Marzia Kjellberg

Building a Global Beauty Community on YouTube

Marzia Kjellberg established her YouTube channel, CutiePieMarzia, on 16 January 2012. Choosing to create her content entirely in English despite being Italian was a strategic decision that allowed her to connect with an international audience from the start. Her video catalog was diverse, systematically covering fashion, beauty and makeup tutorials, DIY crafts, discussions of books and movies, shopping hauls, and personal vlogs. This broad approach, anchored in the beauty genre, resonated strongly with a specific demographic, with reports indicating her core viewers were females aged 13 to 24 who used her videos as a personal reference guide.

Her channel's growth was rapid and significant. By May 2014, it was reported to attract over 16 million viewers each month, confirming her status as a top creator in her category. She fostered a close relationship with her audience, whom she affectionately named the Marzipans. Professionally, she was signed to The Platform, a sub-network of the influential Maker Studios, which provided a foundation for her early development. Her channel's total video views peaked at around 570 million in August 2017, and by her retirement in late 2018, she had accumulated just under 7.5 million subscribers and over 128 million lifetime views.

Professional Collaborations and Mainstream Crossovers

Marzia Kjellberg's popularity led to opportunities beyond her own channel, including collaborations with major brands and media companies. In 2014, she and her partner Felix Kjellberg participated in an online marketing campaign for the horror film As Above, So Below. While Felix's contributions had a gaming focus, Marzia's role centered on creating travel vlog content from the couple's trip to Paris, blending promotional work with her established style. Similarly, the ABC television network enlisted her to help promote its new series Selfie through a dedicated YouTube campaign.

Her collaborations with Felix, known as PewDiePie, were a staple for both of their audiences. She frequently appeared in videos on his channel, where they played video games together and took part in various challenges. These appearances highlighted their dynamic as a couple and were a significant part of her public presence. In 2018, her business interests were managed by Re6l, a Toronto-based company specializing in influencer media and e-commerce, indicating a shift towards more structured commercial operations as her career progressed.

Establishing a Fashion and Design Brand

Marzia Kjellberg translated her digital influence into a tangible fashion and design empire. Her first major launch was a clothing line in March 2015, which opened the door to a series of product ventures. In 2016, she designed the Daisy shoe collection through Project Shoe and that July launched a line of nail polish shades in partnership with the brand Zoya. Her creative output continued in June 2017 with the introduction of Lemon, a cohesive clothing line paired with its own signature fragrance.

Her most personal design project arrived on 1 July 2018 with the launch of Maì, a brand encompassing jewellery, pottery, clothing, and home decor. The ceramic pieces for Maì were handcrafted by Kjellberg herself in her pottery studio in the United Kingdom. She also co-owned Tsuki Market, a unisex clothing and homeware brand, with her husband Felix. Both the Maì and Tsuki Market brands are no longer operating as of 2023. Industry observers praised her designs for their personal touch, with one fashion dean noting her Amore skirt's blend of trendy details with a timeless silhouette, and a stylist commending her for creating clothes she wanted to wear rather than following outside trends.

Creative Expression Through Writing and Voice Acting

Kjellberg's creativity extended into narrative writing. In January 2015, she published a young adult novel that blended fantasy and horror elements. The book was released in two languages, with the Italian version titled La Casa Dei Sogni and the English version published as Dream House: A Novel by CutiePieMarzia. This project allowed her to explore storytelling in a longer format and connect with fans who enjoyed the book discussions on her channel.

She also explored performance through voice acting in independent animated series. She provided the voice for Carrie the Carrot in the web series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures. In a more personal role, she voiced a character named Maya, directly based on her own pet pug, in the six-episode animated series Pugatory. These roles demonstrated her willingness to experiment with different creative mediums alongside her primary work on YouTube.

Personal Life and the Decision to Retire

Marzia Bisognin was born in Arzignano, in the Province of Vicenza, Italy. Her personal life became deeply intertwined with her career after she was introduced to Felix Kjellberg by a friend. She began dating him in 2011 after emailing him to say she found his videos amusing, and she moved to Sweden to live with him that October. The couple later lived in Italy before settling in Brighton, England, where they resided with their two pugs, Edgar and Maya, and a hedgehog named Dogy. Media often described her calm personality as a balancing counterpoint to Felix's energetic online persona. Felix proposed in April 2018, and they married in August 2019.

Her decision to retire from YouTube was announced on 22 October 2018. In her final video, she explained that the intense focus required by her channel had once negatively affected her mental health, creating an isolating bubble, though she had worked to overcome that. She stated she was ready for a new phase in her life. To make a clean break, she chose to delete almost all of her video content, leaving only a select few temporarily during an adjustment period. After retirement, she and Felix faced a burglary at their house in Japan in late 2019, which she described as a shocking and saddening event. The couple permanently relocated to Japan in May 2022 and announced the birth of their first child, a son, in July 2023.