William Sledd

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William Sledd as he appeared on October 31, 2006

William L. Sledd (born 11 October 1983) is a video blogger that came to international attention via YouTube, a popular video sharing site. William rapidly gained notoriety with his "Ask A Gay Man" series. Each of his videos regularly achieves in excess of 50,000 views and as of 1 November 2006, his most popular video "Ask A Gay Man: Denim Edition" had attracted over 1,200,000 views ^[1]), as result of having been a featured video by YouTube.

William lives in Paducah, Kentucky, USA and works at Gap (clothing retailer). Gap products are occasionally featured in his program although he has declared he is not paid for product placement or advertising by the company.^[2])

1 YouTube Fame
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 In the news
- 4.2 Other links

[edit] YouTube Fame

William has gained notoriety in the eyes of his viewers for his stylish hair, fashionable clothes, flamboyance and by playfully referring to his viewers as "bitches". William is one of the fastest growing and most viewed director/bloggers on YouTube, ranking in the top ten Most Subscribed (All Time) category as of 1 November 2006.

On September 23, 2006, his personal YouTube account was illegally hacked and all his content (including videos, comments, honours, etc.) was deleted. William then recorded a brief response to the criminals and went on to re-upload select videos.

On November 2, 2006, Woman's Wear Daily printed an article named Denim Dish. William Sledd was featured in the article as "Youtube's Fashion Find". The periodical interviewed William after his video "Ask A Gay Man: Denim Edition" was released.

On November 18, 2006, William Sledd posted a video named "Where In The World Is William Sledd", shot in the streets of Los Angeles. He explained he was there because certain producers invited him for a meeting. However, the nature of these meetings was not made clear. William then went on an unusually long (for him) hiatus, not posting any videos for several weeks. This fueled rumours among his fans that he had been killed, or his camera stolen, or worse, that he had a bad haircut and was trying to keep a low profile.[1]

To fend off such rumours, William finally posted on December 7, 2006, a 20 second video aptly titled simply "I'm NOT Dead", promising new video footage, for the following night. The promise went unfulfilled, as there was no new video in the following two days. In the comments for "I'm NOT Dead" William mentioned that the GAP was overloaded with work during the Christmas season, leaving him too busy. Coincidently, on the same day William returned to YouTube, his WikiPedia article was unlocked by the admin who had locked it, prompting a tongue-in-cheek video response from a fan regarding the event.

But William did reappear, on December 12, 2006, albeit four days late. His video entitled "Ask A Gay Man : Rodeo Dr. Edition" allowed some insight into what actually took place during his stay in Los Angeles. The title referred to Rodeo drive, a popular shopping spot, but the "Dr." abbreviation confused some viewers who took it to mean "Rodeo doctor". This video revealed a brand new title sequence and featured his new friend Courtney, a young woman who appeared to know him from his videos. William did some night-time sightseeing, visiting the great stores, like Prada, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, among others. We finally see him wearing his "man bag", a Gucci item first featured in his "Ask a Gay Man: Denim Edition". He remained mysterious regarding the deal with the producers, but was clear in saying he had rejected whatever contract had been offered. Thus, he returned to KY for the Gap Holiday Season. This video ended with some promise of further L.A. stories being revealed.