Alia "Lia" Shelesh (born (1992-10-22)October 22, 1992), better known as SSSniperWolf, is an English-American
YouTuber. After having uploaded Call of DutyLet's Play videos as sexysexysniper, Shelesh registered the "SSSniperWolf" YouTube channel in 2013, which rose to prominence in the following years. According to British Vogue in 2020, she is one of the most recognisable
social media personalities associated with
online video games.[4] In 2017, she shifted her focus from video game-related content to
reaction videos.
Despite a prominent popularity, Shelesh is also one of the most controversial figures on the platform. In 2023, after receiving criticism for "
freebooting"
TikTok videos in her reaction content,[5][6] she was involved in an internet scandal involving allegations that she
doxxed a critic, YouTuber
jacksfilms, resulting in temporary
demonetization. Following this, other allegations about her surfaced.
Life and career
Early life and career beginnings
Alia Shelesh was born on October 22, 1992 in
Liverpool, England.[1] She is Turkish through her mother and Greek through her father.[1] Her family moved to the United States when she was six, at which age she started playing video games.[7][8]
In 2016, she featured on Day of Doom, an event that was hosted by
id Software.[9][10][11] In 2017, she hosted the show
Clickbait in which social media influencers competed in unusual challenges.[12][13][14] The show aired on the subscription service
Fullscreen.[15] She also made an appearance on FANtasies, an anthology series.[16][17]
In 2021, YouTube ranked Shelesh third on its "US Top Creators" list.[30] In the same year, she won the Gaming Influencer of the Year Award at the American Influencer Awards.[31]
Legal dispute with Evan Young
On August 1, 2023, it was reported that Shelesh was one of the highest-paid YouTubers with a net worth of US$16 million.[32] On August 17, 2023, Evan Young filed a lawsuit against Shelesh for
breach of contract and financial misdoings in relation to content produced by Channel Red, their joint company. He accused her of not paying him for work he did for Channel Red.[33] Young also claimed he curated and scripted her content for years.[6] Shelesh filed a
motion to dismiss on October 5, 2023, claiming the accusations were "vindictive". In the dismissal, attorneys claimed that not long after filing for
divorce, Young locked Shelesh out of several YouTube channels they managed together, including the main SSSniperWolf channel and her personal channel Little Lia,[34] on which she uploads beauty-related content.[35]
Conflict with jacksfilms
YouTuber
John Patrick Douglass, known as jacksfilms, accused Shelesh of profiting from other creators' work through monetizing her reaction videos, while frequently not providing proper credit,[32] and characterized her content as rudimentary and not
transformative enough for
fair use.[32] In 2022, he began using the "JJJacksfilms" account to parody Shelesh's videos.[36][37] In response, she made several social media posts accusing him of
sexism and
plagiarism.[32]
On October 13, 2023, Shelesh, while filming near Douglass's house, asked her followers if she should pay him a visit, stating that he lives near Shelesh's studio. She showed his house in an Instagram story[5] captioned "let's talk like adults",[36][38][39] which was quickly removed, but her followers shared screenshots.[36] Douglass responded by accusing Shelesh of
doxing him,[5] called her actions "creepy, gross, violating",[40] and asked YouTube to
demonetize her.[38] Douglass's wife expressed safety concerns,[37][41] and the pair contemplated moving.[42] Shelesh said that she had found the Douglasses' address on
Google, that she "had no idea how to dox",[43] that Douglass was "creating drama to pay [the pair's] bills", and that he was a "creep".[44] Shelesh discussed seeking a
restraining order against Douglass, whom she called "obsessed" over the matter.[45]
On October 18, YouTube's Twitter account posted "would it be too meta to do a reaction video to a reaction video", which multiple users interpreted as an offhand comment on the situation, causing a backlash.[46] By October 19, a
Change.org petition to remove SSSniperWolf from YouTube gathered 13,000 signatures.[47] The next day, YouTube temporarily demonetized her channel,[48] while expressing disapproval of both sides' behavior.[5] Multiple YouTubers saw the latter as unfair.[49] Shelesh subsequently apologized to Douglass in a tweet, saying that her actions were "inexcusable" and that she respects YouTube's decision.[50] She continued to upload videos on her "SSSniperWolf Top Videos" channel, but it was later also demonetized.[51][52][53]
Personal life
In 2019, Shelesh and Evan Young, her partner at the time, bought a house in
Henderson, Nevada,[54] which they sold in 2022,[19] after which they moved to
Mummy Mountain, Arizona.[2][19] In September 2023, they were reported to be legally married,[19][33] though they had separated in September 2022[6] and filed for divorce in late 2022.[33]
Reception
In a review of her main channel, Kennedy Unthank from
Plugged In commended her for seeking to "make people laugh through daily uploads" and the quantity of available videos. However, Unthank voiced concern that she "may be profiting from someone else’s work" with her reaction videos through YouTube's monetization system. According to Unthank, while some of her reactions provide additional insight or have a
transformative nature, many of her videos did not offer anything substantial over the original clip that was being reacted to.[55]
Linguist
John McWhorter of the New York Times commented on her use of
Black English words and idioms, using her language as an example of "effortless infusion of Black English expressions".[56]
^
abShelesh, Alia (April 22, 2011).
STILL no PSN? WTF? (Video). sexysexysniper. Archived from
the original on December 21, 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via
YouTube.
^Shelesh, Alia (January 25, 2013).
BO2 Fails + Funnies #1 (Video). SSSniperWolf.
Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via
YouTube.