*The ones posted below are my own. There are different ones on the Animas Quill.*
The Rise of Make-Up Male Artists
For the first time ever, a male make-up artist named James Charles, in the left picture, was featured on the cover of the popular magazine, ‘Cover Girl’. James started to post makeup looks and tutorials on YouTube in December of 2015, and since then his channel and social media have grown bigger as he posted more videos. Once Cover Girl released the new cover of James Charles, there was tons of both negativity and positivity. There’s so many male makeup artists out there who aren’t on big brands like ‘Covergirl’, but James is one lucky person. James was doing a photoshoot and out of nowhere Katy Perry came out to surprise him. That’s when Katy Perry and Covergirl shared the news about James being the cover on Instagram. When the negativity started it was mostly about how a boy shouldn’t be playing around with makeup, but when the comments were becoming too much Cover Girl responded by saying that they don’t support negativity that James is getting. Before being on Covergirl, James was on the Ellen Degeneres show. Most people recognized him from his senior picture that was shared all over social media. James is only 17 years old and is already living his dream. James is almost about to graduate soon, and the first thing he wants to do is move to LA to become more successful with his make-up career. Recently James has been teaching big YouTubers how to apply makeup and showing them how to create soft glams. One YouTuber that James has done a full glam on is Joey Graceffa. He did a look inspired by space and Joey’s favorite colors. After that he also did a full on makeup glam on Tati for her wedding day. Tati is another beauty YouTuber who recently met James and asked if he could do her makeup. Covergirl recently had Jame Charles and Zendaya collaborate by doing the ten minute eye makeup challenge. Later another brand, ‘Maybelline’, offered another male makeup artist to be a cover for them. His name is Manny Gutierrez, in the right picture, but on his social media and youtube he goes by Manny MUA. The MUA stands for, make up artist. He’s been a makeup artist publicly since July of 2014. Manny is 25 years old now, and he started out by posting videos of his make up looks and some tutorials onto his YouTube channel. He used to post his makeup looks onto his Instagram, but from then on his channel and social media have grown a lot. Jame Charles and Manny Gutierrez have been doing makeup for years now, and they’re both so lucky to be working with big makeup brands and being on the covers of their magazines. Manny also made his own eyeshadow palette with the help of a makeup brand called, Makeup Geek in 2016. While being a successful YouTuber, Manny started to collaborate with other male makeup artists. He made some fun makeup videos with Jeffree Star, Jaclyn Hill, Nikkietutorials and his best friend Patrick Starrr. Jeffree Star and Patrick Starrr are also both male makeup artists and they’re both very successful. Jeffree Star has his own makeup line called, ‘Jeffree Star Cosmetics’, making liquid lipsticks and also lip ammunition. Manny’s friends are all successful in other ways, though they all don’t have their own makeup line yet, but they have been doing other things. Recently Manny MUA has been reaching and teaching other YouTubers how apply makeup and how to use certain products. Jame Charles has also been doing the same thing and has been collaborating with big YouTubers. Manny’s next goal is to collaborate more with makeup brands and even make his own makeup line.
YouTube Gamers
There are many YouTube gamers with either big or small subscribers. In the YouTube community, Felix Kjellberg a the largest gaming YouTuber known as Pewdiepie. He has 53 million subscribers and is the first YouTuber to reach that amount of subscribers. The second YouTuber is Mark Fischbach, known on Youtube as as Markiplier. He has 16 million subscribers and is the second biggest gaming channel. The third largest gaming channel is Sean McLoughlin, who is known as Jacksepticeye on YouTube, and he has 14 million people subscribed to him. Now these three have a few things in common, they’re all very big gaming channels and they all care for their subscribers. But they’re also very different from one another. For the smaller YouTubers there are a few I know personally and there’s others that I have talked through YouTube. One small YouTuber that I’ve met recently is Tripp Sixx and he has 37 subscribers. He’s a very nice person and he really cares about his subscribers. He says that he isn’t creating videos for money but that he’s doing this because it’s something that makes him happy. I have talked to Tripp Sixx over YouTube but I haven’t met him personally. There is another small Youtuber names Sixx Fox. He is also a small YouTuber with about 400+ subscribers. He recently made his goal by reaching over 400+ subscribers and I have also talked to him a little bit. Sixx Fox and Tripp Six are both such funny and caring people I have met over YouTube. There is also one more person that I have talked with named Elevateoheyo and she’s also a small YouTuber. The reason why I’m speaking about both very big YouTubers and small YouTubers is because there are a few significant differences and similarities between them.
