What YouTube Means To Us - PaulTalks with @Yyolandaa | #withcaptions by @paulidin

Paul: And now that I'm in LA, I'm hoping I'll be doing a lot more collabs.
Yolanda: Yeah. That'd be cool.

Paul: I'm excited for it.

Hi PaulTalkers! I'm Paul Roth,

not from DC anymore! Now I'm from Los Angeles!

haha! [Yolanda laughs] And today I'm joined by my friend,

Paul: ah, introduce yourself?
Yolanda: my name is Yolanda and...
Paul: And your channel?

Yolanda: And my channel is just my name and I make videos about diversity
focusing on film and tv.

Paul: And you also have a channel about Chris Pine--
Yolanda: Ah, yes--

P talking over Y: I mean Chris Evans [laughs]
Y: Well, Chris Evans. I also have a, I have a collab channel that i always forget to plug

Y: So that's great. Great reminder! It's called
Dear Chris Evans, we make videos to Chris

Evans, but also about Marvel and about
life. And that's with my friend Farrah.

P: Yaaaay! And occasionally guest stars, I've seen.
Y: Yeah we've had some guests on there. If you ever want to be

on Dear Chris Evans... Tweet at me!
[Paul rolls chair toward camera]

P: Chris Evans, if you'd like to be on Dear
Chris Evans, please tweet @ Y y o l a n d a a!
Y over P: YES!

Y: That's the one!

[theme music]
[Yolanda laugsh]

P: We're going to talk about what certain things me to us
and we're going to start off by talking about the

the, the big one...
YouTube.

Y: I mean, I feel like I've been on
YouTube, and watching youtube for so

long, that I think the first time I
really thought,

"Oh! I feel validated in this hobby" was
when i went to my first VidCon in 2012.

and that was when like you'd have all these like-
minded people who are like, "Yeah,

online media is a cool thing. YouTube is,
like, this amazing thing!" And for me it's

been like this great community where, you
know, no matter what happens in life, or

no matter what changes, YouTube is still
there.

Y: So I think YouTube is kinda like this constant for me.
P: I feel very similar feelings about

P: youtube. Um, especially because for most of
my life, I've been trying to find a

community where I fit in. And I had various, like, geographically-centered communities. You know:

high school, college, uh, things in the DC
area where I lived. But when i discovered

YouTube, I discovered all of a sudden I could connect with
not just people were nearby, who may or

P: may not have anything else in common
with me besides geography [Y: Right] but people

who literally, like, care about the things that I
care about,

P: from the opposite side of the world! That's amazing!
Y: Yeah.

P: And as I've just discovered from my move
from DC to LA, this is a community that

can stay with me wherever I go!

P: So I've now crossed the country and i'm still on
youtube

Yeah, it's really kinda like my, my online home.

P: Next question, which is: What does VidCon
mean to you?

Y: Yeah. Vidcon is like

the internet in real life! And it's wonderful!

Y: And you're just like-- I always forget
to post on social media, because it

Y: feels like [Paul laughs] you're living IN social media,
and inside the internet. And you have, like, all

these faces that you've seen for so long,
in real life and, like, "Oh, this is awesome!"

Y: and it's just like this great gathering
of YouTube nerds and peopl who just wanna youtube.

It's wonderful! If you've never been, I'm
sorry, but i hope you can go soon.

P: When I went to my first VidCon, only three years ago!
I mostly went because I'd made connections with

people who I really liked and they said,
"Hey! Are we gonna see you at VidCon?"

and I was like, "I don't know what that is!" I've always
tried to connect with people who have a

small subscriber count.

P: So my fellow vloggers are people who have, like,
you know, a hundred subscribers, fifty subscribers,

maybe a thousand subscribers. Those, those
were my people. And when I discovered I could actually, like,

P: meet them? Face to face? That was it. I was
sold. I was immediately sold. I went to VidCon,

and it was great! Like, I got recognized?! people
knew who I was from YouTube!?

P: (in squeaky high voice): It was my first VidCon!
(normal voice) There's just something about the spirit of, like, "We're

in this together!" that permeates VidCon
(Y: Yeah!) that makes me just love coming back to it every year

Y: I think every time, too, I'm like, "Maybe
this will be my last year!" But there's

always reasons, you're like, "Nope. I have to
go next year, because these people are

coming next year, too!

Y: So, it's like a never ending cycle, like,
I'm still going to go to this!

P: How about NFI? What does Nerdfighters
Info mean to you?

Y: I found out about NFI,

Y: like many people, through pat. (Paul laughs) Pat, Pat is
amazing at networking--

P: Last year, in particular, she was on a mission!

