Adrian Howell

[Levitating]

This seems one of the first tweets about it I began to think everything started because of the pillow cases?

[Megancita75]

This whole topic has me weirded out. Best cast scenario, it's not true. OK-ish scenario, it's true but all people involved are okay with it and have had good communication around it and have sincere and good feelings. Ugh scenario, it's true and it's a messy emotional situation for all people involved. Worst scenario, absolute mind-fuck for all involved. I dislike talk about Adrian in general, even though he's an adult and has a public presence, and I probably have more sympathy for him than most because I know people who are seekers and cyclists, but man I just wish he could live his life free of the darker side of fan spaces.

[oblongdisposition]

It’s definitely true. Someone posted her @. I’m pretty sure that almost no one has seen it though which is for the best. I brought it up here because I trust that no one here will cause any trouble for them. I really hope none of the Twitter phannies try contacting either of them about it.

[Phantasy]

The somewhat ironic thing perhaps is that she probably had a better chance of meeting Dan & Phil by stalking them outside work or through a fan event than through Adrian.

Not saying she has duplicitous intent, her and Adrian look perfectly happy in their little bohemian existence. But, if she’s such a phannie, there must have been a few surreal moments for her when they were first in lockdown staying at the Howell house.

All begs the question how much if at all Adrian and Dan acknowledge each others existence—they at least share a common appreciation for Colin, a panache for waxing poetic (long ass waffles), and distressed emotional states as youths. But it’s anyone’s guess if they even see each other outside of say Christmas.

One curious thing that made me scratch my head a bit was a fundraiser from a few years back—Adrian was doing a charity bike ride and raising money on one of those online platforms (before he had a public social media). There was a very small pool of donors, including his mom, grandma, Amie-rose and even Collette (so they must have known each other since 2018 at least)—but, also Phil Lester with one of the larger donations. This has made me wonder since what type of interaction(s) they might have ever had. Are they Facebook friends? Was Adrian in London visiting one day and mentioned it? Is there a secret Howell Family Newsletter and Phil’s on the distribution list? Just goes to show for a much as we know and is transparent with Dan and Phil’s relationship with the Martyn and the Lesters, so little is known and understood with the Howell family dynamic.

[casualsun]

I guess worst scenario is that Adrian’s girlfriend tried to get in a relationship with him to find out more info on Dan. They seem happy together and it also seems like they had mutual friends already, so I don’t think that happened. It’s still super strange though.

I also think Dan and Adrian communicate more than they let on. I don’t think they’re close but I don’t think they ignore eachother either.

[oblongdisposition]

Adrian made a comment on Instagram about how Christmas over zoom was just as dysfunctional as normal Christmas so there’s certainly still family tension, not sure how much is between him and Dan

[glitterintheair]

I can’t imagine Dan and Adrian being That close or even getting along too much, tbh. Actually, I’d love to know what Dan thinks about the way Adrian does his “coaching” job; I personally find extremely damaging. I went on his IG and his posts made my eyes roll so fast because he makes it look like doing veganism and mediation can cure depression away. And I can’t see Dan being okay with that or agreeing with such things.

[alittledizzy]

One curious thing that made me scratch my head a bit was a fundraiser from a few years back—Adrian was doing a charity bike ride and raising money on one of those online platforms (before he had a public social media). There was a very small pool of donors, including his mom, grandma, Amie-rose and even Collette (so they must have known each other since 2018 at least)—but, also Phil Lester with one of the larger donations. This has made me wonder since what type of interaction(s) they might have ever had. Are they Facebook friends? Was Adrian in London visiting one day and mentioned it? Is there a secret Howell Family Newsletter and Phil’s on the distribution list? Just goes to show for a much as we know and is transparent with Dan and Phil’s relationship with the Martyn and the Lesters, so little is known and understood with the Howell family dynamic.

I can actually see Phil having a soft spot for Adrian at that point even without knowing him well, given that Adrian would have been an actual child when they met, and that'd be why he'd donate to something like that. I have a harder time seeing Phil and Adrian having ANY level of connection/anything in common as adults now that Adrian has his own platform and a direction for his life.

[liola]

I said it somewhere else, but the entire concept of the Howell brothers having relationships related to youtube fans has me in stitches.

Dan gets into a relationship with his youtube crush and becomes a famous youtuber himself
Fast forward ten years his younger brother who was harassed by his own fan base starts dating someone part of said audience

It's fucking hilarious to me I can't like what are the odds of something like that happening. The whole Dan and Phil circle showing maybe getting close to your celebrity crush IS possible

[obvsly]

First of all, hi! I haven't been in here for a long time and this is where I came without even checking the main thread first. That's just how much I need to rant about the online influencer, adrian howell.

