Meet the Mazelees: 5 intriguing things about YouTube’s most multicultural family (2024)

• July 4, 2021
• 1NB

YouTube’s most multiracial family, the Mazelees, often grip fans with fascination each time they drop videos on the platform, detailing their lives.

Ma Alena is Black, Daddy Joe is White, their seven children range between Black, White and Asian, how this intriguingly beautiful family evolved to be so ethnically diverse is revealed in five facts.

1. Alena Maze – The Ma

Fondly called Ma by the Mazelee clan, Alena is a 35 year old native of Maryland, Baltimore who grew up in a large family.

She had her first baby aged 19, studied and passed her undergraduate program, then went on to graduate with a masters in pure mathematics from Georgetown University in 2011.

Before graduating, the brain and beauty had already began uploading YouTube videos in 2009 as Alena Maze, working with the US federal government’s CDC department in 2010 and having more children.

Post-graduation, she took up a PhD in Survey Methodology. After having more children totalling seven, she concluded the course and became the first Black person to succeed in the field of Survey Statistics.

2. Joseph Lee – The Appa

Joseph is the Appa – Korean word for daddy – of the Mazelee household. Little was known of Joe until he joined Alena’s YouTube’s channel and their name changed to Mazelee.

Like Alena, Joe is 35 years old, born and raised in Maryland to immigrant Korean parents and grandparents.

His paternal grandfather was a famous North Korean man who moved among the ranks of Kim II Sung – the former Premier of North Korea. Following a disagreement, the Premier threatened to kill his grandfather and as a result they escaped out of the country.

3. How Joe and Alena met

Alena and Joe revealed that they were 13 year old high school classmates and best-friends who drifted apart. They met sometime later, fell out of touch again before finally deciding to make a go of their relationship.

By the time they rekindled their romance, Alena had four children from previous relationships.

Regardless, Joe went on to propose to Alena twice – the first one occurred as he headed out the door to a supermarket, the second time which was supposedly the ‘real’ proposal happened in their kitchen.

The couple say they married just like Alena had foresaw and written in her diary when she was 14 years old.

4. Who are their babies fathers?

While Alena and Joe are their children’s ma and appa, Alena had her first child with an unknown Black male. Her second, third and fourth are by a White American said to be named Tom and the last three are Joe’s biological children.

5. The Controversies

Given their popularity it will come as no surprise that this family are surrounded by controversies.

One pointed by viewers is the alleged idea that the couple are not really married, but claiming they are to portray the ‘good Christian family’.

Alena and Joe – who do not wear wedding rings – were due to renew their vows in a publicised ceremony that did not go ahead. They couple revealed that they were initially living together unmarried and felt guilty the eyes of God.

Another claim, specifically aimed at Alena, is the perception that she favours some of her children and neglects the others. She was once taken to court on neglect charges, supposedly for leaving her children at home for a significant length of time, she pled not guilty.

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