Shitty First Draft

Youtubers with beauty based channels in the past meant tutorials on how to French braid, or how to apply eyeliner. It was very uncommon to make money off creating public videos on YouTube. Once the discovery of google ads became prevalent and views on makeup and hair tutorials increased, these youtubers were deemed beauty gurus (Riboni) and things started to change. Brand marketers recognized the influence beauty gurus had on their audience and started offering free merchandise and paying the YouTubers with sponsorships and product collaborations. The top beauty gurus soon became millionaires, and big names in the industry. Brands started taking the top influencers on all expense paid vacations, where they shower the gurus in free product and other expensive monogramed goodies, that the youtubers are quick to show off on social media (Garcia-Rapp). With that, and the fact that YouTubers also spend their days living lavishly in their new luxury houses and cars can make this job extremely appealing. So, it is understandable that the YouTube beauty industry would become extremely overpopulated. Many makeup artists or MUAs want to make a channel and become rich from doing what they love. For my community I am choosing the makeup YouTube and Instagram community. I chose this community because I am an avid makeup lover and used YouTube to teach me everything I know about beauty. I started watching YouTube videos to learn how to do my makeup when I was sixteen years old and had vicious acne. This was also the same year I decided to take better care of my natural hair, and turned to YouTube to learn about how to take care of it, and hear other video blogger’s natural hair stories. Can people with brand new channels become successful on YouTube when this industry is already over populated, and what steps can be taken to increase new beauty channel viewers? I think this question is important because a lot of people put college off, and try to pursue a career on YouTube, but is it worth it? The people who are successful have had their channel for years, and beat the rush. I want to explore my research with real life stories from people’s experiences. I am interviewing Kristina Mulan, a student at Florida State University, and an aspiring beauty guru.

Kristina Mulan created her first YouTube tutorial while still in high school. She worked as a certified MUA at a bare minerals counter at the mall, and was frequently questioned on how she did her makeup. She drew the courage to film herself and put her makeup tips out into the world. But then she didn’t post again for two whole years. “I just stopped. My attitude changed during my freshman year, when I wanted to pursue a medical career,” says Kristina, a second year at Florida State University.

Eventually she decided to switch major and create new videos. But she continued to not post regularly. According to Kristina, posting consistently is how you get subscribers.” Yeah, having a set time or date of when you are putting out your YouTube channel and what not. For right now I’m just doing it for fun or for the ones who want to learn how to do makeup. It is not really at a business aspect yet, “explains Kristina. She doesn’t film videos to gain sponsorships and clout, but would rather film videos to teach others and connect with people around the nation. Kristina explains, “Because there is going to be that one subscriber that’s going to love your channel, and be like, “oh, I love your channel, I watch your videos every day,” and they’re going to want advice. So, it’s like gaining that person that is motivated by you, and by your channel. It lets you know that I’m doing something good.”