The Tea on Vlogs: A Staffer’s Opinion on Vlogging

Until two weeks ago, my YouTube watch history consisted of Crash Courses, dance team videos and the occasional clothing DIY videos. Then I watched my first – yes, first – vlog.

I had no desire to waste time watching random people speak into a camera about makeup or shopping or spilling the “tea” from their lives. But last week, I gave into society’s vlogging craze and spent my free time watching Emma Chamberlain, Olivia Jade and James Charles – all teenage vloggers, each with over 1.5 million subscribers.

I wanted to get to the bottom of the seemingly undeserved fan base for these random teenagers on YouTube and figure out for myself why people dedicated their time to watching their videos.

I had tried so hard to not succumb to the vlogging trend, but after watching multiple videos, I discovered that I had the wrong idea about the culture. I just assumed they were all conceited, overrated teenagers – boy, was I wrong.

During my first Emma Chamberlain vlog, I was not impressed. How does James Charles and the Dolan Twins turning her into an “LA girl” by buying a Gucci belt appeal to anyone? Not to mention the unrelatable fact that she is 17 and living in an LA apartment by herself and not going to school, and I had no idea why her life was like this.

But, for the sake of journalism and some clarification, I dedicated another hour and a half watching five more of Chamberlain’s vlogs and much to my surprise, I discovered she cared about more than the number of subscribers she has or Gucci items she owns – she is a human, with emotions and problems.

While I was listening to Chamberlain’s story in her “why i left school,” I couldn’t imagine the amount of courage it took for her to publicly talk about her severe depression via YouTube. Even though I throw around the idea of dropping out, I have no desire to actually follow through. Yet Emma’s conversation with a camera about her personal life made me feel like I was her best friend she was ranting to.

And that is when I found out makes vloggers famous – their relatability.

Watching James Charles’ vlogs, I realized why he chose to display his life to his 8.4 million followers. He genuinely loves makeup and hair, and he is sharing that part of himself with the world – as cliche as that sounds – which is inspiring for people watching. Bonus for me, I finally figured out where the “sister” references come from!

After this experience, I realized what I was missing out on for the past year and now I’m a sister subscriber to James Charles’ channel and will grab my own iced coffee for the next Emma Chamberlain Q&A.

Even though many vloggers are relatable, there are a few significant exceptions to this rule. Namely beauty and lifestyle vlogger Olivia Jade.

I’d rather watch an hour long chemistry tutorial than another Olivia Jade video. I cannot relate to her rambling about a trip to Fiji she went on and I’m pretty sure I lost brain cells from listening to her. She went on and on about the trip event schedule, her makeup routine and screamed “hey” to the other vloggers that walk by while she is filming.

Also, her “sorry mom and dad” vlog where she confessed to sneaking out when she was 16 was her scouring for content and wasting my time telling a story that could be simplified and making it a five minute ordeal. Sorry Olivia, can’t relate to secretly leaving my house for an entire weekend to drive five hours to see my boyfriend.

While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the choices vloggers make, I will admit to binge-watching and YouTube searching for more.

Since I’ve become a vlog connoisseur, I decided I was looking at the vlogging culture in all the wrong ways. I was naive to not try and understand how relaxing it is to sit back and watch a human, not an actor on a TV show, simply speak.