- Beauty influencer James Charles has a lucrative career, but he's recently been facing controversy.
- Now a former employee is suing him over allegations of wrongful termination and nonpayment.
- Charles' former creative director talked to Insider about what she said led to her lawsuit.
The YouTuber James Charles is facing another threat to his beauty empire.
The 21-year-old multimillionaire has been engulfed in the fallout from an underage-sexting scandal, temporarily losing monetization on YouTube and severing ties with Morphe Cosmetics. Now Charles' former producer and creative director Kelly Rocklein is speaking out about her lawsuit against him, which alleges wrongful termination, disability discrimination, failure to provide reasonable accommodation, and failure to pay minimum wage for overtime hours worked.
Rocklein is 26 and was 23 when she worked for Charles for about six months in 2018. She spoke with Insider about her lawsuit and why she felt she could now speak publicly about her experience working for Charles.
While Rocklein said she initially wanted to settle with Charles privately, she said he and his legal representation declined to settle during early conversations in 2019, which indicated to Rocklein they would prefer to litigate the dispute in private arbitration. In March 2020, Rocklein filed her complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Charles declined to comment on Rocklein's allegations to Insider but filed a response to the complaint that denies all of her claims. In a video he posted on Twitter on May 10, Charles accused Rocklein of taking her story to the media in an attempt to publicly pressure him into a higher settlement offer. He questioned why Rocklein spoke out now after the legal dispute has been ongoing for two years.
—James Charles (@jamescharles) May 11, 2021In response to Charles' May 10 video, Rocklein's attorney told Insider his view that the reason the case has taken so long was that Charles' legal team attempted to compel arbitration and its subsequent appeal for arbitration was denied by the court. Rocklein said she hoped to set a public precedent for how influencers treat employees. Her lawsuit seeks compensation for wages she says were withheld from her, along with damages, penalties, attorney fees, and interest from the three years since Rocklein was fired.
Rocklein said she worked 80 hours a week or more and wasn't paid overtime at minimum wage. But in a "perfect world," Rocklein said she'd still work for Charles. She described a long-term vision of her role on his team to Insider, as well as what she said led to everything falling apart.
Under Rocklein's creative direction, Charles' career skyrocketed
The first time Rocklein encountered Charles, she said, was when a friend showed her his job posting on Snapchat in February 2018. At the time, she said she "had no idea" who Charles was, but she saw his young career as a promising challenge. She emailed her pitch to him and was selected for the position in March.
"What I told him was: 'James, we have to study your target audience and basically make content that appeals to those people, and we can dish out two to three videos a week. And I'm the person to help you do that,'" Rocklein said.
Her position was described in her employment contract, which Insider viewed in part, as several jobs rolled into one — with the title "creative director and director of operations." Rocklein said she was tasked with producing and editing Charles' YouTube videos, strategizing his social-media posts and video concepts, taking photos and videos of him, running his merchandise brand Sisters Apparel, and serving as Charles' "right-hand man" every day.
During the six months Rocklein worked for Charles, he maintained an output of eight videos a month, with more consistent and frequent posts than at any other point in his YouTube career.
Rocklein had a year of experience in the influencer industry at that point. She previously worked as a creative director and producer for Erika Costell, a former member of Jake Paul's "Team 10" on YouTube. Rocklein settled with Costell in 2021 after suing her over allegations of failure to pay wages, but she said she couldn't discuss that lawsuit as part of the agreement.
In his May 10 video, Charles insinuated that Rocklein had a pattern of chasing settlement money from YouTubers, but Rocklein told Insider people "would be shocked, disappointed, and disgusted" by how frequently employees of influencers work overtime without compensation.
During the period when Rocklein worked for Charles, he grew from just under 2.8 million subscribers to over 8.5 million. He also produced some of his most known content, including a video series with his YouTube-famous friends Emma Chamberlain, Grayson Dolan, and Ethan Dolan.
"Think of everything James posted for those six months," Rocklein said. "I was involved in it to the point where if I didn't show up that day, James wouldn't get work done."
Rocklein alleges she worked long hours and wasn't compensated
Before Rocklein started working for Charles, she said she asked for a competitive six-figure salary, health benefits, and a plan to roll out a 401(k)-matching program.
