My YouTube Recommendations (Believe me, I'm an expert.)

I'm a YouTube BITCH -- I'm on that app like 8 hours a day. No, I will not disclose my screentime, but I will tell you who I'm watching.

Quarantine has helped me hone in on the kinds of creators I want to watch. These women have provided me with endless entertainment and hope for humanity during this time of absolute insanity. I just had to share to give you guys an idea of who I'm trying to be / the energy I'm trying to bring here on out.

If you click on their names, it will bring you to their channels in a new tab (in other words, check out their content but don't stop reading mine lol).

Moya Mawhinney

Moya is the most accessible it girl ever. Watching her videos makes you feel like you are traversing your early 20s alongside her. She absolutely BLEW UP during quarantine -- earnedly so, because her vlogs are immaculate.

Moya is from Belfast and has just graduated from Trinity College Dublin. Her university content will make you want to go back to college immediately (dangerous for me, as you know -- I'm quite fragile at the moment). She also studied abroad in New York City, so she has Dublin AND New York footage.

Moya studied Art History and English Literature at university, so she's a liberal arts dream -- absolutely screams ~culture~. She has a few videos of her painting her own pieces and they are truly divine. She does it all.

Her style is to die for and every trend looks incredible on her. Moya rocks so many quirky, fun pieces from sustainable small businesses, and seamlessly blends her thrift finds with more high end items like a Paloma Wool sweater or a Prada bag. We watch her negotiate following trends while making more sustainable choices, and it makes an otherwise confusing conundrum seem doable.

Nayna Florence

If you want to chill out and need a reminder that there is good in this world, please check out Nayna's content. She is the cutest person. She's from London but goes to university in Edinburgh, she's an advocate for all the right things, and she makes daily activities seem cinematic as hell. Nayna puts a lot of care into her editing and it shows. Her content got me through last summer's lockdown.

I started watching Nayna because she had been compared to Moya, and once I saw her videos about The University of Edinburgh I was hooked. I binged her videos overnight. Ever since I went to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival during college, I have desperately wanted to move there. It's gothic HEAVEN. Go watch her videos for the footage of the city alone! She is an economics major at the university, which is a refreshingly different perspective for a creative.

Nayna is vegan and huge on sustainability and I have learned so much about these topics from her videos! She discusses these and other topics, such as race, relationships, higher education, mental health, and working on YouTube, on her podcast Growing With The Flow. With her signature matcha in hand, she sits down and just chats, and it's the friendliest one-sided conversation you'll ever have.

Meicrosoft

The cool girl to end all cool girls. The edgy sweetheart that has taken the internet by storm. Her name is Mei (like the month, as she puts it) and she is an exquisite force. She is my first Canadian suggestion, but I assure you, she is not my last. Mei started making her content in Toronto, but she now lives outside the city. She recently moved and her house is gorgeous (SHOCKER, I know).

Her makeup artistry is beyond words. The way her looks push the envelope, the colors that she incorporates, the precision with which she can paint full-on artwork on her face -- she is truly a master at her craft. She does it all, while having the most calming voice. She's simply a joy to listen to and to look at! Mei's monochromatic, almost entirely thrifted wardrobe is immaculate. She blends highly feminine lingerie with androgynous, grungy outfits in a way I had never seen before.

Sobriety has been an important part of her life for about two years now. As part of her sobriety journey, she started practicing yoga. Her skills are impressive as hell and inspiring, seeing as she claims that she couldn't even touch her toes when she started.

Mei's tattoos (which are symmetrical, by the way) have obviously been a large part of her public identity, but she talks about how she loves to show that someone who looks like her (bald and covered in tattoos) can be, and frequently is, approachable, talented, intelligent, etc. She enjoys defying expectations.

Sophie Floyd

Sophie is that girl in high school that you desperately wanted to be friends with because you loved her style and she seemed so chill, but you were still way too scared to talk to her. Her content is mostly makeup tutorials, favorites videos, fashion hauls, and the like. Oh and she's English! (We love an accent on this corner of the internet, can you tell?)

Sophie adores colorful makeup, and she makes it so wearable. Her makeup artistry isn't really about precision, it's more about expression. Sophie is also super sarcastic and candid, which adds to her genuine vibe. I love listening to her chat candidly while she does her makeup.

Beauty and fashion are obviously important parts of her brand, but she conveys them effortlessly. Sophie certainly follows trends, but she has a classic kind of beauty to her; it's like she aligns with what's trendy without even trying. Her current style is funky in the most flattering way. There's always a hint of grunge to her looks, which I love.

Similar to Mei, Sophie adores tattoos -- so much so that she has become a tattoo artist, herself. She doesn't post as frequently as others due to her tattoo work, but when she does post, it is certainly worth sitting down and watching.

Allana Davison

Whether it's a sit-down makeup video or a vlog, I am always thoroughly entertained by Allana's content. She was one of, if not THE first beauty YouTuber that was personable enough for me to fully relate to and enjoy as a human being. She is weird in the best way. You are sure to find many a hilarious intro on her channel, either of her or her beloved cat, Meryl (whom she is allergic to).

She's a lover of professional makeup artistry and is constantly replicating looks and trying out different MUA's techniques. Allana has been instrumental in teaching me how to do makeup. It has helped that she is as dry-skinned as I am, so her methods have taught me how to combat that.

