TORONTO — As YouTube stars gathered in Toronto for Saturday's FanFest festivities, they reflected on a recent tragedy involving one of their own — Christina Grimmie.
YouTube sensation Lilly Singh of Toronto said she never got to meet Grimmie, a singer who died in June after being shot while signing autographs after a show in Orlando, Fla.
But many of her YouTube friends were close with her, she added, noting: "It's a scary time for everyone."
"I woke up the next morning to my creator friend just being like, 'Yo, I just want to tell you I love you and be safe,' and I think it definitely brought the community together — but it also changed a lot," said Singh, a.k.a. Superwoman, in an interview Friday.
"We are this interesting type of celebrity where we are not as shielded as traditional celebrities. We go to a mall without bodyguards, we (video-blog) our days, about where we are and stuff.
"So I think it was kind of a rude awakening to be like: 'Hey, it's not as cute and fluffy as we might think it was,' which is sad."
Singh said after the incident, a lot of her touring YouTube friends had to either cancel their fan meet-and-greets or beef up security.
Singh herself also changed her security detail.
"Definitely it makes you change the way you look at things and unfortunately that's the reality of the situation."
YouTube FanFest was set to take place at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on Saturday, with events focusing on music, mashups and dance. Singh was to headline the show, which also includes Lauren Toyota, Bethany Mota, Mike Tompkins, and AsapSCIENCE, among others.
The event came as Grimmie's fans celebrated Thursday's release of a posthumous music video for her track "Snow White." It's one of four posthumous songs her family plans to release.
Edmonton-born Tompkins, a YouTube a cappella star, said he worked with Grimmie on a bunch of projects and still hasn't completely wrapped his head around her death.
"It's still a shock to me. I can't believe it. I'm still trying to figure it out," said Tompkins, who recently collaborated with actress Elizabeth Banks to produce a music video for Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"I've never known somebody that's had something like that happen, so it's that, mixed with I think the way that I deal with things. In those types of situations, I try to slowly deal with it over time and with that, it was hard because everyone was talking about it and I can't get away from it. So I feel like it's something I'm still trying to deal with. I don't completely understand it yet."
