Tragic Details About Gabi And Niki DeMartino

The following article references eating disorders and child abuse allegations. 

Gabi and Niki DeMartino have built something of an empire. As of March 2022, the twin sisters have garnered nearly 10 million subscribers on their joint YouTube channel and continue to bring in the views with each unique video they upload. It's evident in the videos that the sisters have a blast and are incredibly passionate about their content. According to Seventeen, the DeMartinos rose to fame thanks to their beauty channel where they offer makeup and hair tutorials to their fans. They eventually expanded their channel by adding lifestyle vlogs, storytimes, skits, and music videos.

What you may not know? The DeMartinos' YouTube career kicked off when, as they recalled in a chat with YSBNow, they filmed and uploaded a "Pretty Little Liars" reenactment. Their remake video channel eventually led to a beauty channel, and the rest is history. Sadly, that history has not always been easy.

So without further ado, here's a look inside the lives of the beloved vloggers, who waded through tragedy and hardship to get to where they are now.

Gabi and Niki DeMartino are now lucky enough to have millions of dedicated fans and supporters, thanks to their YouTube platform. Yet, believe it or not, they didn't have a lot of people in their corner when they were growing up. In the past, they have opened up to their followers about how difficult their academic experience was, to the point where they eventually had to start over somewhere else. Talking to Tiger Beat about her time in middle school, Niki said, "You will get through it one way or another. Our way was through changing schools."

In their 2017 video "Our Bullying Story," the DeMartinos went into detail about how their self-esteem plummeted at that age due to the constant bullying. "It was the first time we ever felt embarrassment and self-hate," Niki revealed. "I feel like we started to eventually hate ourselves too, because everyone hated us." It got to the point where the two would come home "crying every day" after school. 

As a result of being friendless, the sisters ended up at a lunch table alone for a whole year. According to Niki, it felt like rock bottom. "When I think of my lowest point, I think of sitting by myself in the cafeteria in the corner, and nobody wanting to sit with us," dished Niki in their "Facing Middle School 10 Years After Being Bullied" video. 

Many teachers will intervene when they witness bullying amongst their pupils, but as the twins stated in their "Our Bullying Story" video, that apparently wasn't the case for Gabi and Niki DeMartino. As Niki remembered, "It just got to the point where the teachers weren't doing anything." According to the sisters, after they started creating YouTube content, their channel eventually became so popular that their videos started to make waves at their high school. As the DeMartinos recall, both their classmates and their instructors apparently mocked their clips together. "Teachers would watch our videos in class with the student council," Niki said. "The bullies were the school."

The treatment the siblings experienced throughout their formative years stuck with them well into their 20s. In a 2021 chat with Sweety High, Gabi shared that the ridicule she faced inspired her single "Immaculate," a track that features lyrics like "In this society / I can't get by as me" and "Wooah, got me feeling like an idiot / For my messy humanity." Gabi told the outlet, "This song means so much to me because I'm very passionate about standing up against any bully in this world whose intention is to make life harder for people."

As Niki DeMartino said in Flaunt, she and her sister "didn't fit in" and "dealt with so much s**t" growing up. Understandably, the friends she and Gabi DeMartino did make during that time were all the more precious. They eventually ended up with a solid group of girls they called their besties. In their "Draw My Life" video, which went up in 2013, Niki said that while she and her sister still got bullied daily, at least they had their best friends to let them know that things were going to be "okay."

Tragically, their close friend Kimmy was diagnosed with cancer when they were in high school. The twins learned of her death while in class. As Gabi shared in a 2019 clip, she and Niki were 14 years old when Kimmy died. 

"We got the news on November 6th, 2009, that our best friend had passed away," Niki said in the "Draw My Life" video. "They announced it over the loudspeaker, and my whole group of girlfriends just cuddled together crying, holding onto each other. We would just visit her grave, and it was just really, really sad." 

After being antagonized all day at school, you'd think the twins would be able to catch a little break once they got home. However, the two were bullied after the bell rang, too. In their "Our Bullying Story" video, Niki and Gabi DeMartino talked about how their house was targeted by their peers. The two state that their home was "forked," "egged," and that people would even go so far as to chuck pumpkins at their windows and front door. "We got egged on the daily," said Gabi, "which was pretty sad." They went on to share that things apparently escalated so much that their father had to up the security. "My dad had to install cameras around the house because our home was getting really vandalized," Gabi recalled.