Her collaborations have all been impeccable. She has worked with Nudestix and Mac multiple times, bringing out or curating sets of makeup items that are must-haves. She also developed a line of swimsuits with The Saltwater Collective, a sustainable Canadian swimwear brand (oh yes, she is also Canadian by the way). I bought one and it's the best bathing suit I've ever owned. The cut, the colors, everything about them is to die for. Do yourself a favor and check out their website here.

Allana is super candid about things and approaches lifestyle vlogging in the best way. She talks about how she handles being a "sweaty gal," or how she had a terrible experience with a doctor, or how she and her fiancé, Dejan, don't actually want a traditional wedding. She has been on YouTube for years, but she has never stopped being relatable (unlike many of her contemporaries).

Tar Mar

Vibes. The best way for me to describe Tara is through her incredible vibes. She is the big sister we all want. She has impeccable style, both in clothing and in home decor. Tara talks a lot about astrology and spirituality / cosmic energy. The flow of the universe kinda vibe, you know? She is constantly making Spotify playlists, and she even has a series on her Instagram story called Lovers Sunday where she basically makes a new mood board every week surrounding the theme of love.

As with Moya, listening to Tara's Irish accent brings me so much joy. (Brogue? I always want to say brogue, but I'm not actually sure what the proper word is. Tara help me out here.) She is from Ireland and studied fashion design there, but she is currently living in a beautiful Brooklyn loft, so you get some incredible New York content with the occasional Irish countryside vlog. What else could you want, really?

Tara creates content using many mediums. She has a blog (which feels close to the heart for me), she mostly vlogs on YouTube, and she loves film photography. Her off the cuff vlogging style exudes confidence and poise. You simply hope to be like her in your twenties. Tara's photography skills are also quite notable. She does some pretty regular film photography reviews, where she will go through her developed film and share her thoughts about her own photos. It's fascinating to hear what inspired each shot.

Uncarley

Uncarley is a very recent discovery, seeing as she only started uploading six months ago. Carley has blown up in a similar way to Moya (she already has 100k subscribers). She films videos about books, but she is also a comedian, which makes her stand out among the BookTube community.

I would recommend Carley's videos to every member of the Drew University Football team, my college's improv troupe (you're welcome for the plug). She is genuinely hilarious and gives incredible, accessible book recommendations. She has a series where she reads various celebrities' favorite books and then tries to determine what they say about those people. It's fascinating (and impressive -- she regularly will read like 3 to 4 books in a week for these videos).

I am a classics stan, and Carley is constantly saying that she very much is not (which is a refreshing take for BookTube), but at the same time, Carley is obsessed with the theory that F. Scott Fitzgerald stole Zelda Fitzgerald's writing for The Great Gatsby and I am absolutely here for it. She talks about it in a handful of videos, you just have to hear her take.

Oh and did I mention? She's Canadian.

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Now for a Bit of an Announcement:

On a super real note, I aspire to make content like these women. I'm tentative to even say this right now before actually filming anything, but I just took the plunge and bought a camera. I am...scared, but I am so excited to finally try my hand at YouTube after all these years.

As for the kind of content I will be making, I tend to lean toward makeup and lifestyle vlogging like many of the creators I've mentioned (it's where my YouTube heart lies), but it wouldn't be my channel if it weren't also about performing in some way. I think I want to situate my channel through the lens of an actor trying to break into the business...because that's what I am.

I have learned a fair bit about the performing arts industry in my two years out of school, and in trying to familiarize myself with said industry, I've found that a lot of the content about it is less approachable and informative than I want it to be. There still seems to be this expectation that you have to be overly grateful and positive every step of the way. I see actors on social media being like, "I'm following my dreams" or "it's such an honor to be here" or "I get to do what I love every day," and don't get me wrong, I'm all for pursuing your dreams (obviously, or I would have quit this insanity long ago), but I'm not seeing the harder side of this industry being laid out at all. Let's be real here, standing in line at 6 AM for an 11:00 open call and then waiting 7 hours to be seen, all because you don't have your equity card is anything but dreamy. It sucks. It's a broken system.

A lot of the industry knowledge still feels as though it's on a need-to-know basis. I have certainly been uncomfortable, scared, confused, etc. in professional settings, simply because I had no idea what to expect. I've found it incredibly comforting to hear stories about flubbed auditions and the like from working actors. It humanizes a job that is honestly gatekept. (Ironic right? What is acting but reflecting humanity?)

I want to make videos about my makeup, and the clothing I found on depop, and my 3 part-time service jobs that support my apartment, because this business is not just self-taping for 20 hours a day and attending 8 dance classes a week. I've learned that it's a slog, and you need to find balance and things outside the industry that bring you joy, or you lose yourself in it. I hope to find myself again through sharing my experience.

So my final YouTube recommendation is...me.

If you want to throw me a preemptive follow, check out Thought You Ought to Know on YouTube!

(I cannot believe I'm saying that.)

OH and if you have anything in particular you want to see from me, leave a comment, get in touch, send me a text or a dm! It would help me a bunch with planning content.

I love you all so much and thank you for reading!

xx

Nic