Pink Shirt Couple

About

Pink Shirt Couple is the name given to a pair of Arizona vloggers and YouTubers named Cayden Christianson and Alyssa Eckstein, known for their Rubik's Cube wars and for wearing matching pink shirts in every social media post and video. In February 2024, they announced their breakup to nearly 20 million subscribers, resulting in widespread discourse erupting online. The Pink Shirt Couple channel has since been rebranded as Pink Shirt Girl and is run by Eckstein alone.

Online History

The Pink Shirt Couple began making videos together in early 2021 and rapidly gained a following. At peak popularity, the Pink Shirt Couple had nearly 20 million subscribers on YouTube,^[1] 227,000 followers on Instagram and four million followers on TikTok.^[2] Much of the couple’s content consisted of short-form video posts, like YouTube Shorts and TikTok videos.

One of the couple's earliest viral YouTube^[11] videos together is a July 29th, 2022, upload discussing their matching pink outfits, which they wear every day, as inspired by Christianson. The video (seen below) earned over 627,000 views and 9,400 likes in under two years.

Rubik's Cube Wars

Some of their most notable content revolved around "Rubik's Cube wars," which started with a March 22nd, 2021, TikTok^[3] that received 1.5 million views and 390,500 likes in just under three years (seen below, left). Soon after, the two began participating in Rubik's Cube wars, often live. One notable TikTok^[10] of the couple competing against one another was posted on May 4th, 2023, receiving 288,000 views and 19,200 likes in less than a year (seen below, right).

Breakup and Channel Rebrand

On February 3rd, 2024, the Pink Shirt Couple announced their breakup in a YouTube^[4] video entitled “We Broke Up,” citing a mutual need for space from one another, but claiming they were still close friends. The video (seen below) received two million views and nearly 25,000 comments in six days.

Numerous fans reacted to the breakup with shock and distress over the following days. For example, on February 4th, TikTok^[6] user @ahiwbwps7nr posted a video about the breakup, claiming they no longer believe in love, receiving 662,000 views and 28,800 likes in five days (shown below, right).

Others reacted to the breakup with shock and even outrage, sometimes attempting to blame one side of the couple despite their insistence that the breakup was mutual. For instance, on February 3rd, TikTok^[5] user @kaydence.kraus posted a video of the couple with the caption, “I can’t believe he took advantage of her,” receiving 922,000 views and 15,600 likes in under six days (shown below, right).

Online Presence

At peak popularity, the Pink Shirt Couple had nearly 20 million subscribers on YouTube, 227,000 followers on Instagram and four million followers on TikTok. Much of the couple’s content consisted of short-form video posts, such as YouTube Shorts and TikTok videos. Their Instagram account, @pinkshirtcouple, was deactivated in early 2024 shortly after their split. Around the same timeframe, their TikTok account, using the same handle, was transferred to Eckstein’s name as @pinkshirtgirll, and the YouTube channel became known solely as Pink Shirt Girl.

The posts of the couple are still accessible, including a January 4th, 2024, pinned TikTok^[7] in which they meet with and “prank” Jake from State Farm (seen below, left), which earned over 10 million views and 309,000 likes in just over a month. Another one of their most popular videos is a January 22nd, 2023, TikTok^[8] of TikToker @lightskinnightmare showing a tour of their pink-themed house and proving that they actually do wear the same outfit every day, earning 10 million views and 1.5 million likes in just over a year (seen below, right).

Personal Life

Alyssa Eckstein is from Big Lake, Minnesota, and Cayden Christianson is from Montrose, Colorado. Eckstein and Christianson both met at South Dakota State University where they got to know one another on the university’s swim team. When they met, they both were individual creators, but after creating collective social media accounts, they were able to work full-time as content creators by 2021. They lived together in Waddell, Arizona prior to the breakup.^[9]

External References