the fasting video. Although MrBeast made sure he had the supervision of medical professionals throughout the two weeks he took to film the video, some people felt that the video made light of eating disorders, or even downright promoted them.

However, MrBeast argued otherwise. The YouTuber reiterated that he was being taken care of during the shoot and revealed that this was all part of an experiment that he felt was a success. He explained in the comments of the video, "I have Crohn's disease (basically my gut has tons of inflammation) and I wanted to give it a break from food to see if that would help reduce inflammation because Crohn's sucks. I learned a lot about how I can use fasting to reduce my inflammation and I'm glad I did this challenge."

Through his YouTube work, MrBeast has found a few different ways to raise awareness of Crohn's disease, as well as attempt to ease his own battle with the symptoms.