Beauty and the Blog
There is the common saying– “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” For family and child studies major, Brittany Wisdom, she stares head-on in the face of thousands of people encouraging them to think the same way.
The Montclair State University junior created her own self-titled YouTube channel on May 26, 2016 which focuses on her interests in beauty, lifestyle, and fashion.
“My channel is light hearted, friendly, and uplifting. I want to promote positivity, happiness, and equality for each one of my subscribers — and even those who tune in without wanting to follow the channel,” said Wisdom.
Her account has over one thousand subscribers in which the videos she’s posted have compiled 28,764 views. When asked about how she was able to gain such a high following, Wisdom revealed that it is not easy to gain subscribers when first starting up a channel. She said:
“I didn’t have a large following on any of my social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, so starting from the bottom was very challenging.”
It took her months to get her following up to even 100 and after her videos began to gain positive feedback, the subscriptions started rolling in.
Wisdoms favorite content to cover is beauty related. According to ExpandedRamblings.com, in 2015, the “total number of views regarding beauty-related videos on YouTube reached 45.3 billion.”
Her inspiration to touch upon these topics span from her passion for a healthy lifestyle. Wisdom regularly exercises, has an intense skin care routine, practices makeup, and strives to eat nutritious meals at least three times a day.
“My body is one of the only things in this world that I have complete control over. I want to treat it the best way I can while I’m here on earth. I’ve been told by my peers throughout my academic career that my skin and curly hair are something they’ve aspired to have so I thought — let me share my knowledge with others through a YouTube channel.”
Wisdom chose YouTube as her platform because it reaches an intense about of people who are searching for exactly what she has to offer. ExpandedRamblings.com also states that “the total number of subscribers to YouTube beauty-related content reaches 123 million in 2015.”
“I watch random videos on YouTube so often. I thought — why not me? So, I gathered what I know about hair, makeup, beauty, life skills, and just went for it,” said Wisdom.
For Wisdom, the best thing about being a rising YouTuber is that companies send her free merchandise to review in her videos and have asked her to be a brand ambassador for their facility.
Though free gifts are a huge perk, Wisdom says, “The worst part of being a YouTuber is ed-it-ing! I’m very particular about things and when editing, things can go smoothly or it can all get deleted out of nowhere. It has happened to me too many times. Also, lighting is key, I try to film with natural light so that gives me a small frame of time to work with after I get home from my classes.”
Wisdoms favorite YouTuber is Jayla Koriyan who is also a beauty and fashion blogger. If given the chance, Wisdom admits to wanting to collaborate with her and fashion icon/ pop singer Zendaya Coleman.
She plans to expand her brand at Montclair State University by promoting her channel around campus and clueing her classmates in to her favorite pastime — blogging.
Her advice to those seeking to pursue YouTube is simply this: “Just go for it. You can do anything you set your mind to and even if you feel no watches your videos, everyone has their own niches they can fit themselves into. YouTube is too broad for no one to stumble upon your work.”
