The internet can be a fickle thing.
It can make you a star or it can cause your downfall.
Is Australian teenager Jamie Laou going to be the next Justin Bieber?
Probably not – and that’s OK with him.
But 17-year-old Laou is taking the internet by storm anyway, and is quickly building a fan base – simply because he looks just like pop singing sensation Justin Bieber.
What's Jamie Laou's bio?
Jamie lives in Sydney Australia and admits that he has a little Maltese blood in him. He also likes cupcakes and knows he is not the best singer or dancer in the world.
He says he just makes videos for fun – and nothing more.
It all started in 2009 when Jamie started a twitter account called
@iJever then later changed to
@Swagical, and a personal
YouTube Channel.
"Everyone just ignored me at first, but whenever I got on a webcam on different sites the little girls would start crying. It was crazy. They all thought I was Justin Bieber. When I finally told them I wasn’t they didn’t seem to care and kept following me and watching my videos."
Today, Laou has almost 3 million views on his YouTube account and 122,000 Twitter followers on
@iJever and
@Swagical.
Just to prove a point, a local radio station took Laou out in public near Adele Australia to try and fool people into thinking he was
Justin Bieber, and it was a smashing success.
There were fans running after the car and chasing him down in the mall. It was insane – everybody thought he was Justin.
Watch Jamie Laou Prank Fans in AdeleBut when Jamie tried his hand at singing on his videos he quickly learned there were a lot of people out there that didn’t much care for his talent.
He admits he is not the best singer and says he is not trying to be the next Biebs.
And that doesn’t matter because Laou is a splitting image of Bieber and his fans don’t care if he can’t sing. He is not trying to duplicate the success and style of other splitting images like
Austin Mahone who can sing, dance, and play the guitar and piano.
Jamie even admits,
“I do dance in a dance class, I sing girls to sleep over the phone and when I want to sing well they say I can, but when it’s just for fun, I’m an idiot ha-ha. It’s more of an alone in your room type of thing that everyone does.”
And after watching a few of his videos, you will realize that Jamie is not going to put Bieber out of business anytime soon with his singing.
But he does admit to being obsessed with Justin and his career, and even sparked a controversy when he tweeted that he felt the singer had changed and was no longer the sweet innocent little kid that everybody fell in love with.
That single tweet started an international dispute.
So much so, that Bieber himself got into a vicious DM direct message feud with Jamie and both sides said a few things they probably wish they could take back.
Laou was so upset by the exchange that he took to YouTube and made a video detailing his side of the story and actually showed the DM’s that Bieber had sent him.
Watch Jamie Laou and Justin Bieber Twitter FightAnother controversy erupted with his fans when he announced he had a new girlfriend whose name coincidentally was Selina.
His fans were none too happy and immediately started sending messages and hate mail to her.
But at the end of the day, what is Jamie Laou trying to accomplish from this journey?
“I hope it will help with my acting, Haha. I hope I can make more people smile in the future and make sick kids forget they are sick and laugh a little. I want to show people that if I can do it then they can also. Making people laugh and smile is my goal. I’m trying to get people to join in on my videos by replying and leaving comments. Acting is what I’m doing. Drama is the funniest class in school. I guess it helps me in life.”
We also suspect there is a certain financial incentive for Jamie to get more followers.
The young entrepreneur currently sells advertising on his
YouTube channel, sends paid sponsor advertisements via his twitter account, and sells various styles of wristbands on his website at
laouver.com.
And just to show you the power of his social media skills, he frequently sets up a Tiny Chat session when he goes to bed at night and can have as many as 250 viewers do nothing but watch him sleep.
That is power.
What are some of the pitfalls Jamie has had to deal with?
Haters and bullies.
Jamie has his share of haters out there and they are constantly trying to start controversy. He frequently goes to bat for those who he sees being bullied telling his twitter followers,
"Promise me if you see anyone getting bullied that you will tell somebody, even a friend. You know that person is nice and doesn't deserve that.."
He says he has been called names and constantly has people tweeting him and his fans with negative and hateful comments.
“The worst thing somebody can do is call me a Wannabe. I just hate that word. They also call me fag and gay and all the other bully words. They accuse me of trying to be like Justin when all I’m trying to do is have fun. I do NOT make singing videos; I make random YouTube videos that make people laugh and ask them to come into my world where they can forget their problems.”
Jamie also realizes these types of problems come with the territory and affect any celebrity.
When asked if he can understand what Bieber must be going through he says,
“Yes, Bieber has it so hard I don’t know how he does it, I feel sorry for him and I see all these gossip sites starting rumors and telling lies about him. He’s 17-years-old not 34. People should leave him alone because this is the time of his life where you start to discover the world and do things - not hide from it and run away.”
And if you need advice on how to refine your appearance and be able to fool people into thinking your Bieber - then Jamie has some advice for you in the following video.
Jamie Laou Shows How to Look Like Justin BieberTime will tell where this grand adventure will take Mr. Laou, but we suspect he will graduate from High School soon and move on to his next adventure, and Bieber will become the next Justin Timberlake.
Jamie will be able to keep his fan base as long as he continues to interact with them on a daily basis and keeps cranking out the videos – and does not become too controversial.
He has already been removed from the search function in twitter due to the high number of swear words he uses in his comments.
But we all know that being a celebrity can be a slippery slope – one false move, one bad comment, and it can all be over.
Jamie says it best - "I'm not a Bieber wannabe. I'm myself; I'm just a teenage kid that has cool hair."
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