Lex Croucher
English author and YouTuber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lex Croucher (born 8 March 1992) is an English author and YouTuber. Croucher began their career on YouTube before going into writing with their debut non-fiction book You're Crushing It (2019) and novel Reputation (2021). Their Arthurian novel Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (2023) won the 2024 YA Book Prize among other accolades.
Lex Croucher | |
|---|---|
Croucher in 2023 | |
| Born | 8 March 1992 |
| Alma mater | University of Southampton |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Last updated: 16 October 2021[needs update] | |
| Website | www |
Early life and education
Croucher grew up in Surrey. They graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in English.[1][2]
Career
YouTube
Having done some BlogTV shows and discovered AmazingPhil through MySpace,[3] Croucher created their YouTube channel under the username tyrannosauruslexxx on 2 June 2008.[4] Also inspired by the likes of fiveawesomegirls, charlieissocoollike, and John Green, Croucher would use their phone camera to film videos.[2] In 2011, Croucher won Google's NextUp grant, which allowed them to buy a "proper camera", laptop, and editing equipment and go to VidCon.[3] By 2013, Croucher had over 60 thousand subscribers, and their content shifted from autobiographical vlogs towards advice and opinion pieces.[5][6] As of September 2020, Croucher's main channel had over 120 thousand subscribers.[7][8] Croucher has been on an indefinite hiatus from YouTube since 2021.
In addition, Croucher created the side channels lexcanroar in 2008, featuring mostly vlogs,[9] and girlyashell, featuring beauty content.[5] From 2011 to 2014, Croucher was a member of the collaboration channel Sarcaschicks.[10]
At both Summer in the City (SitC) and VidCon, Croucher co-founded and chaired the Women on YouTube panel from 2012,[3] discussing the experiences of women creators in an online space. The SitC 2015 panel included Cherry Wallis, Theadora Lee, Dodie Clark, Laci Green, Lucy Moon and Jana Damanhouri.[11]
Due to their sex education-related videos, in 2014, Croucher was invited to appear on the BBC Two programme Newsnight to discuss the new NICE guidelines around the morning-after pill.[3]
In 2017 and 2018, Croucher hosted an advice podcast with fellow YouTuber Rosianna Halse Rojas titled Make Out With Him, with a focus on dating and relationships.[12][13]
Writing
After graduating from university, Croucher contributed to HuffPost UK and had a WordPress-based blog.[6]
As announced in 2018, Croucher began their professional writing career with You're Crushing It: Positivity for Living Your Real Life, a non-fiction self-help guide aimed at teenagers published by Bloomsbury Children' Books in 2019.[14][15] Croucher described it as written for their teenage self.[16]
In September 2019, shortly after Croucher first spoke of it on at SitC,[17] Zaffre (a Bonnier Books imprint) picked up the rights to publish Croucher's debut fiction novel Reputation, a Regency era-set romantic comedy,[7] in July 2021, billed as Mean Girls meets Jane Austen.[18] Zaffre acquired the rights to two further Regency novels from Croucher in February 2022:[19] Infamous,[20] published 21 July 2022, and Trouble,[21] published a year later.[22] The former had a US release via St Martin's Press Infamous in March 2023.[23] Croucher was nominated for the 2023 TikTok Book Award for Author of the Year.[24]
Also in 2023, Croucher released their first young adult (YA) novel Gwen & Art Are Not in Love via Bloomsbury UK in the UK and Commonwealth and Wednesday Books (a St Martin's Press imprint) in the US; both publishers had acquired the rights back in 2021.[25] The Arthurian Camelot-set novel centres on the arranged betrothal between a medieval lesbian princess and a gay duke.[26][27] Croucher told The Bookseller, "I wanted it to be absolutely over-the-top ridiculous, funny, escapist; full of things like flirty sword fights and terrible puns".[28] Gwen & Art Are Not in Love won the 2024 YA Book Prize and the 2023 Books Are In My Bag Readers Award for Young Adult Fiction.[29] It was also shortlisted for an inaugural Nero Book Award, a Barnes & Noble Award, a Polari Prize, and another TikTok Book Award,[30][31][32][33] and longlisted for the Branford Boase Award.[34]
Croucher reunited with Bloomsbury UK for the release of their second YA medieval romance Not For the Faint of Heart, a Robin Hood reimagining. In March 2024, Croucher signed a two-standalone book deal with Gollancz (an Orion Publishing Group imprint), which won a 10-way bidding war for the rights to The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones, a fantasy YA novel.[35]
Philanthropy and activism
As part of their YouTube career, Croucher traveled to Syria with the charity Save the Children.[36]
In 2015, Croucher started an online petition calling on Sea Life London Aquarium to improve its penguins' living conditions, which garnered media attention and over 100 thousand signatures.[37]
In April 2020, Croucher presented a video for Greenpeace's channel and website titled Do hashtags and petitions actually work?; in the video, Croucher discusses the effectiveness of online activism (via petitions, social media and hashtags) and the term slacktivist.[38]
In 2020, Croucher added their name to an open letter from The Second Shelf, a feminist bookstore, showing their support for the transgender and non-binary community, along with over 200 other authors.[39]
Personal life
Bibliography
Non-fiction
- You're Crushing It: Positivity for Living Your REAL Life (2019)
Adult
- Reputation (2021)
- Infamous (2022)
- Trouble (2023)
Young adult
- Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (2023)
- Not for the Faint of Heart (2024)
- The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones (2025)
- Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay (2026)
Accolades
| Year | Title | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | — | TikTok Book Awards | Author of the Year | Shortlisted | [24] |
| Gwen & Art Are Not in Love | Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards | Young Adult Fiction | Won | [29] | |
| Nero Book Awards | Children's Fiction | Shortlisted | [30] | ||
| 2024 | Branford Boase Award | — | Longlisted | [34] | |
| Barnes & Noble Children's and YA Awards | Young Adult | Shortlisted | [31] | ||
| TikTok Book Awards | Book of the Year | Shortlisted | [33] | ||
| YA Book Prize | — | Won | [28] | ||
| Polari Prize | Children's and YA | Shortlisted | [32] |