TJ Smith (Taylor Smith) was born in Arlington, Texas on the 22nd February 1988. His mother (Sharon) was a flight attendant for Delta Airlines and his father (Edward) was a minister and church choir director. When TJ was born, he had to be rushed into ICU because he had developed a Strep infection. At the age of 2, TJ's father had left him and his mother to be with another woman. With his mum having to fly to different parts of the country and look after her own parents, TJ's other family members (from his father's side) would help raise him. His grandfather, called 'Doc' was the main person to help raise him. In second grade, TJ started to play Football and was learning how to play the cello and he did this for 10 years. Even though TJ was an only child, he did have an older half sister (same father) called Mariel who lived with him and his mother for 5 years until she moved back to live with her own mother. When TJ was in fifth grade (age 10), Mariel had committed suicide at the age of 16. Around the same time, TJ's mother had re-married to a guy called Frank (he also helped raise TJ). He works in the corporate part of Kroger (a supermarket chain). At the end of sixth grade, TJ transferred from a public to a private school in a different town. A year later, TJ's family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah because his step-father had been transferred. There he joined the school's ski team as well as being a part of the Utah youth Olympic Orchestra (age 13). A year later, TJ's family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. In high school, TJ played for the Varsity Football Team as well as being the lead in plays and musicals, a writer and editor for the school's newspaper, editor and chief of the poetry club, captain of the engineering team, a member of the baseball team, a member of the academic (quiz bowl) team, was a boy scout and earned his Eagle Scout rank, joined a local orchestra then made a Chamber Quintet at his school. At this time, he started to write his own music. After high school, TJ was accepted into Yale University where he started to major in Ethics, Politics and Economics but then changed to study Psychology. Whilst at Yale, TJ dated a girl called Nikki for 2 years. They broke up when TJ had to leave Yale and she had to stay. Also, TJ and some friends created a band called The Sandy Gill Affair and they played pop-punk music. One of the band members (keyboard) was Kurt Hugo Schneider, another YouTuber. When TJ graduated from Yale, he moved to Los Angeles, California to focus on making YouTube videos and pursue his dreams in acting and music. He also helped Kurt with his YouTube channel. One year later, TJ let someone else help Kurt with his YouTube channel then started to work at The Game Station. With the knowledge he had gained form The Game Station, TJ started to upload more content, created a gaming channel and started to make music parodies with The Warp Zone. In 2010, TJ created a vlogging channel and in 2012, he created a music channel. In 2013, TJ uploaded his first Highway Sing-a-long (Valentine's Day edition, backstreet boys) with a little camera help from his friend Danielle. Not long after he uploaded another which was his Build Me Up Buttercup edition (by February 2015 it has over 3.5 million views) and Kathy Sue Holtorf helped film it. He has made 8 other Highway sing-a-longs, 3 of them being for Nissan when they approached him and asked him if he wanted to make car commercials on a 12 month contract (as of June 2014). By December 2013, TJ had released his own album called Ivyleaguepunk. In 2014, TJ performed live on the Teen Vogue Main stage at Playlist Live and also performed again at Playlist in 2015.
