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Who is Colette Butler?
Born on June 29, 1982 in California, USA, Colette Crofts is a YouTube personality, best known as part of the video blog (vlog) channel Shaytards. She is the wife of YouTube personality Shay Carl, and their family is considered YouTube’s first family, with most of their daily endeavors documented for their channel.
Colette Butler’s net worth
As of the beginning of 2020, Colette Butler’s net worth is estimated to be over $300,000 earned through a successful career on YouTube. She has collaborated with her husband countless times and has been featured on several other channels and podcasts.
The couple owns a 1,000-acre estate in Pocatello, Idaho, and they also own Pebble Creek Ski Resort. Her husband has a net worth estimated at over $25 million.
Early life and online beginnings
Colette lived mostly out of the spotlight until her marriage to Shay Carl. She grew up in a large family with four siblings and raised by her parents. Before she became famous online, she worked as a trainer in a gym and thus was athletically inclined. She loved participating in athletic events when she could, even running a half marathon. She has tried to balance all these efforts with raising a large family.
In the early 2000s, in the midst of several struggles to make ends meet, the entire family, including Colette and her three children, moved to Los Angeles. This was back in the days when Shay’s channel gained attention after his friendship with Philip DeFranco. She started to become more of a constant online presence, regularly appearing with the family on the Shaytards channel, showcasing some of the family’s day-to-day endeavors and documenting many of their children’s events.
Continued Online Work and Maker Studios
Over the years, Colette’s fame increased significantly as she became a more constant presence on television Shaytards channel.
As one of the first families to document and vlog their lives for YouTube, they have been referred to by many as the first YouTube family. Their lives have been compared to different reality TV families, though they have a bit more creative control when it comes to their work. The channel is known for extensively documenting their children’s lives. In particular, their fourth child Brock has been dubbed the first Truman baby, a reference to the movie “The Truman Show”. In the film, the main character, played throughout the life of Jim Carrey, is documented on television.
Eventually, Colette and her husband began collaborating with other popular YouTubers for the Maker Studios project, alongside Philip DeFranco, Kassem Gharaibeh, Lisa and Ben Donovan, and Dan Zappin. Maker Studios started out more as a collection of different channels, each focusing on a particular genre, namely entertainment, family, men and women. She has been a part of several shows, mainly in Maker Studios’ Women division.
Salesman and controversies
Colette’s shows when she was part of Maker Studios include “Mom’s View Talk Show” and “The Mom’s View”. The whole project was a success and caught the attention of The Walt Disney Company, which later bought the studios for $500 million.
This greatly increased the wealth of everyone involved, making them millionaires in a short period of time.
Controversy hit the family in 2017, when her husband Shay was accused of trying to do just that to cheat on his wife by camgirl Aria Nina. Aria began posting about messages on Twitter, claiming that the two had exchanged messages of a sexual nature. She decided to reveal his identity to the public after he started becoming rude in their interactions. The issue attracted a lot of attention and in response, Shay announced that the Shaytards channel would be taking a one-year hiatus, admitting to being an alcoholic and taking time to recover from his condition.
The following year, the Shaytards channel was reinstated and the pair were more open about their relationship and about Shay’s struggles with addiction. They have also resolved not to create a daily vlogging schedule, as this could lead to serious burnout.
Husband – Shay Carl
Shay Carl grew up in Pocatello, Idaho after his family moved there from Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating from high school, he went on a two-year mission for the Mormon Church to locations such as Guyana, Trinidad, and Barbados. After returning to the US, he enrolled at Idaho State University, but later dropped out to work instead of attending school.
He did odd jobs while trying to find a financial break, worked as a school bus driver, installed countertops, and also briefly operated as a DJ.
After his friendship with Philip DeFranco, things changed for Carl, who went from a relatively unknown YouTuber to a star on the platform. His fame continued to grow as he co-founded Maker Studios, which would later be sold to Disney for a huge sum. His career has also seen him befriend several celebrities, including Terry Crews and Matt Damon. He is also sponsored by companies such as Skype, General Electric, Kia and Foot Locker. He has been named one of the most successful YouTube video entrepreneurs by Force and his work has been featured by ‘The New York Times’.
He also made a documentary called “Fleeting‘, which was funded primarily by viewers raising $200,000.
Private life
Colette married Butler in 2003 and they have five children. Most of their children’s lives have been recorded and they have all become social media stars in their own way. Their daughter Emmi was featured on James Blunt’s “Some Kind of Trouble” album as part of the front cover. Their other daughter, Avia, also pursued a music career and released the song “Forever Love”. The pair are doing their best to run running events together, including marathons as a form of therapy, and keep the weight loss going.
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