Dear Creators – Launch Young Adults

About a year ago I had the idea to compile all of the moments of honesty and vulnerability I’d seen from YouTube creators. I was inspired by creators who were risking vulnerability and sharing real-life hard truths, personal struggles, and honest thoughts. I admire people who let others in because it takes courage to talk about things in your private life.

Above is my video called “Dear Creators”. The video features twenty YouTube creators’ real-life moments as well as my words.

The purpose of the video is to ask content creators (those featured and the thousands not featured) to join the movement of transparent living. I know Youtubers— vloggers especially— like to upload videos that are happy, positive, and well-edited. We like to keep aesthetically pleasing social media feeds and to snap and tweet the fun and happy parts of our lives. That’s the highlight reel— the collection of picture-perfect, movie-worthy moments we’re grateful to experience, (and that we should have lots of) and there’s nothing wrong with a highlight reel. I sincerely hope you have lots of wonderful moments and memories in life. But the danger of a highlight reel life comes when there’s no balance. When there are no “low-lights”, that’s an inaccurate depiction of a real life, because real life is full of highs and lows. Sharing real moments may mean losing followers or having to deal with haters, but only sharing the good moments is dishonest.

Connection and meaningful conversation happen when you let people in. Just look at the amount and depth of the comments on videos where creators share about things going on in their lives. Those moments resonate deeply with people because we’re not always open or honest about the things we’re dealing with, especially the things that hurt. We convince ourselves that no one can relate to us, and we hide our problems when in reality, there are thousands of people going through similar situations. but there’s value and freedom in sharing, for both the speaker and the listener. So I hope creators continue to put out content that is fun, happy, and visually stunning because most of us do have great lives, and wonderful experiences to share. But I also hope they take the transparency pledge.

[tweetthis]Dear Creators. Join the movement to be and live transparently.[/tweetthis]

This is a call to action for balanced, (not equal) sharing. That means sharing your not-so-good days along with all the great days to remind those watching that you too are human. We know the power the YouTube platform holds and as creators and viewers, we have the power to be the people who remind and encourage others to live transparently.

Let’s be the people who tell our truth and not our business— who are happy instead of faking happy.

We, the most globally connected, technology-savvy generations have the ability to enjoy each other’s happiness and be a source of comfort for each others’ sadness. Pledge to share your reel and your real.