As a result of this relentless torment, they tell their subscribers that they would "never go to school functions" or socialize. Instead, they would put all their energy into their YouTube videos. "My parents would always give me and my sister s**t for not going to football games or school dances, but we knew what we're doing," Niki told Flaunt. "We had a plan." It feels safe to say that their plan has panned out.

In a heartbreaking upload for mental health awareness month, Gabi DeMartino shared an emotional video to her "fancy vlogs by Gabi" channel. In the 2019 video titled "i really need to share this with you guys. my untold story + biggest secret i've hid from you," Gabi told her subscribers that she and twin sister Niki DeMartino were abused as children. She stated that she didn't want anyone to speculate about who she might be talking about, but she did say they were abused by someone that she "loved" and "admired." She also shared that the attacks only "got worse as we got older."

"I remember the first time that physical violence was spoken about in school," she said in her upload. "And that's when I realized something wasn't right. I thought it was just discipline, and I didn't want to view this person as a bad person because I loved this person, and I was fighting so hard to get this person's attention in a positive way. And I could never do right in this person's eyes." Gabi said it negatively impacted future relationships and that she "lost all [her] self worth." She told her fans that opening up about her past trauma was like having "a weight lifted off [her] chest."

Gabi went on to say that she's worked to be "where [she is] now." As she once told Sweety High, "Stay strong and know you're worth it no matter what."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

Both of the sisters have suffered from eating disorders in the past. As Niki DeMartino said in the "Confronting My Best Friend About My Eating Disorder" video, her eating disorder started for her after going through a terrible breakup. Niki says she spiraled into a "deep depression" after her split, where she "genuinely wasn't getting out of bed or eating." This caused her to drop a lot of weight in a short amount of time. "When I started going out again, everyone started complimenting me on my weight loss," she continued. "And it was filling that void that he left me with." 

In "The Truth About Gabi's Face Transformation," Gabi DeMartino told her twin that she developed "eating problems" while she was in a relationship with someone who cheated on her with "skinny" girls. Niki shared that she "saw a complete change" in her sister's diet and that their parents were "scared" for her.

The DeMartinos have said that they still struggle with body image issues to this day, yet they are working hard to overcome it. While Gabi appeared as a guest on "Red Table Talk: The Estefans," she said, "I just wish my young followers knew that it's okay not to look like the girl on TikTok. It's okay to not look like the Snapchat filter. It's okay to not look like everyone else."

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

In a candid video uploaded to Niki DeMartino's channel titled "I'm Living In Someone Else's Shadow," the vlogger admitted to feeling like she's less loved than Gabi DeMartino. According to Niki, there are times when she feels like she's "second best" and the less "dominant twin." Making matters worse? Gabi has generated a bigger following. According to Smokey Glow, a YouTuber who makes evolution videos about fellow YouTubers, Gabi gained a much bigger fan base compared to Niki, despite Niki apparently being "the one who was doing the majority of the work" in regards to their content. 

What's more, when the twins upload competition videos and ask fans to rank a winner for each challenge, Smokey Glow reports that Gabi regularly ends up in the lead. "I feel like I've worked so hard to get where I am," said Niki in her "I'm Living In Someone Else's Shadow" upload, "and I'm not getting the same opportunities my sister's getting." 

As twins, it's been hard to shake the comparisons. "Now that we're older, we have our own different vibes," Niki told Flaunt in 2020. "We always wanted to go our separate ways, but we never did because we had so many people around us saying 'but what about Niki and Gabi?!'"

YouTuber beef is nothing new, but a feud between vlogger siblings? That's an entirely different level of drama. In June 2020, Gabi and Niki DeMartino released a video titled "The Real Reason We Don't Get Along" where they shared that they reached a point where they "were almost gonna quit this channel." In the video, fellow YouTube star Gabbie Hanna acted as mediator while the DeMartinos hashed out the reasons their relationship had gotten so rocky. One of the primary issues? Their YouTube channel. Niki said she could be very "difficult to work with" when it came to making videos because she wanted them to be perfect. Gabi, on the other hand, wanted to prioritize her personal life over the channel, which caused a major conflict between the sisters. Niki explained, "I was so passionate doing what I loved, and I just felt like everything that I was passionate about, she would somehow sabotage." 