I'm sorry too that I haven't read all the posts here before I post. I just want to keep my opinion free of any influence from all you amazing posters here. Mine might not have any merits, and might be full of rage haha, so be warned.

I officially unfollowed both of his accounts today. No, I actually unfollowed the coaching account a while ago, because I find it pretentious, self-absorbed, and even dangerous at times. But today I think it's necessary for me to unfollow the other account too as he just switched the photography account to coaching. I'm disgusted.

He gave such superfluous reasons for it but, man, just admit it's because the photography one has more than double the number of the other account and you want to take advantage of it. To me, it's extremely unfair to do this when he has already turned the other one FULL ON coaching with the stupid grid posts. When he did that in that account, I was like... fine, you do you. I'm not interested in this so I'll just unfollow and be done with it. To each his own. But now he saw that he couldn't grow an audience in that one so he just whoops why don't i just take this one too! Easy!

I feel BETRAYED. I know he doesn't owe me or anyone anything, and he can do whatever with his accounts. But, to me, it shows that he doesn't really care about his original audience. Okay i might be a bit unfair to him. It's not that i don't support his "growth" but in my opinion, his growth is toxic and I simply don't want to support that. At all.

I have another reason to feel betrayed too.

When he started out on youtube and instagram as a filmmaker and photographer, I recommended my son to follow him. I had such a soft spot for him as I could see a bit of my son in him, an artsy kid trying to find his own way out of the shadow of his family. My son is also interested in photography and nature, while having a bit of a trouble expressing himself in words. I think my son could learn a lot from Adrian in terms of how to communicate his feelings through art and prose. Boy, now I have to ask my son to unfollow him as well.

It might be my fault to see how Adrian could have been a good role model before. Now he's just a cautionary tale. I don't want my son to subscribe to Adrian's entitled way of thinking and living. I don't want my son to think that other people's wellbeing is something he can mess about with, without any proper training and/or degrees to back it up. I just don't want my son to look up to him, period.

Sorry for such a personal take that is not intelligent at all. But I'm so done with him. And I'm sad. Disappointed, really. He has so much potential.

[lefthandedism]

We can still hope he'll grow up. He's still quite young. Both Dan and Phil were a bit iffy along the way (e.g., rape jokes) and grew out of it. And in general, a 23 (?) year old still is in the process of becoming a full adult.

So we can hope. But no need to follow him in the meantime!

[alittledizzy]

It looks like he's taking a beating on twitter right now. I won't embed any of them, some are funny though quite mean jokes, but you can search his name to see what people are saying. It's like a wave of people just discovered that his advice is dodgy and he likes to play poverty tourist? Someone even commented on his instagram talking about Colette simping over Dan. I do feel bad for him being on the brunt of that kind of backlash, hope he never checks his indirects on twitter. (He seems like the type that genuinely wouldn't, though clearly Colette is familiar with fandom and social media so who knows if she does.)

[Levitating]

I cannot find his twitter, but I am reading some general tweet about him and... oh, no. People jump to conclusion and are being quiet mean as the internet can be, which I don't agree with.

This would make me so mad and sad, if I were Dan. Poor Adrian but mostly, poor Dan. He must feel responsible for giving his brother this kind of attention.

[Phantasy]

It looks like he's taking a beating on twitter right now. I won't embed any of them, some are funny though quite mean jokes, but you can search his name to see what people are saying. It's like a wave of people just discovered that his advice is dodgy and he likes to play poverty tourist? Someone even commented on his instagram talking about Colette simping over Dan. I do feel bad for him being on the brunt of that kind of backlash, hope he never checks his indirects on twitter. (He seems like the type that genuinely wouldn't, though clearly Colette is familiar with fandom and social media so who knows if she does.)

omg... the snark on Twitter! I’m curious too what’s causing the swelling interest/blowback—not like there been a shift in his content lately. I’m also surprised that it took this long for the phandom to clue in on Colette—not sure I ever gave her two thoughts beyond knowing she went to an arts college like Adrian and had some sort of connection that way, but you’d think detective phannies would have put her through the gauntlet ages ago.

[Levitating]

Not to mention that there is no actual proof to her being an ex phannie!

[obvsly]

It looks like he's taking a beating on twitter right now. I won't embed any of them, some are funny though quite mean jokes, but you can search his name to see what people are saying. It's like a wave of people just discovered that his advice is dodgy and he likes to play poverty tourist? Someone even commented on his instagram talking about Colette simping over Dan. I do feel bad for him being on the brunt of that kind of backlash, hope he never checks his indirects on twitter.

I’m still very disappointed with Adrian as an influencer, but I’m even more deeply disgusted by how young phandom twitter are piling on him. And this is the fandom of a mental health author and activist. How could they even think it’s fine to collectively bully and relentlessly make fun of someone else like that? This is nasty even without taking the fact that adrian is dan’s brother into account.

