For an IB English internal assessment, we are told to write something creative based on the topic of each section. One section was mass media and communication, so I chose to write about my obsession, YouTube and its enormous influence on stereotypes. While this post was written as an IB assignment, it comes from a very true and genuine place and I wanted to share it here as well because I'm proud of it. I think it could encourage the development of the truly interesting conversation about the power of YouTube.
Make-up and YouTube
We’ve all, I would assume, had opinions or thoughts of which we are not proud. I, for one, have had many. As humans, we learn new things constantly, and so our opinions change. I would like to mainly thank the internet for these changes, namely, YouTube.
Now, the real point of this is make-up. Yes, make-up. I used to have somewhat strong beliefs about makeup. I thought that girls who wore makeup and lots of it, were shallow, didn’t feel confident and were fake. Oh the ignorance in those beliefs makes me shudder now. I didn’t believe this for all types of makeup or even all people who wore make-up, my reasons and thoughts were very illogical but, nonetheless, they were mine. These beliefs were continued because none of my friends really wore make-up and none of my personal role-models did either. So for a while, all I thought was that just bimbos wore make-up.
As I grew a little older, these thoughts changed slightly as I would wear concealer to cover-up a zit for picture day and wanted to look pretty, but I still kind of had those negative stereotypical thoughts in the back of my mind. “All girls who wear make-up do it for the boys. They just want to look prettier than they actually are, blah blah other things that are not true.”
Thankfully, I don’t believe these things anymore and that is all thanks to YouTube. YouTube is the ultimate in mass communication. With over hundreds of hours uploaded daily, so much information is readily available at any given time. It is almost overwhelming. Fairly recently, the past few years or so, I really got into YouTube. I found all these people making amazingly informative and creative videos or just pure entertainment. And through the collaborative nature of YouTube, my subscription list grew and grew and is still growing today.
I came across a few YouTubers who had been generally labelled as Beauty Gurus. One being Tanya Burr who creates make-up tutorials for celebrity styles and fashion videos. And the other Louise (aka Sprinkle of Glitter) who creates lifestyle videos, fashion and make-up tips. But they were more than just girls who talked about makeup or other beauty things. They were great people. One wonderful thing about YouTube is how you really get to know these people you are watching. I learned about when Tanya and Jim fell in love and watched them get engaged; I learned about when Louise had her first baby and all the struggles and rewards she faced and the list goes on. It just so happens that these wonderful girls love make-up.
Here I was, watching videos of beautiful people inside and out. Beautiful people who were intelligent and weren't wearing make-up just to look pretty for other people. Beautiful people who were comfortable with or without make-up, and who paid more attention to the artsiness of makeup than the idea of changing and covering oneself. I had only ever thought that make-up was for unlikable or super self-conscious girls, but Tanya and Louise love make-up and they were neither of these things. In that moment, the naive stereotypes I had created were disproven.
Then all of a sudden something in my brain switched and a whole new world of knowledge and thoughts seemed to open up to me. Why had I never realized that make-up has always been a huge part of culture? There are so many examples of make-up in culture: Japanese geishas, aboriginal ancient Egyptians! I don’t know how I hadn’t made this realization earlier; I was just so certain that only a certain type of person wore make-up.
Make-up is really just an expression of oneself, like fashion. It can be an art and it can be just for the person wearing it. I have found that I really enjoy make-up now. It is fun to see what colors look good together, what different styles I can get and what would be best for certain situations. It’s an interesting, creative thing to do.
YouTube is defying stereotypes. It may be a large claim, but nonetheless true. My whole outlook on make-up has completely changed ever since finding those videos. Because these videos reach out to so many places and so many different kinds of people, I’m sure revelations like this happen all the time. Stereotypes are often proven wrong when people have new information. YouTube, in a way, is like a huge library of real people who are informing. The individuals who create are defying stereotypes as well by showing the world that you can do more than what you are “supposed to do.” There used to be a large divide between the different section of YouTube (gaming, beauty, film, musicians, etc). Now, everyone sort of does everything. The beauty gurus work with short film creators, the musicians work with gamers, daily vloggers create films and this list goes on as far as creativity can take us.
