Photo Credit Twitter

How the 7th Annual Streamy Award Nominees ended up so indistinguishable, so uniform, so unvaried

Tonight marks The 7th Annual Streamy Awards Ceremony which honors the best of Youtube, online videos and the creators behind it. It will stream LIVE on Twitter from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 9:30pEST/ 6:30pPST.

After looking at nominees — which people could vote via Twitter up till 7pPST— I’m left feeling perplexed as to how ‘a night of celebration, discovery, and meaningful recognition’ could end up looking so indistinguishable, so uniform, so unvaried.

Firstly, I think the concept is of the Streamy Awards is noble; providing recognition to unconventional creators who reach tens of thousands to millions people without being on major broadcasting networks. Every creator nominated tonight in their right is impressive. However, whether you take a quick scan at this years nominees or do a more in-depth search of them, you’d arise at the question, Does Youtube have a Diversity Problem?

A quick google search and you will find there’s plenty of articles from respected journalists that take an extensive look at this issue. In one article, it is reported people of color make up just 14% of the top channels.

So in my desire to make the 7th Annual Streamy Awards nominees more inclusive, here’s my hand picked recommendations for the awards. These categories were created based on Streamy Awards actual categories; note I didn’t choose any for action/sci-fi and comedy.

OVERALL CATEGORY

Photo credit Big.com “YouTube While Black — An Interview with Evelyn From the Internets” Read the article to learn more about this comedic star.

• Creator of the year — Evelyn of the internet
• Show of the year — Thee Kats Meoww
• Animated — SimLivNColor

SERIES

Photo Credit from Fatimah Asghar’s Instagram @asgharthegrouch, Sam (left) and Fatimah (right) attend 2017 Emmy’s

• Drama — Brown Girls P.S while they WON for indie series, Fatimah Asghar and Sam Bailey deserve multiple awards for their series that follow the friendship and lives of everyday extraordinary brown girls.
• Indie — Kat Blaque ok, so more of a vlog then series but this my article so I decided to take creative liberties.
• Non-fiction — Team2moms

And FINALLY,

The Queen of Berlin’s Underground Hip-Hop Dance Culture || VLOGUMENTARY ||

• Breakout creator — Beni

Be sure to support all of these creative genius’ who are out here following their passions!

Note: this is note a comprehensive list. Who would you add? Tell me in the comment section.

Thanks for reading! :)