If you spend a lot of time on the internet, you’ve probably heard of iJustine, a.k.a Justine Ezarik. Ezarik was a YouTube star before YouTube stardom was a “thing,” broadcasting her life online as far back as 2007. But what many of her fans (6.32 million of them, if we’re going by YouTube subscribers), didn’t know is that Ezarik has been training jiu-jitsu for the past two years. Now, she’s revealed her passion — and the fact that she’s earned her blue belt from Kenny Florian — in an emotional Instagram post.
“I’ve debated posting this because when I started Jiu-Jitsu 2 years ago I promised myself I’d never post anything about it online (for a lot of reasons). Before I get into that, a huge thank you to @kennyflorian for being so patient and sharing his vast knowledge of this art with me. I’m forever grateful for his time and pushing me to be better.
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Thanks everyone at @merakibjj for their expertise and encouragement to all their students — @jhuntbjj @kennyflorian @mr_max2k @isaacdoederlein @ogcoogs and everyone I’ve had the honor of training with + @absurdave for capturing this unexpected blue belt moment 😂
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Traveling has made consistent training very difficult but thanks to @stoutpgh @rio_pro_beachwood @deboabjj @gbfranklintn @profectusbjj @goochtrainingacademy @escobartraininggrounds 🙌🏻 Walking into an unknown gym with a bunch of strangers is terrifying so thanks for being so welcoming!
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Also thanks to @methods_of_movement and @mychalangelo for training with me while I was injured 🙏🏻
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Lastly, to all my non-BJJ friends who have to hear me talk about Jiu-Jitsu and my aching body ALL. THE. TIME! @jennaezarik I knooowwww is over it, but supportive lol.
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I chose to not post anything because I was feeling lost, burnt out and probably at my lowest point the day I walked into that gym. I was exausted from the past 20+ years of my life that is all online. I wanted to do this for me and only me. I never wanted to train with the thought of having to post anything about it. It’s been incredibly freeing and it allowed me to give complete focus to something for the first time ever.
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So why did I break my promise to myself?
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I felt like I was failing you guys by not sharing something that helped change my life and perspective. I have talked about BJJ on panels, podcasts and everyone else’s outlets but not my own. I just wanted to share this personal milestone and encourage you to find something that YOU do just for YOU! This is mine and I plan on keeping it offline moving forward, maybe an occasional insta story here and there 😉
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I have a longer version of this in my bio because I ran out of characters here! 😭 Go check it out!”
In the longer post Ezarik wrote on Medium, she shared her reasons for staying relatively quiet about her BJJ journey on her own platforms (though she’s spoken about it on panels and podcasts, telling readers about how she wanted to do something for herself, without the influence of followers and the internet’s ever-watching gaze.
Hopefully, Ezarik’s inspirational posts can inspire some of her followers to step into a gym and try jiu-jitsu for the first time themselves!