Sister Sister LLC "respond and are like, 'Well, you know, we thought about it, and we think we'll pay you $5,000 a month,'" she said. "'We're not going to give you any benefits, but if you work really hard, we'll give you an annual bonus that will get you there.'"
During her tenure, Rocklein said she was given a raise to $6,000 a month — roughly a $72,000 salary — to adjust for additional responsibilities she was taking on. Charles confirmed Rocklein's salary in his May 10 video. But she also alleges she was never paid for the total number of hours she worked.
"It was sketchy," Rocklein added. "Now, with career experience, I know that people will take advantage of you. But at the time, I was like, 'OK, well, I trust them.'"
Rocklein said that when she was hired, she was making the most money out of anyone in her family, and she said she felt compelled to work as hard as she could so that she could earn her annual bonus. Without a financial security net, Rocklein said she felt like she couldn't stop working because she wouldn't be able to pay rent.
Shortly after Rocklein was fired, Charles moved into an $2.3 million Encino, Los Angeles, home that he leased for $17,000 a month, according to Velvet Ropes.
"He was making monstrous money at 18 years old, and I literally couldn't even afford to pay my full rent. I shared a room with a friend in downtown LA," Rocklein said. "Everything I was doing with him, I was just in this losing financial game, like, 'I've got to keep working. I've got to keep working. My bank account just bounced.'"
Rocklein felt Charles was a difficult person to work with
In addition to working her more than 80 hours a week without overtime pay, according to Rocklein and her complaint, Rocklein said Charles seemed "incredibly unprofessional."
"Imagine having to go over and essentially pick James up out of bed, tell him to brush his teeth, tell him, 'OK, what do you want to eat? OK, someone is coming to do your laundry. OK, I'm going to get your laundry, I guess. OK, time to start filming — you don't want to film — well, we both know you have to. So please let's think about it,'" Rocklein said.
She also said Charles walked around the house naked in front of her, called Rocklein names like "bitch," and once texted her, "Kelly i might need your help shaving my butt" in preparation for a revealing Coachella outfit. Rocklein said Charles made her feel "extremely uncomfortable."
"He was essentially a child when I met him," she said. "But also when it came to business matters and negotiations, he was all of a sudden this adult with a 'don't f--- with me' vibe."
Because of what she said was the breadth of her role, Rocklein's daily schedule was unpredictable, she said.
"I would wake up at 6 in the morning and not know what time I was going over to James'," Rocklein said. "Was I going over at 6 a.m.? Am I going over at 8 a.m.? Am I going over at 10 a.m.? Am I staying until 8 p.m. at night? Am I leaving at 4 a.m.? Am I sleeping over? I don't know what my day is going to look like."
Charles denied being "lazy" in his May 10 video and described Rocklein's claims as "absolutely ridiculous, absurd, untrue, defamatory, just the craziest things you could ever imagine."
"My team is like family to me. I love them all so much, and you guys know a lot of them from being in the back of my YouTube videos," Charles said in the video. "I stand behind the fact that they are very, very well taken care of."
Rocklein believes a freak accident caused a downward spiral
Less than a week before "s--- hit the fan" with her job, Rocklein said she was pleasantly surprised to get a meaningful gift from Charles. She said he surprised her with the same Louis Vuitton necklace he gifted to his manager, his brother, and his best friends.
"James had said: 'Obviously, this doesn't count. This is not your annual bonus, but I just wanted to say thank you. I love everything you're doing, sister.' I was his person," Rocklein said.
A few days later, on September 4, 2018, Rocklein said she and Charles were getting their nails done at a salon right by Charles' old apartment. Rocklein said she was listening to the nail technician describe the surgery she needed for carpal tunnel syndrome and started to feel light-headed. The next thing Rocklein remembers is waking up to a frantic Charles — she had fainted, fallen out of her chair, and her head hit the tile floor.
Rocklein said she took an ambulance to the emergency room, where the complaint says her "hospitalization caused her to miss time at work and caused delays in meeting video production goals."
"After being let out of the hospital the first time, James would text me very understanding things about how he appreciates me and how he hopes I feel better, but when I would call him or talk to him in person, he would be the complete opposite," she said.