Thanks to the seemingly endless and free content on YouTube, ignorant thoughts are shown to be false, and it becomes more and more clear that people are not just the square stereotype you put around them.
Make-up and YouTube
We’ve all, I would assume, had opinions or thoughts of which we are not proud. I, for one, have had many. As humans, we learn new things constantly, and so our opinions change. I would like to mainly thank the internet for these changes, namely, YouTube.
Now, the real point of this is make-up. Yes, make-up. I used to have somewhat strong beliefs about makeup. I thought that girls who wore makeup and lots of it, were shallow, didn’t feel confident and were fake. Oh the ignorance in those beliefs makes me shudder now. I didn’t believe this for all types of makeup or even all people who wore make-up, my reasons and thoughts were very illogical but, nonetheless, they were mine. These beliefs were continued because none of my friends really wore make-up and none of my personal role-models did either. So for a while, all I thought was that just bimbos wore make-up.
As I grew a little older, these thoughts changed slightly as I would wear concealer to cover-up a zit for picture day and wanted to look pretty, but I still kind of had those negative stereotypical thoughts in the back of my mind. “All girls who wear make-up do it for the boys. They just want to look prettier than they actually are, blah blah other things that are not true.”
Thankfully, I don’t believe these things anymore and that is all thanks to YouTube. YouTube is the ultimate in mass communication. With over hundreds of hours uploaded daily, so much information is readily available at any given time. It is almost overwhelming. Fairly recently, the past few years or so, I really got into YouTube. I found all these people making amazingly informative and creative videos or just pure entertainment. And through the collaborative nature of YouTube, my subscription list grew and grew and is still growing today.
I came across a few YouTubers who had been generally labelled as Beauty Gurus. One being Tanya Burr who creates make-up tutorials for celebrity styles and fashion videos. And the other Louise (aka Sprinkle of Glitter) who creates lifestyle videos, fashion and make-up tips. But they were more than just girls who talked about makeup or other beauty things. They were great people. One wonderful thing about YouTube is how you really get to know these people you are watching. I learned about when Tanya and Jim fell in love and watched them get engaged; I learned about when Louise had her first baby and all the struggles and rewards she faced and the list goes on. It just so happens that these wonderful girls love make-up.
Here I was, watching videos of beautiful people inside and out. Beautiful people who were intelligent and weren't wearing make-up just to look pretty for other people. Beautiful people who were comfortable with or without make-up, and who paid more attention to the artsiness of makeup than the idea of changing and covering oneself. I had only ever thought that make-up was for unlikable or super self-conscious girls, but Tanya and Louise love make-up and they were neither of these things. In that moment, the naive stereotypes I had created were disproven.
Then all of a sudden something in my brain switched and a whole new world of knowledge and thoughts seemed to open up to me. Why had I never realized that make-up has always been a huge part of culture? There are so many examples of make-up in culture: Japanese geishas, aboriginal ancient Egyptians! I don’t know how I hadn’t made this realization earlier; I was just so certain that only a certain type of person wore make-up.
Make-up is really just an expression of oneself, like fashion. It can be an art and it can be just for the person wearing it. I have found that I really enjoy make-up now. It is fun to see what colors look good together, what different styles I can get and what would be best for certain situations. It’s an interesting, creative thing to do.
YouTube is defying stereotypes. It may be a large claim, but nonetheless true. My whole outlook on make-up has completely changed ever since finding those videos. Because these videos reach out to so many places and so many different kinds of people, I’m sure revelations like this happen all the time. Stereotypes are often proven wrong when people have new information. YouTube, in a way, is like a huge library of real people who are informing. The individuals who create are defying stereotypes as well by showing the world that you can do more than what you are “supposed to do.” There used to be a large divide between the different section of YouTube (gaming, beauty, film, musicians, etc). Now, everyone sort of does everything. The beauty gurus work with short film creators, the musicians work with gamers, daily vloggers create films and this list goes on as far as creativity can take us.
Thanks to the seemingly endless and free content on YouTube, ignorant thoughts are shown to be false, and it becomes more and more clear that people are not just the square stereotype you put around them.