Y: Yeah, I mean this year, too - she had her business card, she was, like, ready to

go! So I've done a couple videos on NFI,
and I think going to the meetup

Y: made me want to be even more part of
NFI, and like be more involved in

that community, because I think there was--
more people than expected showed up,

first of all, (P: More people than I expected!) yeah!
it was wonderful and I think so many great

people are just so intelligent and
just have such great things to say

Y: so it's great to have everyone in one place. Yeah.
P: I've contributed to some other

collab channels, but NFI is the first one
that I really invested into and I'm so

glad that I have, because like you point out,
there--

P: These are people who are very
intelligent they're very socially aware

for the most part, and they care about
the themes that Pat and Dave come up with

P: for every week. Um, and it's, uh, you can see the
passion and the creativity and the intelligence

of all these members of NFI who come
from so many different walks of life! From young

Zainab in the UK to Yolanda and myself in disparate
parts of the United States with our disparate

racial identities...

I mean you get lots of different
perspectives on NFI and I love that! It's like a

little microcosm of the YouTube universe!
and yet we all kind of, like, get along!

Y: Yeah!
P (squeaky): That's beautiful! (Y: That's great!) It's so

nice! i'm gonna try to remember to insert, like, a photo of the huge meet up that we

had! (Y: It was wonderful!) I-- Uh, at this point in the video,
if i forget, just imagine tons of the

best people (Yolanda laughs) and that's-- that's the photo.
P: And you just mentioned it, so here's another thing:

P: What does nerdfighteria mean to you?
Y: Man! I think Nerdfighteria was like my

real introduction to youtube. That, like, the
YouTube community. Because i had, like,

Y: somehow found Charlie and through him I
found the vlog brothers and then I found

Nerdfighteria and that was, like, "Oh! A
bunch of, like, enthusiastic nerds about

Y: like, everything! About all kinds of
subjects no matter what! You could find,

like, your little subgroup within Nerdfighteria.

Y: I think I found Nerdfighteria when I was
still in high school, so that was like a

really cool community to have online,
when i felt like i couldn't always fit

in at school.

Y: I think, though, as I've gotten older, Nerdfighteria--
I mean I'm still, I still feel part

of it.

I don't think I've been as active in Nerdfighteria?

Y: I still watch vlogbrothers, I still
watch their videos, but I'm not,

I guess, actively part of Nerdfighteria?

Y: I think that's why NFI has been
really cool, because I've kind of been going back into

it. That's been, like, a smaller
community, because Nerdfighteria has grown

so much!

But you still have like those smaller
groups within Nerdfighteria that are

still that smaller community that make
you feel part of it still.

P: Yeah, that's really nice. I feel like I
first discovered Hannah Hart (Y: Okay!)

And then through Hannah Hart I discovered some
other people and I just kept, like Ashley Mardell,

P: then also discovered John Green through Hannah Hart, somehow. (Y: Oh, okay!)

And then i discovered the vlogbrothers
videos... Even though I was, like, enamored of

the vlogbrothers and watching their
videos and learned about Nerdfighteria

P: that way.. kind of similar to Ahsante, I
never really felt like a part of

Nerdfighteria because how often have you
seen an Asian person on their, on their

channel? I can tell you explicitly
the first time I saw an Asian person on their

channel:

P: Sabrina.
Y: Right. Yeah, I was gonna say.

P: When Sabrina substituted in because she won the Nerd Factor

Y: Yeah
P: That, that's when I thought, "Oh! Maybe
I can participate in this after all!"

P: It's only been, like, 600 videos and

finally an Asian person shows up. Maybe
i can now participate in this.

P: I like it! (Y:Yeah!) I just don't feel like I'm a part
of it, necessarily. But at VidCon not only

is there Nerdfighteria, there are people
who just go for VidCon itself.

Y: Yeah!
P: And, like, my favorite panel since
the beginning has been Less Than Famous.

Y: Okay...
P: So what does the Less Than Famous panel and concept mean to you?

Y: I remember when, I think it was
talenthatter who started this

and the idea was just like wow this is
great this is kind of what we've been

Y: looking for because it was getting to a
point where there was like, only these huge

youtubers and like, they just,

the smaller community was starting to
feel like we weren't important. And we

Y: needed some kind of platform, some kind of
space to be able to talk about our own

experience on youtube, being a smaller
creator because we're not doing this

full time, this isn't our day job. That
was like this really cool opportunity to

Y: have small youtuber voices amplified.
I think the last year was the first time i

auditioned for Less Than Famous, didn't get on,

that's fine, but there's like so many
audition videos you find because of Less

Than Famous, and you find so many small
youtubers because of it.

Y: Because there's like the small youtuber tag [P: Yes!] out
there, too, but people sometimes try to do

that just to get more views and whatever.

Y: I've made one, doesn't matter. [laughs] But, uh,
like Less Than Famous I think is more

community-focused and more about being
involved in the community. So finding

those audition videos, I think you find
people who are really part of YouTube

and really kind of are what, what VidCon
was about when [phone sound] it started and

Y: hopefully continues to be.
P: Less Than Famous was one of the first panels that

I was really excited about.

