By Fiona O'Reilly and Irene Paul
The mask comes off for famous YouTuber and Twitch streamer Dream, who revealed his face to the world on October 2, 2022. To some, this may not seem significant, but to the 30 million subscribers from whom Dream has hidden his face for about 3 years, the reveal was monumental. Due to Dream’s choice of keeping his face hidden, his life as an influencer was drastically affected in ways such as being prohibited from hanging out with friends that he met through social media. The 3-year long build-up led to a highly anticipated face-reveal for the YouTuber and his fans.
“I wasn’t surprised [Dream’s] face reveal was trending because it was one of the most anticipated face reveals on Twitter,” senior Ashwathi Chemban said.
For two weeks before the launch of the face reveal, Dream had been leaving enticing messages on social media and revealing his face to other influencers. Some of these influencers include Addison Rae and Bella Poarch, who both displayed their shock on TikTok when reacting to his face.
Artwork by Suha Tasfia
Dream reveals his face to his fanbase after a 3-year period of anticipation.
When the long-awaited reveal video was first aired, 1.2 million fans tuned in to see the live stream. In less than 16 hours after it launched, the video gained almost 20 million views. Dream took the reveal another step further by posting a picture on Twitter with his influencer friends that he was finally able to meet post-reveal. Though many fans were supportive of the YouTuber during this time, others were left disappointed by Dream’s reveal, which did not meet their expectations and assumptions of what he would look like. Some fans had a very negative response to the reveal, comparing dream’s face to those of cartoon characters with distorted proportions.
“I guess they were probably disappointed that it wasn’t really what they were looking forward to,” eighth grader Rafay Mufti said.
Given unrealistically high standards from fans, Dream is not alone in facing backlash. Other faceless content creators, such as Corpse Husband, may also be rethinking decisions to reveal their faces. In his own YouTube video, Corpse Husband also stated that after seeing the backlash Dream received, he can’t show his face anytime soon.
“I feel like I would be happier in a world where I could be myself openly and not worry about hiding from everybody, but I do think it's also the best decision for me because I don't think I could handle that many people, like, judging me at once,” Corpse Husband said.
However, the future of Dream's content remains unclear.
“People might treat him differently. People might say mean stuff about him,” eighth grader Savannah Molina said. “Before, they wouldn’t say anything rude because they didn’t know what he looked like, and now, after he did his face-reveal, people think that he’s ugly and don’t want to follow his YouTube channel anymore. His subscribers could increase or decrease depending on what videos he makes.”