Rising Stars: Meet Michael Eaborn of Raleigh, North Carolina

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Eaborn.

Michael, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

My story starts out on August 28, 1997. I was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. I was 7 pounds, 14 ounces. I wasn’t born into wealth or even a stable household. Before age 5, I was in the Foster Care System. The first family I lived with was a relative named “Miss McNeil”. Unfortunately, she had to eventually had to give us up because she wanted to take care of her grandchildren. My brother and I left her house and went to live with a new family.

I was put into a foster family called “The Moores” with my older brother, Davontay, who is my biological brother. This foster family wasn’t a loving family. I was constantly abused physically and emotionally. Some of the things they made me do was: kneel on nails as a punishment, beat me with switches, held my head under water until I passed out, and they even lynched me before. This family taught me an important lesson about the world: evil doesn’t have a color.

At age 5, Davontay and I were removed from the foster family and adopted. The Moores were shutdown as a Foster Home by the state due to their abuse. The people who adopted me were Dennis and Eugenie Eaborn. They were a new family that taught me an important lesson: love doesn’t have a color. One of the first things they told me was that they are white and that racism is alive and well. When I was adopted, we all went to Disney World in Florida. This was just the beginning of my story. In total, my mother adopted 10 kids. I have 6 sisters and 4 brothers. One of those brothers is Davontay. At the time of my adoption, I was 5 years old.

As I got older, my father began showing signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s. When I got into high school, the Alzheimer’s took over. Eventually my older siblings moved out and it was just my 3 younger sisters and I. In my senior year of high school, I would take care of my dad. I’d be watching over him as my mom worked. I’d help make his dinner and watch tv with him. In 2015, I graduated from Millbrook High School and moved out. I moved in with my best friend and his mom. This is where my story really begins.

I stayed with my best friend, Cole, and his mom, Karen, for a year and a half. During that time, his mom tried to help me with adulthood. This included things like budgeting, responsibility, and more. I’ve been working since age 16 and I was on track to becoming successful through her efforts. Unfortunately, I was young and dumb at the time. I didn’t follow the house rules which were simple: Keep my room clean, pay $25 a week in rent, and help around the house. After a year and a half, I was asked to leave. I then moved down to Salisbury, North Carolina to live with my family. Things were going well until the end of the first month. The landlord had told my mom that I could not stay with them due to there being no room. So the next plan was to go to the local homeless shelter, Rowan Helping Ministries. I will not forget the first night there. I had gotten a bad cold. At first, it was very humbling to live at the homeless shelter. I had to do a breathalyzer every time I went in the shelter. They had set times to eat, sleep, and get up. It taught me humility. For a year and a half, I was in Rowan Helping Ministries. Then I got out.

The way I got out was to seek help from family and myself. I took everything I had saved and got my first apartment. It wasn’t the best of places to live but it was an apartment. The rent was $380/month and the people were nice. I stayed in that apartment for about 3 years. I wrote a news Op-ed about my time at Rowan Helping Ministries and it was published by the local newspaper, the Salisbury Post. I managed to move back to Raleigh with the help of Cole. His mom and him allowed me to stay with them until I got back on my feet.

When I moved back to Raleigh, I started working at the same job I was at when I moved: Marco’s pizza. For about a year, I stayed with the same friend and his mom until I got back on my feet. I then moved in with a roommate to a 2bed/2bathroom apartment. This is around the time Shorts MaGee was born.

The story of Shorts MaGee started out on a sunny morning. I had the day off of work and I woke up at 8am. I stretched and asked myself this: Should I sleep in or take a final crack at YouTube? I decided to get up and take a crack at YouTube. I took two edibles (I’m a stoner). As I scrolled, I couldn’t find anything, so I decided to take a break and see what videos there was to watch. As I scrolled, I can across a full episode of the show “The Boondocks”. I remember that show because Davontay and I used to watch it late night when my mom was out of town. The thing is, however, I would always fall asleep. So seeing this really made me excited. I watched the entire episode and had a good laugh. Then it hit me: Why not make a tv channel on YouTube? I uploader the same video and it took off. From then on, I decided to make Shorts MaGee TV, a tv channel. But that wasn’t it. Outside of YouTube, I’m a published author. I’ve written numerous books. I’ve always wanted to do content creation, so I created a second channel called SMTV Studios, where I can upload my original content. I plan on using my platform to inspire others. I am currently working on my autobiography.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No it has not. It has its challenges. At the current moment, I am working in sales full time. I wish I could work on content creation full time. Once I start making some serious money, one issue I’ll have is management. I am doing everything by myself. I own 100% of Shorts MaGee TV

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The first work I ever published was my book H.A.N.D. It was published in 2015. Along with that, I wrote ten more books.

I do content creation on my Tiktok page and on my second channel. The content is mainly comedy but I do add videos of me singing. Online, I’m known as “the guy with the boondocks episode.” One of the things I’m the most proud about is being able to cultivate a community around old shows we used to watch growing up. The one thing that sets me apart from others is that I am independently owned and I’ve diversified my content.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The most important quality or characteristic I feel is the most important for my success is being consistent and being yourself. Being authentic is really important in today’s society. It helps create a special connection between the creator and the audience. Being consistent is one of the foundations of success. If you can continuously work and put in the effort, you will succeed.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shortsmageetv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shortsmagee
• Twitter: https://x.com/shortsmageetv
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShortsMaGeeTV
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shortsmagee