Lilly Singh

Submission 5,062

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About

Lilly Singh is a popular vlogger on YouTube known by the handle
IISuperwomanII. Singh has gained over 2.9 billion views in over eight years of creating comedy sketches. She is also an actor, filmmaker, and author.

History

Singh was born September 26th, 1988 in Ontario, Canada to Malwinder and Sukhwinder Singh from Punjab, India.^[1] She graduated York University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.^[2] The same year, on October 28th, she launched her YouTube channel under the name IISuperwomanII.^[3] Her earliest extant video, dated December 9th, 2010, is a tutorial on how to tie a Side Turla Bhangra Pagh (shown below, left). Her second extant video, a music video for a song called "I'm ill," gained over 1.5 million views (shown below, right).

Her most popular videos have gained tens of millions of views. Her most popular, "What Clubbing Is Actually Like," gained over 30 million views (shown below, left). Her second-most popular video, titled "How Girls Get Ready," gained over 28 million views.

Singh has appeared in some films, doing small parts in films like Ice Age: Collision Course and Bad Moms.^[4] She played the part of Raven in 2018's adaptation of Farenheit 451. She has also has published a book, How to Be a Bawse, which was a New York Times bestseller.^[5] Forbes ranked Singh as the tenth-highest earner on YouTube in 2017, gaining $10.5 million.^[6]

Coming Out

On February 24th, 2019, Singh came out as bisexual in a tweet that gained over 15,000 retweets and 134,000 likes^[7] (shown below).

The announcement was celebrated among her followers and in the media. BBC^[8] covered the news from the standpoint that her announcement offered LGBT representation in the Indian community, quoting non-binary artist Shiva Raichandani, who said, "This is a bisexual woman with millions of fans worldwide, many of whom are bisexual Indian women themselves. A bisexual Indian woman to publicly own her sexuality on a massive platform is worth celebrating. Now, she gives that platform to younger generations to feel comfortable in their own sexuality and their own skin." Verge writer Julia Alexander posted "we stan a fucking queen" about the news, gaining over 60 retweets (shown below, left). User @kaim0nd tweeted that they weren't shocked by the news, gaining over 40 retweets (shown below, right).

A Little Late with Lilly Singh

On March 14th, 2019, Lilly Singh appeared on The Tonight Show Starting Jimmy Fallon (shown below). The YouTube upload of her appearance received 417,000 views and 23,000 likes in a day. On the show she revealed that she will be hosting the 1:35 a.m. talk show on NBC this Fall. Variety^[9] report's that the show will air in September and "will make her the only female to currently host a late-night talk show on one of the Big 4 networks."

On the same night, Momin Qureshi^[11] tweeted, "This is HUGE. 1. Someone from my hometown hosting a late night show, 2. Someone South Asian, 3. A woman of colour, These are all things I thought I'd never see in that role, but I'm thrilled it's happening. Congrats @IISuperwomanII #RepresentOnAllFrontsMomin" (shown below, left). The tweet gained 469 retweets and 2,700 likes in a day. That day, Scott Hoying^[10] also tweeted, "WOW! This is SO amazing! The only woman currently hosting a late night show on one of the big 4 broadcast networks! & also YALL! this is such a victory for the @YouTube community! Congrats @IISuperwomanII ❤️" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 355 retweets and 3,687 likes in a day.