Have you ever wanted to document a specific journey or project but didn’t know where to start? You could start a blog, you could start a social media account, etc. There are pros and cons to every option, but I decided this is something I wanted to document live and on camera, so I took it upon myself to start my own YouTube channel.
First thing’s first, what the hell is the journey I’m documenting? This past spring I had my heartbroken, and I realized that the only way I was going to get through it was by filling that empty void with something else I loved and was passionate about (and this time preferably something that couldn’t breakup with me). Everybody has their unrealistic “dream career” that they never actually chase because it just seems so unattainable, but for some reason, mine didn’t seem that crazy to me. Ever since I was little I wanted to be in movies, and yes every little kid loved to dress up and play pretend, but I could do it for hours on end and each costume I had in my closet came with a hundred different storylines. I would spend an entire day writing and illustrating a children’s book and then acting it out to myself, and I honestly never fully outgrew that hobby. Really, it just matured with me. I began writing short plays and acting them out with my siblings when I was in middle school. In high school, I would write my own stories for fun, then listen to music and make up a whole trailer in my head using that song as if that story were a movie. No matter how hard I tried to get it out of my head, the idea of being a creator or an artist was one that I just couldn’t shake. I loved writing, filmmaking, acting, music, and even comedic arts. I do these things in my free time on the daily, but I had convinced myself that it was nothing more than a hobby, and I needed a liberal arts degree to do anything with my life.
My entire perspective changed when I spoke to my best friend this past summer. He’s a year younger than me and had just graduated, with a plan to start at a film school in Los Angeles in the fall. The more I spoke to him about his school and career goals, the more I realized how similar they were to mine. He has a passion for videography and editing, he had created his own YouTube channel and was making films for his high school theatre program. I realized that going to school for writing and film acting wasn’t as impossible as I had always thought. I immediately began planning out a YouTube channel. I made myself a logo and a header, going by the name “Lena Bean” because that was always my nickname growing up.
IÂ eventually shot, edited, and uploaded my first VLOG (video blog), and I must have sat and watched it twenty times once it was uploaded. I had this sense of inspiration and accomplishment that I had never felt before. I began to shoot, edit, and upload even more VLOGs and began making fan videos for bands that I liked as well to ensure that I had that comedic aspect.
I’ve had this channel for about two months now and I have a “whopping” 25 subscribers, but honestly, I have extremely high hopes. So to answer the initial question, this is the journey that I want to document. The fact that a small town girl who started from nothing with little-to-no support from even her own parents can become a creator and artist out in a big city. I am currently applying to several art schools in California and plan to visit in about two weeks. At the end of the day, there’s no numerical limit to how many artists there are allowed to be, and as someone who believes everything happens for a reason, I don’t think it was a coincidence that I was born in the generation where being a YouTuber or Social Media Influencer is a successful career.