Jovan Hill

Jovan Miguel Hill (born ) is an American internet personality and livestreamer. A homosexual man who was brought up in a religious household, Hill began a Tumblr blog as a teenager to document his experiences. After he asked his followers to donate so that his grandmother could pay off her bills, they sent him $3000. He dropped out of Texas State University and moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 2018, where he livestreamed and, unemployed, asked his followers to donate to pay rent. He moved to California in 2019.

Hill was a prolific Twitter user and had over 200,000 followers across his five active platforms in December 2018. Following the publication of Hill's profile in The New York Times, he received further attention and was criticized by several tabloids. He was nominated for Storyteller of the Year at the 11th Shorty Awards. After a string of repeated suspensions, he left Twitter for Instagram in 2019.

Life and internet career

Early life Jovan Miguel Hill was raised in Missouri City, Texas, alongside his eleven siblings, by a single mother who was a Jehovah's Witness. He is a homosexual, African-American man. Hill was active on online message boards and role-playing games such as MapleStory, where he would often troll other players. As he grew older, Hill blogged on Tumblr and documented his experience as a "gay high schooler in a religious household." an acquaintance from Tumblr, to "start over." Without regular income, the pair began asking their online following to cover their rent. Hill was initially employed at a cinema concession stand, but quit after several weeks when he saw that he made more money streaming five times daily. He did not pick up his final paychecks. Hill is currently unemployed and only makes money from donations. In March, Hill's Twitter account @jovanmhill was suspended after he posted a fake photo of controversial beauty influencer James Charles using a racial slur in a direct message. When Charles threatened to sue him, In July, Hill said that he has been suspended nine times, including an account which was suspended forty-two minutes after its creation, with no response given. He added that several of his online acquaintances, including Garner and Kehlani, had contacted Twitter, to no avail. In a September interview for the Afropunk Festival, Hill said he had moved to California, video-called the singer Kehlani and discussed frustrations with his content being reshared online without his permission whilst dealing with student loan payments. He also mentioned that, although he was now active on Instagram, "I don’t think I’ll ever be back on Twitter how I was mid-2018."

In December 2018, Hill was active on the now-defunct livestreaming service Periscope, and had accounts on YouTube, Instagram and the subscription service Patreon, making over $4000 monthly. He was also a prolific Twitter user, Hill received numerous hate comments online and speculated that race may have been a factor in the backlash; he also felt undue weight was given to his marijuana habit.

In September 2019, Kaitlyn Tiffany of The Atlantic commented on the Times article, saying that "[Hill's] shtick is more like post-webcam camgirl, or self-aware Truman Show" in an article about influencers who charge their fans for "intimacy." Tiffany adds that his fans may, individually, be financially unstable, "but together they can create security for one likable person—an idea as lovely as it is dark."

Awards and nominations YearCeremonyCategoryResult201911th Shorty AwardsStoryteller of the Year