Last year William Sledd, a 23-year-old gay GAP employee from Paducah, Kentucky, started filming video blogs that offered his strong, witty, and usually spot-on fashion observations. He called the segments Ask A Gay Man and posted them on YouTube. Shot in his bedroom, his vlogs soon ranked as some of the most watched clips on the site and his eighth installment — a hilarious exploration of denim wear — has currently been viewed more than three million times.
Numbers such as those caught the attention of Bravo's OutZoneTV.com and last month Sledd shot his first episode of Ask A Gay Man for the network's online division. We recently talked with him about his sudden rise to fame, his controversial status within the gay community, and his three famous moms.
AfterElton: Congratulations on your new gig with Bravo!
William Sledd: Thank you! It's so exciting.
AE: How did that come about?
WS: They love me! [laughs] Actually, it was a collaboration. I have a development deal with NBC Universal and we pitched to Bravo, and when we pitched, they were like, "Oh, my gosh! We love him."
AE: Are you a big fan of Bravo's shows? Are you hooked on Project Runway?
WS: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. There's like no better place in the world I'd ever want to be. It doesn't get much better than Bravo. It's like a perfect fit for the two of us. I'm really psyched about it.
AE: You became famous and found your audience on YouTube, making you one of the first bona fide YouTube celebrities. What is it about you and your videos that accounts for your success?
WS: I'm fabulous? Duh! [laughs] Honestly, I don't know. I feel like it's hard to pinpoint. I used to think it was because I got featured a lot [on YouTube], but then I realized all kinds of people get featured and they don't get the same amount of numbers. I can't say exactly why.
AE: You've been mentioned on The View, written about in the LA Times, The Baltimore Times, and Instinct. How are you feeling about the sudden celebrity?
WS: It's changed my life in so many ways. I'm living a fairy tale. It's more than I could have ever even imagined. It's really cool, just the things that like a year ago, sitting in my bedroom if you'd told me I would do even half the things I've done in the last six months, it would blow my mind.
AE: I saw that you were contacted out of the blue by Christine Ebersole [Tony award winning actress from Broadway's Grey Gardens]. What was that like?
WS: We're like best friends now! She called me yesterday and I spent the whole weekend with her in New York. She's absolutely amazing. I love the woman to death. I have like three moms. I have these people who are like my mothers and they guide me throughout my career. Christine Ebersole is my Broadway mother, Suze Schwartz is my current print mother, she's the fashion editor for Glamour, and then Stacy London is my television mother. I'm good friends with all three of them and love them all.
AE: I love that you call your vlog Ask A Gay Man. Any thoughts on gay actors, singers, or other celebrities who aren't nearly as forthright about being gay?
WS: You know, I guess it's like everyone's own thing about being comfortable. I have a really strong confidence level. What people think about me doesn't really bother me at all. I guess that's why I'm so easy going with putting it out there. As far as being stereotyped sometimes, that's the only thing I dislike about the fame. Yes, I'm gay, but that's not the only thing. It's a part of me, and a part of me that I care about, but it's not all of me. Besides that, it's just me.
AE: When did you come out? How was it growing up and being gay and fabulous in Paducah, KY ?
WS: [laughs] It really wasn't that bad! It could have been a lot worse. I came out in my senior year of high school to all my friends. I mean, they kind of knew, although some of them didn't know. It wasn't bad, though. I have a very close group of friends. I don't have any bad experiences with coming out.
AE: Obviously you have a huge number of fans. Unfortunately, as you mentioned earlier, there seem to a number of folks, many of them gay men, who attack you online for acting like a "stereotypical gay man" and so forth. Where do you think that comes from? What do you say to them?
WS: Jealousy. Listen, the only people that hate me are the gays. I don't know what it is. Maybe they're jealous or they're opinionated or whatever, but it doesn't bother me at all. I joke about it. I'm like, the only people who hate me are the gays and the extreme religious people.
AE: Are you still working at The Gap?
WS: I am! Not today though. I'm taking time out of my busy life holding [a] position at the Cingular [store] to get my iPhone today. I've been out here since 9 AM.
