Tana Mongeau (often referred to as Tana Mojo)— whether you love or hate her, you no doubt know the name. From telling unhinged stories on YouTube to selling out theaters on her recent podcast tour, Tana has been in the limelight for a long time and has earned a scandalous reputation.
Tana got her start on YouTube at 17-years-old. After a rough childhood growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tana used YouTube as a sort of outlet.
“I started making videos as an escape from a world that I was very sick of. It was me versus everybody, just like it had been my whole life,” Mongeau said.
Mongeau’s parents, Richard and Rebecca Mongeau, raised their only child in the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll environment that is Las Vegas, Nevada. However, if you ask me, the word “raised” may be too generous.
Tana has spoken openly about her tumultuous relationship with her parents, saying, “My childhood was just the worst thing on Earth and I’m very lucky to have gotten out of that, but obviously, I spent, like, 15 years of my life being so incredibly emotionally abused and physically abused and mentally abused.”
She also released a YouTube video in 2018 titled, “finally opening up about growing up/ my insane dad” which takes a more in depth look at her life as an adolescent. Mongeau highlights stories of how her social-anxiety ridden mother rarely left the house, and includes some about her over-the-top father. The claims that Mongeau makes in this video align with something she said in episode 8 of MTV’s Tana Turns 21: “I feel like my dad was really, really peak-level embarrassing, whether he was screaming at me or just cheap and rude. My mom would have never gotten dressed or been ready at a normal time.”
In just one short year after Tana released that video her parents took the word “strained” to a whole new level, suing Tana for “slander” in 2019.
Tana told the H3 Podcast in 2023 a bit about the lawsuit. Tana said that she “received a letter…that basically said you said these things on this reality show.” She continued, saying “I said a lot of things that someone in court could say could create a loss of income.”
After “it went back and forth for a while,” Tana said that they “settled” and she “had to pay them a couple hundred thousand dollars.” Tana says that “that was like the day in my head where they really like, they were dead to me.”
Needless to say, Tana has a complicated relationship with her parents. Growing up in Vegas she’s also had a complicated relationship with drugs and alcohol.
“You’re just like 21 by the time you’re like 13, 14. You’re partying in the hotels and casinos,” Tana said in this interview with the H3 Podcast. “Everyone’s selling drugs, doing drugs.”
Although Tana may have grown up too fast, she used these stories about her wild times in Vegas to her advantage when she started her YouTube career. She rose to fame by telling these outlandish, and a lot of times sexual, “storytimes.”
Some of the most popular of these include videos titled “I Got Banged with a Toothbrush: Storytime,” and “My Stalker Broke Into My House: Storytime”
After gaining a considerable following from these storytimes, both of which were posted in 2016, Tana explored other avenues that brought her even more attention.
In 2018 Tana decided to pursue music, shocking millions with the release of the absolute HIT that is “Hefner” with her then girlfriend (ish) and former Disney star, Bella Thorne. Tana also released other music, all of which were fairly popular, but none of them on the level of “Hefner.” After it was released, Tana seemed to be on the come-up.
But when the disastrous convention she called Tanacon happened in 2018, it threatened to ruin her blossoming career.
However, after a tumultuous year, 2019 was proving to be the height of Tana’s fame (or infamy, some may say).
From starring in an MTV show called “MTV No Filter: Tana Turns 21” to marrying Jake Paul, Tana seemed to be at the peak of her life and career after doing some Tanacon damage control.
But this was not the case. Tana was struggling with substance abuse heavily, and even opened up about her struggle with Xanax addiction in a video posted in 2020.
“I was at the point of taking Xanax where it’s not that I was trying to overdose — that drug has killed people I love — I was definitely taking enough to where I wasn’t trying to kill myself but I definitely didn’t care if I died,” Tana said.
But this was Tana’s past. She’s grown and changed a lot over the years, and her most recent venture has been the podcast she co-hosts with Brooke Schofield: “Cancelled.”
“Cancelled” has over 2 million subscribers and is live this year, with Tana and Schofield recently announcing in January that they would be going on tour.
The two just finished the first half of this tour selling out every show.
So, since she sold out a bunch of shows cross-country and her raunchy past is way behind her, everyone must love her now, right?
Wrong.
UT Sophomore Grace Hurley warns that Tana’s stories, whether it be her old YouTube videos or new podcast topics, are volatile, especially for the younger girls who watch Tana.
“Glamorizing addiction and sex and putting it on a platform for young girls to see doesn’t sit right with me. It encourages a lot of young girls to put themselves out there in a way they’ll regret later,” Hurley said.
On the other hand, much of Tana’s audience consists of teens and 20-something girls who have found Tana to be honest and entertaining from the start.
UT Junior Gianna Means considers herself a die-hard fan of Tana, having watched the YouTuber since middle school.
“I like Tana Mongeu because I think she’s real. She says what she feels, and she’s unapologetic about it,” Means said.
Means does, however, recognize that Tana is controversial and thinks that the criticism she receives is justified.
“The hate is validated, honestly. She has made some controversial comments, especially in her formative years,” Means said. “I think she got into scandals because she was young and didn’t have good direction in her life. But she learns from things like that and she’s okay with people calling her out for it.”
Some of Tana’s controversy isn’t just related to her YouTube persona.
Tana has made an absolute killing on the content subscription service OnlyFans, where she posts sexually explicit content.
She showcased her “top earner” trophy on “X” in March, which she earned by acquiring over $10,000,000 in revenue on OnlyFans.
She is undoubtedly in the top 1% when it comes to finances, and has no problem showing it. From her lavish birthday trips to designer hauls, Tana is definitely not struggling to get by.
Hurley feels that putting this lifestyle out into the world is problematic and one of the reasons she doesn’t support Tana.
“She promotes consumerism in a way that isn’t sustainable. Only a very specific demographic can spend like that, and most girls that watch her aren’t a part of that demographic,” Hurley said. “She’s promoting irresponsible spending and a tumultuous lifestyle.”
However, Means defends this.
“People just can’t fathom that someone can just mess around and make money. She’s entertaining and she has a platform because she’s funny and relatable. People give comedians and reality stars the same platform and that isn’t a problem.”
While, according to Hurley, the criticism geared toward Tana may be validated, you can’t deny that she is one of the most open celebrities of our time. And while her luxury lifestyle may not be overly relatable, it has no doubt entertained her fans. Tana is obviously doing very well for herself and is living a much better lifestyle than when she started her journey in Hollywood.
Love or hate her, it’s Tana freaking Mongeau. She’s been around for a long time and it’s highly unlikely that she’ll become irrelevant soon.
