Problem Children

Logan Alexander Paul was born on April 1, 1995. Jake Joseph Paul was born on January 17, 1997. They grew up in Westlake, Ohio, the sons of a real-estate agent and a former model. Logan posted his first Vine video in 2013; Jake followed. By 2017 Logan had 16 million YouTube subscribers and Jake had 11 million. On January 1, 2018, Logan posted a video from Japan's Aokigahara forest that included footage of a recently deceased man. The internet rebellion was immediate. He took a three-week break. Jake meanwhile pivoted in 2020 to professional boxing. He has now fought professionally twelve times — including a November 2024 exhibition against Mike Tyson — and has used the platform to build the streaming-rights company Most Valuable Promotions.

Daniel Asher's biography traces the joint arc the brothers' careers have demanded. The book covers the Westlake childhood, the long Vine years of 2013-2016 and the long Disney Bizaardvark co-starring of 2016 that Disney ended after Logan's neighbour complaint, the 2018 Aokigahara incident, the long Logan-and-KSI boxing exchange and the British heavyweight match of August 2018, the Maverick Apparel and Prime Hydration product launches, the Impaulsive podcast, the WWE main-roster signing of 2022, the long Jake-and-MVP-boxing era and the 2024 Tyson exhibition, the 2024 Jutta Leerdam relationship, the 2025 Jake-and-Nina Agdal wedding.

What emerges is a portrait of the brother-act whose two-decade Vine-to-YouTube-to-podcast-to-boxing arc has remade what an American creator economy can look like — and of the Ohio childhood that produced them.