Elle Mills

Mills was born in the Philippines and raised in the Ottawa, Ontario area.[6] She began making home videos when she was eight years old.[7] In high school, she was inspired to become a YouTuber by watching the YouTube videos of Grace Helbig and Casey Neistat.[8]

Much of Elle's content revolves around her family and friends. Notable family members include Jay Mills, who has appeared in numerous videos, including "I Pranked My Brother From Another Country",[9] And "My Brother Got Dumped So I Gave Him a Hair Makeover".[10] Her mother, Janet Prejola, appears in videos such as "SURPRISING OUR MOM WITH DUMB MATCHING TATTOOS".[11]

Her father (who doesn't want to be in her videos) married the mother of Elle's two half-sisters, Melinna and Mellissa (who used to appear in videos but doesn't really anymore). Melinna also has a YouTube channel with her boyfriend titled "Mitch & Melinna".[12] Her father remarried for the third time and Elle now has a younger step-sister named Angel.

At the beginning of 2017, she had about 15,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her channel gained subscribers very quickly after her coming-of-age videos went viral later that year. In particular, her November 2017 coming out video, in which she came out as bisexual, pushed her over the million-subscriber mark.[4][7] The video follows Mills coming to the realization of her sexuality and coming out to her friends and family by having them draw what her crush looks like then showing her a picture of her crush (Dodie Clark).

Mills signed with Fullscreen in June 2017,[13] and they produced her first ever tour in the spring of 2018.[6] By the end of 2017, her channel had over 915,000 subscribers,[3] and she surpassed 1 million subscribers in February 2018.[14] That May, she suffered a mental breakdown and posted a video announcing that she would take a break from making new videos. She returned to YouTube a month later.[15][16] She signed with United Talent Agency in December 2018.[7]

Throughout the course of her YouTube journey, Elle has openly talked about how making YouTube videos has made her feel burnt out. She has stated that she even canceled many shows on her tour in 2018 due to mental health issues.

A 2018 video titled, "Burnt out at 19" described her battles with mental health and led to Mills taking a public break from Youtube. The video describes how Mills achieved her dream job of becoming a YouTuber and it was not at all how she expected. Mill continues by stating that she was experiencing major panic attacks due to the overwhelming pressure and stress. These events also drastically worsened her anxiety and depression. A clip from the video shows Mills yelling into the camera visibly frustrated explaining how she should be happy because, "she is living the life she dreamed of but she is so unhappy."

Elle returned with a video titled, "The Aftermath of My YouTube Breakdown" which describes how she is dealing with life in a follow-up video style. She explains that she is doing a lot better, has talked to more people (friends, family, and her therapist) and has learned how to set boundaries as to not overwork herself again. She explains that things are getting better but are still not perfect.