- What a YouTube following that is, huh?
- Yeah. - So how did you get started?
- Well, I--it kind of happened almost by accident.
I really didn't expect
so many people to want to watch my videos.
So I was actually going through a bullying experience
when I was about 12 years old.
- Bullying at school or cyberbullying?
- It was cyberbullying, which is kind of funny,
'cause then I decided to, like, stay online for so long.
I've been doing it for six years.
So it was a form of bullying where
it was people that I actually knew.
And they made this, like, Facebook page about me,
Myspace page about me, and it was basically, like,
my face, my name,
but it was almost like I was kind of making fun of myself,
and, like, all the captions were about my physical appearance
and just me making fun of who I was.
So seeing this when I was 12, I was, like, so hurt by it.
And I had never experienced anything like it before,
so naturally, I let it affect
my self-confidence and my happiness about life
and kind of went into a form of depression and anxiety
and all of these things that lasted for maybe a year.
And there was a point in that time period
that I felt like, "This is how my life is gonna be.
"Like, I just have to accept it.
"I'm never gonna be happy,
and I'm never gonna love myself."
And then I started watching YouTube videos,
and I was like, "This is cool."
And I just started watching more and more,
and it kind of became a distraction.
And then I decided to make my first video,
which was a lot, because going from
feeling so insecure and then literally
putting myself out there for the world to see
was a huge step.
And I did it,
and then after that first video--
- What was the first video?
- It was--it was, like, me talking about
different makeup products, which is funny
'cause I was never really much of a girly girl,
but I kind of just found it fun.
And I kind of got into the beauty and fashion world
through YouTube, so I was just talking--
- So you're talking about makeup,
and then did you have a lot of views,
like, right off the bat?
- No, actually, the first video that I posted--
it's so hard, because so many people
are uploading videos every second
that it's really hard to get noticed.
And I remember the first video I uploaded,
I watched it over and over to see if people were,
you know, checking it out.
And I saw the view count going up.
I'm like, "Oh, my gosh.
I'm getting views, like, every second."
And then I realized that they were from me.
[laughter]
So that answered that question.
So it was definitely, you know, a slow start, yeah.
I was like, "Oh, that's me. And that's my mom right there.
Those two views. Thanks, Mom."
- That's amazing.
Well, then it makes other people think
you're getting a lot of views, even if it's yourself.
- Yeah, no, then I was like, "Maybe if I just watch this,
like, 200 times, then people will be like,
'Wow, 200 people liked this. I should check it out.'"
- So what is now-- so it's all fashion and beauty.
And what's--what is your main goal with this?
What do you want to do?
- Well, it kind of evolved into more of a lifestyle channel.
And even though--you know, I do talk about beauty and fashion.
Some people might see it as kind of superficial.
But in the end, my main goal for what I do
is to kind of just promote self-love and self-confidence
and taking a bad situation
and making it into something amazing.
'Cause you can see the process.
I've been doing videos for six years.
I haven't deleted any.
You can see me when I was making my first video.
I was really shy and really closed off.
And I grew, and I, you know,
really learned so much about myself,
and I've really learned the importance of
not worrying about other people's opinions.
Because even now, I still experience the bullying online.
You know, people leave hate comments.
It's something that so many people experience.
And I've really allowed it to not affect me anymore,
so that's what I want to push for my audience,
and that's what I want to inspire them to do.
And just recently, I partnered up with
PACER'S national anti-bullying organization,
and I'm really excited.
We're still in the beginning stages,
but just any way that I can really inspire
my viewers to love themselves is my main goal.
- Well, good for you for getting out of that
and turning it around like that.
That's pretty amazing.
- Thank you.