[lefthandedism]

I'm sure Adrian's been lowkey harrassed nonstop for the past decade, but I wonder if the current peak of nastiness is giving him flashbacks to when he was a teen. Irony piled on top of irony given that the phandom was surely a contributing factor to his mental health issues when he was a teen. Though I suppose the childen doing it now are a different generation from the children doing it then.

Hopefully he has much better support systems in place and can (almost) laugh this round off. And speaking of support systems, a tell-all book written by Adrian and Colette on the toxic dynamics of fandom could be interesting.....

[starsandshards]

as dodgy as his posts are, no one deserves being slagged off constantly. plus, he's only... what, early 20s? as if we weren't all embarrassing online at that age.

[Megancita75]

It's times like these where I wish there was like a general fandom code of conduct, like agreed-upon norms about what's acceptable and not acceptable to do. But I'm sure that's a pipe dream, and verges onto policing other people, but dang, I do wish in general that people wouldn't get swept up into the entertainment sport of pile-ons, even though it happens to all sorts of people all the time.

[Levitating]

It's times like these where I wish there was like a general fandom code of conduct, like agreed-upon norms about what's acceptable and not acceptable to do. But I'm sure that's a pipe dream, and verges onto policing other people, but dang, I do wish in general that people wouldn't get swept up into the entertainment sport of pile-ons, even though it happens to all sorts of people all the time.

Totally agree! A place for formal declarations from the majority of the phandom. I still believe they're just a minority, that 1% Dan mentions in older videos. They make a lot of noise but they're still a minority that, as some of you point out, must be really young.

Because they're indirect tweets, I also hope they haven't reached Adrian I hope they haven't reached Dan, too!

[dontpanic]

I'm the same age as Adrian which might be why I find myself being a bit hard on him... I just can't imagine being so irresponsible and lacking introspection, it really gets to me especially since people (not saying anyone here!) tend to give white men in their twenties a pass b/c they're "young" while every other demographic's expected to act grown.

still though, I wouldn't wish a pile-on on anyone, especially since he's still such a small influencer. It's a lot different from something like a few days ago when chrissy teigen was trending for being out of touch, at least she has her millions of dollars, famous husband, booming career, and adoring fans. Adrian's not truly a public figure, not like his brother, so criticism's far more personal without any of the reward from frame.

I don't think he has a twitter so at least he's far removed from the backlash, and his Instagram comments remain uncritically positive.

it's still really disappointing how most comments are so mean-spirited... that being said, I do wish someone in his life would help him become more self-aware about... literally anything.

[oblongdisposition]

Adrian deleted the comment that said Colette simped for his brother, and Colette has privated her Instagram.

[alittledizzy]

Adrian deleted the comment that said Colette simped for his brother, and Colette has privated her Instagram.

I'm glad she's privated hers. I mean, I'll miss seeing the Lena pictures she posts, but it's probably best for them to avoid people saying shitty things to her if that happened. To whatever extent her having been a fan of Dan matters to them, it's between them. I think people connecting the dots is fine, her tumblr stuff was public, her posts were public, but there's no need for fans to cross the line of passive knowledge/internal conversation to actually breaking the fourth wall and trying to evoke a reaction from Adrian or Colette about it.

[alittledizzy]

Comment exchange on this pic, pasting cause i can't ss at the moment. I've never seen him get so defensive before. Commenter has points, though.

sunflowourvol
Isn’t a little insensitive to be showing your great adventures and travels at a time like this? Many of us have family members who have passed recently due to all this travelling. It’s hard all around for everyone but showing how great you have it is just a bit upsetting meanwhile the rest of us are stuck in our own country at home not able to do anything by respecting restrictions

adrianhowellcoaching
@sunflowourvol I'm not travelling...I'm a legal resident in Portugal. I've been here for 5 months and this is where I live now. Am I expected to not share my life and my thoughts, because it might upset others who project their circumstances and fears onto me? It's not my intention to show "how great I have it"...my intention is to speak my truth and if that upsets you, that's not my responsibility. It's yours. I am respecting restrictions and perhaps if you thought to do some research, and seek to understand others rather than attack, then it might make more sense.

sunflowourvol
@adrianhowellcoaching I’m not attacking.. I’m literally going to my grandmothers funeral today I was trying to provoke a thought and make you understand how it might be upsetting for some people. I didn’t realise this pandemic started less than 5 months ago.

[alien]

it's always "fear" with these assholes. they use that word like a weapon like people should be ashamed of being concerned and having respect for their fellow people. and does he not have any other material? it seems like he's always talking about "speaking his truth" (isn't everybody on sm??) and people "projecting" onto him and "research".

where is the compassion for a whole world of people hurting because of something that has seriously affected the entire world? maybe he should seek to understand that a bit.