Abigail Thorn

Abigail Thorn (born 24 April 1993) is a British YouTuber, actress, and playwright, best known for producing the YouTube channel Philosophy Tube.

Philosophy Tube began in 2013, when Thorn sought to provide free lessons in philosophy in the wake of the 2012 increase in British tuition fees. In 2018, her videos became more theatrical, beginning to incorporate dramatic studio sets, lighting, costuming and makeup. The channel has been positively received by critics, and has over one million subscribers.

In 2019, Thorn hosted a livestream on Twitch in which she read plays from the Complete Works of Shakespeare for the mental health charity Samaritans. The stream lasted five days, featured a number of guests, and raised over £100,000 for Samaritans. In September and October 2022, ''The Prince''—a play written by and starring Thorn—ran Off West End. The transgender-themed work is based on characters in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part 1'' becoming self-aware.

Thorn publicly came out as a transgender woman in January 2021, with the video ''Coming Out As Trans – A Little Public Statement'' and the more theatrical ''Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story''.

Early and personal life

Thorn is from Newcastle upon Tyne and has two older brothers. She attended the Royal Grammar School, where she was a member of an army cadets group. Thorn credits her discovery of philosophy to her teacher, as well as having taken the subject as an A-level course. She later studied Philosophy and Theology at the University of St. Andrews, where she also participated in Mermaids and the St Andrews Revue. Thorn graduated with a Scottish Master of Arts in Philosophy in 2015, coming top of her year. She then trained at East 15 Acting School, completing a Master of Arts awarded by the University of Essex in 2017 before moving to London.

In October 2019, Thorn discussed her sexuality in her YouTube video ''Queer✨'', where she came out as bisexual. On 30 January 2021, Thorn came out as a trans woman. She has given speeches at protests in favour of transgender healthcare, and advocated for transgender liberation. Thorn identifies as a lesbian, as of February 2022.

Career

YouTube

Thorn began her YouTube channel, Philosophy Tube, as an educational channel in 2013 in response to the university tuition fees tripling in the United Kingdom in 2012, rendering higher education less accessible. Thorn made it her mission statement to " iveaway a philosophy degree for free". Thorn originally planned to record her lectures and upload them, rather than appearing in videos, but her university would not allow this. Her first video titled "I think therefore I am" about René Descartes was uploaded in May 2013. Her first subscriber unsubscribed in protest when she first voiced feminist opinions. Prior to transition, Thorn presented the channel under the name Oliver Thorn and was commonly known as Olly.

Thorn makes money from both YouTube advertisement revenue and crowdfunding on Patreon. The channel's style progressed over a period of years from a direct style of talking to the camera about the works of philosophers such as René Descartes and Immanuel Kant, to more theatrical productions. In 2016, Thorn took part in the YouTube NextUp, a week-long training programme for YouTubers with under 100,000 subscribers.

Following attendance at the 2018 conference VidCon, Thorn decided to change her content creation, beginning to film at a studio with costumes and makeup. She also used props such as snakes and horses. Kayleigh Donaldson of ''Pajiba'' described Thorn's works in 2019 as "long-form think-pieces" with "detailed production design" that use aspects of sketch comedy. Emily St. James of '' Vox'' summarised that the channel covers both philosophical topics and "sociopolitical ideas of the current era from a leftist point of view". For instance, a video about the former Trump advisor and ''Breitbart News'' co-founder Steve Bannon features Thorn performing a cover of a ''Hadestown'' song, with lyrics about Bannon. St. James praised that Thorn "undercuts annon'sentire shtick". In 2021, Thorn reached one million subscribers.

In July 2019, Thorn discussed her channel on the BBC radio show ''World Business Report''. In January 2020, Dmitry Kuznetsov and Milan Ismangil, writing for ''tripleC'', reported that the channel is a focus of an internet fan community centered around leftist YouTubers categorised as "BreadTube". The authors note fan crowdfunding, production value, criticism of the alt-right, use of citation and videos about broad topics as common BreadTube attributes that are employed by Philosophy Tube. As a case study, Thorn's ''Climate Grief'' discusses climate change through multiple personas, citing Timothy Morton's concept of hyperobjects and Terry Eagleton's ''Why Marx Was Right''. In the video, Thorn criticises some right-wing and left-wing arguments and highlights indigenous philosophy.

Thorn's 2018 video ''Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth'' examines societal attitudes to mental health, along with her personal experiences: she has a history of self-harm and attempted suicide twice in her life. She said in mid-2019 that she still received at least one email per day by a person who said the video saved their life. Thorn's video ''Men. Abuse. Trauma.'' is about men and mental health, with reference to her personal experiences. The video is 35 minutes long, with the script entirely memorised by Thorn. There are no cuts or editing, and a single costume change is facilitated by a slow camera pan across the room; Thorn used the second of two takes. Both the script and the style of the video reference the 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre play ''No Exit''. Emily St. James of '' Vox'' praised that the "tension and vulnerability that builds" is maintained by the lack of editing, and opined that in the video, "aesthetic form is inseparable from content".

In a 2021 interview with ''Insider'', Thorn said she had an idea in mind for the final episode of the channel, saying that she felt the channel had been successful due to her subscriber numbers, an invitation to be a featured creator at 2021 VidCon and other YouTube channels that were inspired by her. She said that the timing of the channel's ending would depend on future acting roles.

''Coming Out As Trans'' and ''Identity''

On 30 January 2021, Thorn came out as a trans woman via a public statement, posted on social media and recorded as the video ''Coming Out As Trans – A Little Public Statement''. ''Jezebel''s Harron Walker described it as a "feminist, anticapitalist appeal in support ftrans people's legal equality, physical autonomy, and broader liberation in the United Kingdom and beyond". The statement discussed issues in access to healthcare, journalist fearmongering about transgender people and a lack of elected transgender representatives. She also says that other issues in society like homelessness disproportionately affect the trans community. "Abigail" trended on Twitter subsequent to the announcement.

Thorn also released the video ''Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story'', which drew on the work of the American writer Audre Lorde and saw Rhys Tees acting in the role of Thorn's former self. Thorn told the ''Daily Xtra'' that studying works by trans philosophers helped her gain insight about her identity, but that she felt significant societal pressure as a transgender public figure. Prior to the announcement, she had come out to friends and family but experienced difficulties in avoiding being publicly outed in day-to-day life, and in accessing trans spaces anonymously. Her messages to other trans public figures went unanswered and she fell out of contact with a trans friend who told her that being transgender was "a curse". Thorn had chosen to act as a man in some of her videos despite having realized she was transgender, and decided to keep her pre-transition videos public because of their educational content and artistic value, and as she did not think being transgender should be a source of shame.

In a 2021 interview with Ben Hunte for the BBC
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