YOUNG YOUTUBER

Do you often experience funny or interesting things? Are you good at telling stories? Can you imagine millions of people want to hear about your life? That is the life of YouTube star, Jessii Vee. She has posted a lot of videos of her funny stories and these have been watched over 150 million times and subscribers to her channel increase every day. In just a month she can gain thousands of new subscribers, and videos that are only a few days old typically have 150,000+ views.

Twenty-four-year-old Jessii from Ontario, Canada, succeeded in turning her life into her work, six days a week. `Typically, I’ll spend all Sunday thinking of ideas and planning videos that I want to film. Then, on Monday, I wake up early to start filming. A video usually takes over an hour to film, and I try to film around five, so it takes up most of my day. Then, from Tuesday to Friday, I edit them.’

Being a YouTuber doesn’t only mean making videos. Jessii also spends a few hours every week writing back to her subscribers. Sometimes she meets with her fans because she passed 1,000,000 subscribers and so people recognize her when she goes out. ‘It’s so funny because I can meet subscribers anywhere and everywhere,’ she says. ‘The other day I went to buy coffee and there was a girl serving me and she almost dropped my coffee when she recognized me. She actually left the coffee shop to meet me in the parking lot to take pictures. It always makes me happy to see my fans and chat with them.’

Online life isn’t all wonderful and Jessii used to feel sad when people said negative things about her. ‘Some people online are so quick to write hate comments,’ she explains. Some people said that she has huge cheeks and really thin lips. Then she started to think that people were negative about things that she can’t change. After a while, she learned to like those things and felt more confident in herself.

If you want to start a YouTube channel, you need to think about some things. It should be fun, so one thing you might want to do is turn off the comments. Then, you won’t get any negative ones from people. Always be on the safe side and don’t show your face or real name or tell them your location. One of the most famous YouTubers, DanTDM`s videos have been watched by over 10 billion people and he didn’t show his face at the beginning.

Jessii has some advice about what kind of videos to make. ‘Be yourself. Don’t change because you want others to like you. They will love you! When I first started YouTube, I wanted to look good and changed myself. In my old videos, I seem uncomfortable because I’m not being myself. But in my videos now, you can see that I’m completely myself. I’m crazy and strange, and I don’t care what people think.’

Jessii also says you should make your channel about something you really care about because that will inspire people. People understand when you only want to be popular. ‘When you actually focus on something you love, your channel will grow so much faster, trust me!’

(Adapted from the British Council website.)