Furthermore, In their video, Niki got into how Gabi got close with her "enemies" while attending college. "She was the first to pull away from us being twins," said Niki. But before the sisters could pull the plug on their YouTube channel once and for all, they managed to work through their conflict. 

That's not to say they haven't taken temporary steps away from their channel. At the end of 2020, the sisters took a break but returned with a vengeance in March 2021 with a video called, "We're Back & Where We've Been." They shared that "there was a lot going on behind the scenes ... that led to our break."

In a since-deleted video (via Clevver News), Gabi DeMartino opened up on her channel about suffering a miscarriage in January of 2020. According to the vlogger, she tried to do everything in her power to "distract" herself from the pain she was feeling as a result of the loss, yet nothing could truly take away from the sadness she was experiencing. As Niki DeMartino's twin shared, it took her a year to come to terms with the situation. "I'm so happy I can breathe now that I've told you exactly what I'm going through," she said before going on to share that she experienced pregnancy loss "right before the pandemic" lockdowns began. "It's truly been a hard year for me," she said. "It has been the hardest and most trying on my mental health."

Fortunately, she had the support of her fiancé Collin Vogt, who she has been in a relationship with since 2015, per J-14.

In "The Truth About Gabi's Face Transformation," Gabi DeMartino stated that an ex-partner, who she dated from the ages 15 to 20, was unfaithful, and his cheating made her feel incredibly insecure. As a result of her confidence struggles, she kept trying to change herself in order to please him. "He cheated on me all the time," she said. "He had a girlfriend of an entire year... and I didn't know." 

As most Gabi fans know, she's been compared to Ariana Grande for years. Many people have accused Gabi of trying to "be" the "God Is a Woman" singer, and as Clevver News reported in 2018, one of the vlogger's Grande-inspired clips in particular was "flooded with hate from Arianators." While she admires "The Voice" judge's style and is "a huge fan" of her work, it did not help matters that her ex-boyfriend was super into her look. In "The Truth About Gabi's Face Transformation," she told Niki DeMartino that he was "obsessed" with Grande's appearance, so in an effort to gain his approval, she'd try to look like the pop superstar. 

On a much lighter note, Grande and Gabi would go on to join forces in the music video for the hit "Thank U, Next."

Growing up, Niki and Gabi DeMartino were inseparable. "We always say, we don't know how other people do it alone," Gabi told Grumpy Magazine in 2018. "I'm so glad we started this together and are going through this together, because we relate to each other in another level." Not only did they share the same bedroom for years, but they were also each other's only friend for a long time. In Niki's "I'm Living in Someone Else's Shadow" video, she expressed how she felt like she had a codependent relationship with her twin. "It is not healthy to live a life where you feel like you need someone," she said. "Someone that you think is more exciting and better than you, that you feel like you need."

Gabi, on the other hand, felt a deep desire to pursue her independence. To chase this, she decided to move out. In Niki's aforementioned video, she said she found out her sister flew the coop when the rest of the world did. "She was the first one to move out of our house growing up," she said. "Gabi just felt the need to want to grow up. ... She was feeling this need to have her own apartment, and she knew it was never gonna be a good time to tell me because I always clung to her. She didn't tell me." Instead, Niki learned of her twin's decision when Gabi announced the move in a YouTube video. 

Gabi and Niki DeMartino's high school days are long behind them, but unfortunately, bullying is not a thing of the past for the twins. The hate they receive is on a much wider scale, and done primarily online. Back in 2020, they posted a video on their channel titled "We Need to Talk" where they expressed to their viewers how much "hate comments" take a toll on them. Niki implored anyone watching to be more mindful of what they post. "I just wish we could bring each other up in the comments a little more," she said.

As Gabi told Sweety High in 2021, the trolls can be a lot to deal with, but she now feels better equipped to deal with all the negativity. According to the YouTuber, the best thing you can do is refrain from taking those negative comments to heart. "I know it sounds cliché, but as soon as I put blinders on the sides of my eyes and only looked forward, I saw progress in my mental health," she said. "At the end of the day, if people are going to judge you and attack your life with your own humanity, it's only revealing what type of human they are." Wise words to live by.