Name: Arden Rose
Age: 22
Job Title and Description: Actress, Writer, and YouTuber
Instagram Handle: @ardenrose
What does your job entail? Is there such a thing as a typical day?
AR: That’s a tough one. It seems like I have a bunch of different job titles and descriptions. If you want to call me a YouTuber, then I guess I’m a YouTuber––as well as an actor, producer…I kind of do everything! YouTube requires that I produce, record and edit all my videos, and I also like acting in things that I might not have produced myself. So everything! I do everything. And all these different roles means that every day is a little bit different. It varies based on what I’m focusing on for the day.
What is the best part of your job?
AR: The flexibility – being able to do things at my own pace on my own schedule. It’s nice to be able to kind of pick and choose what I want to do/what I don’t want to do, and hone in on my favorite things.
Working in the non-traditional, new media sphere, are there any unique challenges you’ve faced? How did you deal with them?
AR: With choosing my own hours and being able to do my own thing, you can also get lazy and not want to do anything – and you know that no one is going to stop you from that except yourself. But I think if you’re going to be self-employed, or “fun-employed” a.k.a. unemployed, you have to find a way to make your hours count. You have to be able to motivate yourself without having a boss to tell you what needs to be done. I guess that would be the biggest difficulty, setting those boundaries yourself.
What was your first job and how did you get it?
AR: My first job was actually YouTube, as I started doing YouTube when I was fourteen. It was just something that developed when I was really young, and I never believed it was ever going to necessarily be a job. I always just assumed it would just be something fun that I would do on the weekends when I had time. And then, a couple years later, YouTube started monetizing, which meant I could get paid for my videos. So that was my first “real” job.
What words of wisdom do you find most valuable?
AR: Since I work in a field where you really have to be your own motivator, I try to live by the philosophy of, “Your worst day is only a day that you create for yourself”. If something is going wrong, or something is messed up, you can either react negatively, or you can overcome it and make your day better because of it.
What is one mistake you made along the way and what did you learn from it?
AR: I used to never give myself enough time to do anything––like getting ready for a meeting, or if I had an event to go to, I would always cut my time in half because I felt like I wanted to relax or not really get ready. I found that I would stress myself out more trying to give myself downtime instead of actually getting whatever I needed to get done done. So, I guess my biggest mistake would be procrastination! But I learned quickly how to cut that B.S. out.
What has been the most surreal moment of your career thus far?
AR: I’ve definitely had a couple moments where I’ve kind of stepped back and thought, “Wow, it’s really cool that I’m finally able to do something like this.” I remember the first time I was able to have a meet-up at VidCon, and I was so surprised at the number of people who came by to say hi. It was definitely surreal. You’re not used to actually seeing the people who watch your videos or listen to your podcast in person. You kind of trick yourself into believing that no one is really watching, and so it’s really crazy to actually have people in front of you who want to meet you.
The second moment would probably be winning at the Streamy Awards. I never thought that anything I did in acting would actually get me up on stage winning an award!
What advice would you give to a 20-something with similar aspirations?
AR: The biggest thing is, you have to learn how to be your own boss. You have to be the C.E.O of your own company, you have to be the boss lady who isn’t afraid to step on toes to get things done. You have to be your biggest advocate in a room, you can’t be self-deprecating or cut yourself down. You have to be the person that’s strong and able in the room.