Jaiden Dittfach[2][3] (born September 27, 1997) is an American YouTuber and animator known for her story-timeanimations channel, Jaiden Animations. She made videos on a variety of topics, spanning from her experiences to personal stories. She now primarily creates videos centered around video game stories.
As of October 2024, Jaiden Animations's main YouTube channel has amassed over 13.8 million subscribers and 2.6 billion views. Nominated for a total of six Streamy Awards, she won in the Animated category at the 10th Streamy Awards in 2020.
Jaiden Dittfach[2] was born on September 27, 1997.[4] Prior to working on her own channel, Jaiden worked with other YouTubers on their channels,[5] including iHasCupquake.[6]
Jaiden created her YouTube channel in 2014, when she was 16 years old.[5][7]
In 2016 and 2017, Jaiden's channel started trending on the website, becoming more prominent to bigger audiences.[8][9][10] Jaiden mainly uploads animated YouTube videos that tell stories about her personal life.[8][11][12] The videos sometimes discuss subjects such as toxic relationships, body positivity, anxiety, and depression.[8][7] She also creates videos centered on her travels and video games, such as Pokémon.[5][13][14][15][16][17]
2017–present: Rise to prominence and collaborations
In March 2019, Jaiden participated in an airsoft gun tournament organized by YouTuber MrBeast and sponsored by game developer Electronic Arts. The event, organized in order to promote the release of Apex Legends, featured 36 players, all of which were prominent YouTube influencers. Jaiden's team, which also comprised Anthony Padilla and close friend James "TheOdd1sOut" Rallison, ended up winning the competition, with Jaiden herself firing the winning shot.[23]
On June 1, 2021, her YouTube channel reached 10 million subscribers.[29][30] She received a nomination in the Animated category for the 11th Streamy Awards in December 2021.[31] In 2022, she signed with the Creative Artists Agency.[32] YouTube ranked the video among their list of the "top trending videos" of 2022, as it reached over 17 million views by the end of the year.[33]
In 2023, she joined forces with Alpharad to create WILD/CARD, a channel dedicated to bringing attention to the smaller content creators that the two of them considered friends. This collaboration included gsmVoiD, Weegee Plays, Giwi, SunflowerSmith, Captain Kidd, and Fyrus.[34]
In July 2024, Jaiden won another competition organized by MrBeast, this time in the video "50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000" in which she competed against 49 other YouTubers for $1,000,000 to give away to their subscribers. She pledged to use the prize money to send some of her subscribers to art school.[35] Later that month, for the tenth anniversary of her first video upload, Jaiden announced that she does not plan to continue creating content indefinitely.[36]
In April 2019, Jaiden published a video encouraging people to donate to Bird Gardens of Naples, a non-profit bird sanctuary in Florida, via a GoFundMe campaign. Within nine weeks, the campaign had raised over $22,000.[37] Jaiden was also among many social media figures who donated to the Team Trees fundraiser in 2019.[38] For World Health Day in April 2020, Jaiden participated in #HopeFromHome, a charity livestream initiated by fellow YouTuber Jacksepticeye that raised over $260,000 for COVID-19 relief.[39][40][41]
In October 2021, Jaiden participated in a charity tournament for the video game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl hosted by YouTuber Alpharad and Coney of the esports organization Panda Global, playing as the character CatDog. In her campaign, she raised over $73,000 after uploading a now-deleted video asking for donations to help choose CatDog as the character she wished to play for the tournament.[42][43]
In 2016, she stated in a video that she resides in Arizona.[44] In another video, posted in 2018, she stated that she moved to California.[45] In December 2022, she purchased a $4.8 million home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California with fellow YouTuber Alpharad.[46]
In 2017, Jaiden spoke out about her experience with anorexia and bulimia in a video titled "Why I Don’t Have a 'Face Reveal'",[47] as well as a song titled "Empty" in 2018.[48][49]
In 2022, in her video titled "Being Not Straight", she publicly came out as aromantic and asexual.[50][51][52] In 2024, she publicly announced that she was diagnosed with ADHD.[53]
^Jaiden Animations (March 10, 2019). Watching my childhood videos w/ theodd1sout. Event occurs at 04:15. Archived from the original on June 5, 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2021 – via YouTube. [People singing "Happy Birthday To You" with date stamp of SEP 27 1998] James Rallison: Oh goodness, is this you? Dittfach: Yeah. It went back in time. Rallison: It went back in time? Dittfach: That's my first birthday.
^Chang, Parrish (February 20, 2020). "Animation Makes the Dreams Work". The Advocate. Mt. Hood Community College. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021. With creators such as Swoozie, Domics, and TheOdd1sOut, the genre began to slowly expand to many others creators such as Jaiden Animations, Illymation, Emirichu, Daidus, Eroldstory, SomeThingElseYT, Odd1sOut and many others
^Krivulya, Natalia (December 15, 2019). "Animated travelog: the genre origins and peculiarities". Arta (in Russian). XXVIII(2): 81. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3597269 – via Zenodo.
^Fennimore, Jack (December 6, 2017). "YouTube Rewind 2017: Here's What People Think of It". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018. They were especially excited to see their favorite creators featured in the video, including notable animators on YouTube who were previously not featured in the annual video like Jaiden Animations and Rebecca Parham.
^Fennimore, Jack (December 6, 2018). "YouTube Rewind 2018: Here's What People Think of It". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018. That being said, it appears there was a small reference to PewDiePie made by Jaiden Animations, or at least his chair.
^Jaiden Animations (June 7, 2016). theodd1sout and I Complain About Arizona. Event occurs at 0:34. Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021 – via YouTube. So, coincidentally, we both live in the oven that is Arizona [...]
^JaidenAnimations (September 9, 2018). Things that Happened While I Grew Up. Event occurs at 5:23. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021. And now I'm here, on my own, moved to California.