Jools Lebron Reveals A Brand Took Advantage of Her Viral ‘Demure’ Success
Via Jools Lebron IG. Art by Stephany Torres for Remezcla.
Jools LeBron, the TikTok creator of 2024’s viral “very demure” trend, just revealed that a brand took advantage of her viral success without ever paying her. On her new Very Demure podcast, Lebron alleges she was never offered any compensation for attending and promoting the launch of a beauty brand’s new foundation.
Although Lebron didn’t directly name the brand, her Youtube thumbnail features a Patrick Ta Beauty foundation and when censoring his name in the video, she appears to mouth the founder’s, Patrick Ta, name.
During Patrick Ta Beauty’s August 2024 foundation launch, Patrick Ta and other TikTok creators shared multiple videos either directly featuring Jools herself or joining on Lebron’s trend using the phrase “very demure.” Several of those videos reached millions of views, but Lebron confirms that unlike other content creators at the event, she never got compensated.
“At the height of the most viral sensation of TikTok in 2024, you got me to fly to New York for free, unpaid, to essentially promote your foundation,” Lebron shared on her podcast. “I didn’t feel this way until I looked back at the simple fact that he and his manager were like, ‘oh we’re going to just make some TikToks,’ so then I’m excited because [this person] is like one of my idols, gagged, love him. So, I’m like ‘of course I’m going to make some TikToks with you.’ He was making TikToks with all the divas, but he was paying the other divas, I had found out later.”
This isn’t a new problem.
Beauty influencer Avonna Sunshine went viral in December of 2024 after calling out Patrick Ta for not compensating her. In a video that got over 11 million views, Avonna Sunshine called out beauty brands that don’t pay Black content creators while profiting “off the Black dollar,” as she snapped Patrick Ta Beauty’s blush palettes in half and tossed them in the trash. Patrick Ta issued an apology in response to her. As of March 6, Lebron confirmed through comments on her podcast video that she did not get paid later on.
The creator economy is and will continue to be an extremely lucrative space, and brand deals have the power to change content creators’ lives. The content creator economy is a billion-dollar industry after all. Lebron herself has been candid about how the brand deals she received after the trend provided the funds to receive gender-affirming care.
While Jools Lebron isn’t the first content creator who has been profited off of by a brand, her speaking up about this shines a light on the need for beauty brands to do better and compensate content creators, especially women of color.