YouTube Superstars Zoe Sugg, Alfie Deyes Ask For Privacy From Stalking Fans

The life of a YouTube star isn’t always as easy as it seems. While mid-level celebrities have to deal with cobbling together a decent income that belies their popularity, superstars have a whole other set of safety concerns with which to deal. And recently, no one knows this better than YouTube stars and couple Zoe Sugg (aka Zoella) and Alfie Deyes (aka PointlessBlog). The two video creators recently took to Twitter to ask fans to stop showing up uninvited at the doorstep of their Brighton, UK home.

According to a tweet from Zoella, the UK’s The Daily Mail was the first newspaper to reveal the couple’s Brighton home address. Almost immediately after publication, the house was flooded with fans. Starting December 28, 2015, Deyes took to Twitter, calling out parents who took their kids to his and Zoella’s home so they could take pictures through the window. Deyes pleads for fans to “go away” and “come to a meet up just like everyone else who wants to meet me does.” Zoella even wrote about how she’s starting to “hate my house” because of the unwelcome attention.

Deyes apologized to his Twitter followers about all the complaining, but claimed he was still justified in his frustrations because of how often unwanted fans appear on and around his front door every day. Despite Deyes and Zoella’s request that fans and the media give them some privacy, Deyes tweeted how Brighton’s The Argus newspaper then re-printed the couple’s address only a day later in an article about how the YouTube stars were “moaning” about the price of fame.

In an entertainment medium where celebrities seemingly talk directly to their audiences and interact with several of those audience members on a daily basis through any number of forms of social media, it must be difficult for a prepubescent fanatic to know where to draw the line. But if you’re reading this, Alfie and Zoe fans, please know that this is the line. There are many unpleasant byproducts of being celebrity a popular individual should be willing to suffer through in exchange for his or her spot in the public eye, but having uninvited individuals stalk you in your own home should not be one of them.