We need to be honest with each other.
I’ve been obsessed with YouTube since I was about twelve. I don’t recall how I started watching, but it began with the classics. Zoella, Ingrid Nilsen, Bethany Mota, need I go on?
Sometimes I’ll tune into a Devon Lee Carlson vlog or a Vogue 73 questions, but now, my time is mainly consumed of reality television, TikTok, or crime podcasts.
Peak YouTube obsession hit for me from about 2016-2019. I was entirely obsessed, and YouTubers were at their pinnacles of fame. Casey Neistat was going to the Met Gala, Jeffree Star was making documentaries with Shane Dawson about how he has millions of dollars no one knew about, and Emma Chamberlain was still living in San Fransisco, going to Philz Coffee and thrifting. Life was good.
I even indulged in Jake Paul videos. I’m truly laying it all out on the floor here.
Emma Chamberlain is definitely my favorite from that era that I still follow. Obviously, for those who feel the same, Casey Neistat and his wife will reign supreme in my heart, but they aren’t churning out the content that Emma is, so they’ve lost their #1 spot.
One of my favorite Emma Chamberlain eras, was in fact, the sister squad.
I’ll hold for gasps.
The. Sister. Squad.
If you’re unfamiliar with the sister squad, it was made up of Emma Chamberlain, James Charles, and the Dolan Twins. They would make videos with each other that consisted of baking challenges, extravagant Christmas surprises, and vlogs of them going places such as Vegas.
These videos had me in a straight-up chokehold. The will they-won’t they of Emma and Ethan, the thousands of dollars they would spend on each other, the laughs. So many laughs.
Now, we know that Emma has called this group toxic during her Call Her Daddy two-parter, and the foursome has seemingly never spent time with each other past 2019. Emma’s hosting the Met Gala red carpet for Vogue and is the face of brands like Cartier and Louis Vuitton, while James is hiding in a bunker from repeat cancellation. I’m not too sure about the Dolan Twins.
James Charles is one of the most controversial YouTube figures of all time. From predatory behavior with minors to past offensive tweets, he’s truly hit every mark there is of someone who’s gotten cancelled multiple times.
I’m here, once again on my soapbox, to admit that I once was a sister.
I wanted merch, I asked for the Morphe pallet during Christmas 2019, and I watched every single video he put out. I watched his house tour with bated breath, and truly thought that he was going to be one of the most powerful influencers ever.
It’s funny looking back on that due to his sheer memeability. From the Coachella outfits to the singing videos, he truly could not give us more to use against him.
This admission is all to say that from 2016-2019, YouTube was in its gilded age (to thrice mention the Met Gala in this). Content was getting better and bigger, stars growing into global sensations, with many getting cancelled left and right.
Now, we probably won’t see someone go from living in their parents house to being a multimillionaire and a fully formed celebrity, just from YouTube. TikTok has completely taken that spot over, building starlets overnight, only for them to sector off into their own audience in their own algorithm.
Sometimes, I miss it. I miss logging on and seeing someone post a twenty minute expose on one of my favorite YouTubers, sending Twitter into a tizzy for days on end. I miss logging on and seeing that James Charles and Kylie Jenner created content together, because that’s the sheer level of fame that he was riding. I miss a good, old fashioned apology video.
This is turning into a fashion marketing style in-class discussion, but it’s truly crazy to see how many things have changed since then. One global pandemic later, and Jeffree Star, who once sat on the throne of YouTube, had to seek refuge in Wyoming from cancellation.
Happy Sunday, everyone. I know how I’ll be spending mine, and that’s watching the sister squad in bed with a gatorade, thinking about what could have been.