How Clavicular's Family Reacted To His Overdose After His Parents' Previous Attempts To Curb His 'Looksmaxxing'
Before Clavicular became the face of the “looksmaxxing” movement, his parents tried to curb his early interest in the trend by trashing his supply of mail-order testosterone that he was injecting himself with behind their backs, per a profile in The Atlantic. The now-20-year-old ignored their concerns and set up a post-office box so he wouldn’t have to order chemicals to his family’s New Jersey home. He later claimed to be using crystal meth to stay lean.
After the social media star, whose real name is Braden Peters, suffered an overdose in a Miami restaurant on Tuesday night, his parents’ early fears appear to have come true, and the livestreamer’s family is terrified, according to Vanity Fair.
“I’ve seen people saying that he has to behave this way for views, but that isn’t the case,” a source told Vanity Fair of Clavicular’s persistent partying and alleged drug use. “His family is very concerned and is trying to get him into the best spot possible.”
While opening up about his rigid looksmaxxing routine, which is designed to keep him lean, muscular, and chiseled, Clavicular has expressed a willingness to take a range of unprescribed substances, including peptides and illegal steroids. The outlandishness of the routine and his other behavior, which includes tapping his face with a hammer in pursuit of defined cheekbones, has led some online to believe that Clavicular and his overdose are part of a large hoax.
“Nothing about this was staged; that is a false rumor spreading online,” a spokesperson told Vanity Fair. “Braden would never stage a medical emergency. Braden’s family and members of his team are thankful for journalists fact-checking this information and correcting the record.”
Clavicular was livestreaming with friends on the night of April 14 when he began slurring his words and appearing disoriented. As friends became aware that something was wrong, the livestream ended, but videos soon surfaced of Clavicular appearing to be carried out of the restaurant and into a nearby car.
Later, once back home, he posted a photo selfie on his X account showing his scraped-up face. “Just got home, that was brutal. All of the substances are just a cope trying to feel neurotypical while being in public, but obviously that isn’t a real solution,” wrote Clavicular, who frequently describes himself as autistic. “The worst part of tonight was my face descending from the life support mask.”
His rapid rise to fame has made him synonymous with a now-widespread neologism that once existed solely in the far-right fringes of the internet. That rise to fame, though, is a source of concern for those close to him. “He doesn’t have the normal infrastructure of a celebrity,” a source tells Vanity Fair. “It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of pressure for a very young person—especially for a man who is neurodivergent.”