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YouTube fameoften doesnt occur until, very suddenly, it does.
In the quest for clout, I had a lot of things to say about the tech industry.
But that felt restrictive and like I couldnt branch out of that audience.
But I had a eureka moment when I watched Drew Goodens videos.
I was like,Oh, this is just stand-up.
At the time, I was making like 20,000 to 30,000 views.
The way I blew up is kind of funny.
I made a video about it called The Worst Life Hacks Ive Ever Seen, and it completely bombed.
I only had like 9,000 views on it three weeks after uploading it.
I was like,Okay, Im never making a commentary video again.
But then, six months later, Cody Ko put up a video about 5-Minute Crafts.
That was cool; it was nice to be validated like that.
But how could I communicate to people that Ive also made a video on that topic?
I changed the title of my old video to 5-Minute Crafts Is the Worst Channel on YouTube.
All of a sudden, I started to see the views pick up and then it just kept going.
The spikes in my analytics were a vertical line upward.
If you build it, they will come.
So when Vine shut down, it was probably a good thing for me.
Everything I worked for was now gone, and I had to start again.
It forced me to get out of my complacency.
So I started doing that, and after a while, I got better at it.
My other videos were doing like 100,000 views, and that one did 4 million in a month.
It was like walking into a different world.
Someone like Jake Paul has all these young fans around the world, obviously.
The show was at the House of Blues, where Ive been at to see actual bands play.
And now this dork from YouTube is rapping onstage.
What I liked most about the show was that it wasnt only Jake Paul.
He had his whole posse there performing songs or doing these weird sketches.
One of them, Sunny Malouf, has a dad whos this famous dentist.
And halfway through the video, I did a deep dive into their $40 million house.
Like what kind of teeth is he fixing?
Id rather him do that than him making a name for himself by harassing his neighbors.
As long as hes on the receiving end of punishment, go for it.
Its funny when you start out on YouTube, its easy to make fun of anyone.
But Ive become more cognizant as Ive grown.
But I started experimenting on YouTube, working with a number of different genres to see what stuck.
And eventually I settled on commentary.
I was sort of naive about it.
I was like,Yeah, I can probably record 15-minute videos after only being successful making six-second videos.
Im always looking at the monitor, not the camera.
There were so many things wrong with what I was doing.
Troom Troom is basically a life-hacking crafting channel.
I decided I was actually going to try them on my family and my wife.
Like, the person youre pranking doesnt end up getting embarrassed by these.
That video didnt even take off for a few weeks after I uploaded it.
But then the algorithm got a hold of it.
All of a sudden, I was getting like 17,000 new subs a day.
I had just doubled my metrics over the course of a month.
But also I think I empathize more with larger creators now.
When I was smaller, Id look at them like they were untouchable.
I think my older videos had a little less of a playful tone.
As I got deeper into it, I found that I also had opinions about those things.
Why not turn on the camera and make some friends?
One of the videos that blew up my channel was about a guy named John Kuckian.
It was a joke.
I was a fan of him, and I watched him change into this liar.
The first day, the video got 100 views.
I was at my friends house and was like, This is crazy!
Because 100 views was a lot for me.
It kept growing and growing from there.
I never started YouTube to be a YouTuber.
I never thought that this would be my job or that Id be famous.
Nobody cared about my opinion before, and now 50,000 people wanted to hear more from me.
It was exciting but also very surreal.
I decided to start doing that.
I went through all the allegations.
It was pretty questionable.
I DMd some of his alleged victims for more evidence.
There was no hard proof, but I wanted to let people know to be wary of this guy.
That video took off overnight.
It racked up 4 million views in the span of three weeks.
Its a balance when you talk about more serious topics like this.
I felt like I was always going to try and make videos at some point.
So when I discovered commentary channels, it seemed like an opportunity to discuss whatever was on my mind.
Thats why I started my own.
I made a compilation video, after the fact, of all the times where Jade was acting superrich.
And, of course, that became my most-liked video of all time.
That whole situation really blew up my channel.
I think everyone was just frustrated by her.
It wouldve been my dream to go to that school.
Personally, though, that video was really exciting.
All of a sudden, I had this audience, and I started making videos constantly.
ItzKeisha, Where Is the DIVERSITY on YouTube?
(April 2019)
Current View Count: 446,956
I didnt have a lot of friends growing up.
I started in 2016, mostly talking about fashion and beauty.
I make music as well, so building an audience helps me with that career, too.
Ive always had high hopes for myself.
The video that blew up my channel came out in 2019.
It was called Where Is the DIVERSITY on YouTube?
I was really hesitant to put it up.
I had spoken about race before but wasnt super-vocal.
I was asking my brother, Should I put this up?
As a Black viewer, that made me uncomfortable.
Thats why I wanted to speak on it.
When I first recorded the video, I was so confident with everything I was saying.
I was like,I cant wait to edit this.
But when I started editing it, I got nervous.
I thought that people didnt know me for talking about racial injustice.
It was just tea videos and Shane DawsonJeffree Star commentary.
I didnt know who my audience was at the time.
After the video blew up, it felt weird to go back to my usual content.
But also I know Im not the most educated on every topic.
My audience didnt pester me too much, though.
They wanted me to make whatever was going to make me happy.
Thats what I like about my audience: They seem to be mature.
Back then, I was making vlogs, sketches, and personal videos.
My top-viewed video is called Youre Not Relatable Anymore.
I was basically saying that as YouTubers become rich and famous, they become increasingly disconnected from the audience.
How does Jenna Marbles still seem so relatable when others are so different after they hit it big?
You dont know what the response is going to be or how long it will last.
Im the same person, but I know people would suddenly see me as a big YouTuber.
And that makes you second-guess yourself.
Its a fine line to walk.
Ive been thinking about my own relatability lately.
That milestone is a symbol.
Psychologically, the pressure grows so much when you get there.
I just want my content to be good.
I think Im still a pretty normal person.
Im not about to go join the Hype House.
Cherita Explains It All, Dear, Smokey Glow (Hannah) …
But then I found YouTube drama, and I got interested in that.
I ended up starting my own channel dedicated to commentary, and I got really sucked into that world.
Smokey Glow did a collaboration with Angelika, who has said some racist things in the past.
She ended up deleting the video.
I felt like both of them were wrong, and I talked about each of them equally.
I think I gave the conversation a little more nuance.
I critiqued her on that.
The problem with commentary channels is they go off of their first gut reaction.
I used to be that person.
I would get outraged before seeing all sides of the story.
Some people are easier to talk about than others.
And commentary channels go after whats easy: Someone said something racist.
Lets talk about that.
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