YouTube star Shane Dawson comes out as bisexual in an emotional video

"I've come to the conclusion, through therapy and just through being honest with myself, I am bisexual."

Dawson came out to his millions of subscribers in an emotional video (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Popular YouTube star Shane Dawson has come out as bisexual, in a 15-minute video posted to his channel on Tuesday.

The video has only been up for around six hours at the time of writing, but has already gained more than 130,000 likes from Dawson's many fans.

Since starting his channel in 2008, Dawson has built up a huge fanbase, with almost 7 million subscribers watching his videos more than 1 billion times.

In a the emotional video, Dawson tells viewers: "I never thought I would be making this, ever. But I woke up this morning and I just had to."

Hoping his video will "help a lot of people", he says he's come to the conclusion "through therapy and just through being honest with myself, I am bisexual."

Speaking frankly to his audience, without the usual high production values typical to his videos, Dawson says he always wished he was gay, as he would "know who I was".

"I'm not completely gay, and I can't sit here and say that I am... but I also can't sit here and say I'm straight."

Agonising over not being 'completely' gay or straight has caused Dawson a lot of anguish throughout his life, but he says in his video that he is now happy, and urges fans not to be afraid for who they are.

After his video was posted, thousands of fans began offering him their support, praising him for his bravery and for drawing attention to the issues facing bisexual people all over the world.