Rocklein alleges that Charles urged her to meet video-upload deadlines, asking her to edit videos on her laptop and come into production meetings. Then, the complaint says Rocklein's "treating physician diagnosed her with a concussion and instructed her to take a week off work in order to recover."
She alleges that "she could have fully performed all duties and functions of her job in an adequate, satisfactory and/or outstanding manner, particularly if she was provided with reasonable accommodations requested."
On September 19, Rocklein said Charles called her over for a personal meeting. The complaint says Charles "callously informed her that she was being terminated due to poor performance."
"He flipped on a dime," Rocklein said. "How do you go from buying someone a Louis Vuitton necklace saying, 'Thank you so much for all your hard work,' to, 'You're fired. We no longer need you.'"
Rocklein is pursuing monetary damages and wants to share her story
Initially, rather than settle, Charles' legal team moved to uphold the arbitration clause in Rocklein's employment contract, according to court documents reviewed by Insider. Arbitration is a private dispute-resolution process outside the judicial system in which a third-party arbitration firm — in this case, paid for by Sister Sister LLC — receives evidence, hears arguments, and makes a decision.
But the arbitration clause in Rocklein's contract now may be void thanks to a California law that went into effect on January 1, 2020. Charles' attorneys failed to pay fees required for the commencement of arbitration within 30 days of the due date because of a communication error between Charles' firm and the private-arbitration firm, according to court documents. As a result, Rocklein moved to litigation, which was granted. Charles' attorneys have appealed the decision and are waiting on a response from the court.
In his May 10 video, Charles also said he felt as though he was being blackmailed by Rocklein, who he said was "going after him" for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In response, Rocklein's attorney denied that Rocklein was blackmailing Charles. He claims that Charles' legal team attempted to offer a settlement to "buy her silence" and keep the story out of the media.
"James made a reasonable settlement offer for an employment lawsuit, she countered with an outrageous amount of money to settle and to retract her public statements, James wasn't willing to pay her off," Sam Mangan, Charles' manager, told Insider in a statement.
"Contrary to popular belief, I have never paid anybody to speak or not speak about me, and this will not be the first time that I do it," Charles said in the video. "My only option is to pursue this to the fullest extent of the law and hope that when it gets to a courtroom, justice will be served."
Charles responded to Rocklein on Twitter before publication
Charles declined to address specific claims made by Rocklein to Insider before publication because of the ongoing status of their litigation. But in his May 10 video, he addressed claims that Insider sent him.
"We are dealing with the court of public opinion, which is a court that's not on my side right now," he said in the video, referencing his underage-sexting scandal. Charles specifically denied using the "N-word" slur, an allegation Insider sent to him in advance.
In response to Charles' video, Rocklein accused Charles of using the slur "with a hard 'R'" in front of her on numerous occasions. She alleged he used it casually during video production, and she also said he would refer to his friends using the slur. A person who had a personal relationship with Charles before 2016 told Insider that Charles casually said the slur in front of them in high school.
Rocklein said Charles' longtime employees and friends don't speak up against him publicly or hold him accountable in person because they're "birds of feather" and "all want something" they can obtain by remaining in Charles' good graces.
In 2017, Charles apologized for a tweet about the Ebola virus in Africa that many people viewed as racist, and he has also publicly apologized for tweeting a "microaggression" at Alicia Keys.
In 2020, Charles also denied singing the "N-word" along to a song on his Instagram story.
"How stupid would I have to be to confidently record a video of me singing the n word and still have it up the next morning," he wrote at the time. "If you're not a person of color you cannot say the 'N-word' ever," Charles told a paparazzo in January 2020.
At first, Rocklein said she didn't want to litigate in a public legal proceeding because she feared backlash on social media. Now, after seeing the empathetic response to her in YouTube videos that were made about the case, Rocklein said she felt as if a larger message needed to be broadcast about the influencer industry.
"This is almost the opportunity to set a precedent to really say, 'If you're a content creator, and you want to hire someone, you need to make sure that you're doing your part and being a decent human being and taking care of your people,'" Rocklein said.
Got a tip? Email Kat Tenbarge at ktenbarge@businessinsider.com.
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