I think that, uh, i think like Linda Barsi
tweeted out about it and my friend Alex

P: Turlockosaurus tweeted out about it,
before I went to my first VidCon

So I was very excited to go and i loved
it. From that first Less Than Famous panel,

I decided I was gonna just audition for it.
I'd-- until I get on to it

P: or become famous. Because it gives me a
chance to really figure out what I want

from the community and what I want to bring
to the community. Because I think you're

right! I mean a lot of people do, do things
related to smaller creator, related to

P: little youtube, et cetera, but they're doing
it to get out of there. And I'm not gonna

ever turn down subscribers-- That's
great!

There are also lots of videos that are
by people like myself, by my friend

P: Ahsante who was on last year's Less Than
Famous, by my friend Justin Dennis who was on

this year's Less Than Famous, by myself
and by Yolonda, where our video auditions

are very clearly about the fact that we
care about this smaller creator

P: community and YouTube and YouTube
community at large.

And we want to contribute something to
it by being on that panel. And THAT'S what

I love! When people like that are
selected, I just, I'm just so, so happy! [Y: yeah] So

P: happy about it. I'm gonna audition again for it
next year! It'll be my third audition!

You can't stop me! Unless you ask me to
stop.

I think I'm gonna wrap it up by asking one last thing:
Race and Representation!

P: So, what does that mean to you? Both, both
within the context of the VidCon/YouTube

experience and just in general?

Y: What was cool this year was they had,
like, the main stage panel but then they

had a separate Creator Discussing
Diversity workshop or some kind of panel.

So they had different opportunity-- It wasn't
just like: This is your one chance to

Y: discuss diversity, GO!

They had, like, different opportunities,
It was great! VidCon has been, at least, listening to

the feedback from attendees.

Y: and saying, "Okay! Clearly you want more
diversity and we're going to provide

these platforms for you to continue
discussing it and we're going to invite

the people who, you know, you want to see
represented!" Which is awesome. But race

and Y: Representation specifically has... has kind
of, I hope, opened up that conversation

more, or at least brought awareness to
it more. Especially with online media, because

it's such... It's a more accessible
platform than TV, than film, that it is

Y: easier to have diversity and
representation on online media, but we still

don't often see it at these bigger
conventions and

and these panels, so at least VidCon
taking that initiative to having

Y: that, is great to see!
P: You're saying all the things that I want to say so, I will add

P: to it [Y: Yeah.] And I will add to it by saying that,
you know, outside of VidCon,

there's often a response to racial
representation in media that if we have

like one person of this color or one
person of this identity type

that's all you need! We've done it. We've
fulfilled our "diversity requirements". And

P: I heard a couple people around VidCon
talking about how there was a lot of

race and representation at VidCon both in
the literally named Race and Representation

panels, the discussing diversity panel...
There was a YouTube and Represent-Asian

P: panel... [Y: Mm-hmm]

P: Yes! So I heard some people make-- remarking about
how there seemed to be a lot of that and

my immediate response thought to that is,
"Unless there are so many people who are

people of color on every other panel
that the Race and Representation panel, you

have nobody left to put on there--

we still need it!" It seems like a lot, but
only because up until now we've had

P: little to nothing. [Y: Yeah] My self-designed
track of panels at YouTube [*VidCon] was like:

social justice / disabilities / race and
representation track,

there were like 200 and some panels that
were available... Specifically the ones that I

P: Chose? Had most of the diversity!

Y: Yeah! That-- I was thinking about that, too,
because I think the panels I specifically

chose were catered toward or had a lot of
diversity.

Y: I mean, for me, I'm like, "Great! There is
more diversity!" But overall it's-- there,

obviously there's still work to be done

P: Yeah. Which is why, one of the reasons why I
really like the fact that, even though I

myself do not enjoy attending the Maine
State panels i love the fact that the

P: Main Stage is where the Race &
Representation panel happens [Y: Yeah] because it

should be! That should be the place where the
teenie-boppers who are going to see their white

celebrities that they scream over before
Race and Representation and after Race and Representation

station might sit through a service
station here and some shit

I want that to happen! So kudos to you,
VidCon, for keeping that up.

I really appreciate it so those are all
things i wanted to have our are various

shared about. Do you want to chip in
anything else?

Y: Uhh, I think I'm good! No.

P: Thank you so much for doing this collab with me!
[Y: Yeah, Thank you!] You're in LA for a while now,

Y: Yes! I am.
P: So we should do more stuff together!

Y: Yes!
P: Yaaay!

P: YouTube friends! Y: YouTube friends.
P: if you liked this video, please be sure to share it so that other people

can see it. Let me know what you thought
about our responses to these things in

the comments below, or tell me anything
that matters to you because I want to

know what matters to you. And then how do
i wrap this thing up?

Paul: What do I say at the end?
[music gets louder]

Yolanda: Tomorrow

will be even better!

Paul: Yeah, it will!
[music gets loudest, ends]