Many bigger YouTubers started by creating videos for fun and as they grew bigger, started to do it as a job. Some start to not really care about what content they put out there and use click bait to get more money off of it. I’ve seen this from both views. In Pewdiepie’s older videos you can see that he was much ‘happier’ and funny to watch. But as the years went by he made a video reacting to his older videos and then told his viewers that if he was playing a certain game that he didn’t like, it felt like he would let everyone down. He played games that he wasn’t interested in or games that he didn’t like at all for his subscribers because they wanted to see him play certain games. Later Pewdiepie was saying that he wants to create content that he wants to put out there and play the games he wants to play.
Now when he tries a new game out he gives feedback on it and he is more honest about how he felt about certain games. But since he’s been doing that his viewers and other gaming creators have gotten upset with how he felt about certain games. Especially when people release their first games that they’ve been working on for a while and he doesn’t like it people get really upset. Felix stepped away from the gaming content for a little while then got back into it recently with the new game Resident Evil. That surprised many viewers because they didn’t think that he was going to play it. Pewdiepie’s subscribers have also been getting upset with him because with his videos he uses clickbait and that he isn’t creating videos for fun anymore, they talk about how he’s changed so much now he’s probably only creating videos for money.
Smaller creators don’t have the best editing softwares or the best content but they’re doing something they love. Starting out small is really hard especially when you don’t really know how to do certain things. Tripp Sixx, the small Youtuber I mentioned earlier said that he posts videos for fun and that anyone is welcome to watch them. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve met and I watched most of his videos. When he did a live stream not too long ago I asked him some questions about why he created a channel. He said that was a hard question because he obviously had a YouTube account to just watch other YouTubers before he actually started making videos. He said that he deleted his other channel because he wanted to start posting gaming videos for his new one.
Now moving on to Markiplier, he is also one of the big gamers on YouTube. He has done many charities on his channel and has shows for his fans. Markiplier is always wanting to make his subscribers happy and laughing. A couple years ago his best friend passed away and that affected Markiplier to where he had a hard time posting videos on his channel. Then he decided to announce the news to his subscribers. His subscribers have always supported Mark and when this was announced they gave him time to himself. Markiplier said in a video that he felt like he was letting everyone down because he won’t be himself for a while and that he won’t be posting for a while.
After he had his time to himself he made a video talking about how his goal is to spread positivity and to become a better person. Markiplier plays games that he and his subscribers are interested in. He doesn’t play games that he isn’t interested in and that his viewers aren’t interested in. Ever since he created his channel, he’s had four other accounts that he had before his main one. In his older videos Mark would be playing until the early mornings and then post his videos. People would ask him if he considered this as a job. He answered in a video that to him it isn’t a job, it’s something he likes to do for fun. He didn’t like how people thought that, because it’s more than just a job to him. To me, personally, Markiplier and smaller YouTubers have a couple things in common. For one, they’re creating videos for fun and they also care deeply about their channels.
This leads us to another YouTuber, Jacksepticeye, who’s in between Markiplier and Pewdiepie. His story is a little bit different than the other two. Sean, known as Jacksepticeye, has been a very big fan of Markiplier and has been watching his videos for years. He is also a big fan of Pewdiepie as well. But his inspiration to become a gaming YouTuber came from Markiplier originally, and he wanted to try it out. Later he would bring up Markiplier in his videos and sometimes takes a moment to appreciate him. They talked for the first time on Twitter, it was Markiplier who privately messages him and he found Sean’s channel.
Then Jack finally met Markiplier at Vidcon in person. Vidcon is an event where many YouTubers and fans go meet each other. Later after arriving home Jacksepticeye made a video about Markiplier, talking about how he’s always looked up to him and that he is his inspiration to make gaming videos. Jacksepticeye is also friends with Pewdiepie and the three of them have done several videos together. They are all good friends with each other. They all have started out as small creators and now they’re the top three gaming channels. Sean is like Pewdiepie in a way he’s loud and funny to watch, but he’s also like Markiplier because he has such a big heart for his fans. Sean is also just himself, he has a few difference from both of them. Jacksepticeye to me is more interactive with his fans and he appreciates them a lot. Sean would always say that the fans matter more than the number of views etc.
We all have our differences and we all change as we grow. Pewdiepie has grown differently compared to how he use to be back then when he was just starting out. For Markiplier and Jacksepticeye are also different from back then but they are still the same way. For one Pewdiepie did really care about his subscribers and after his channel starting growing more he changed into someone who is just putting up random videos. Markiplier does more charities and meet ups to meet his fans. He’s changed in a more mature way but he is still the same person from when he started out. This also goes for Jacksepticeye, he’s just like Mark but he was inspired by Mark to do what he does on his channel. Now Markiplier and Jacksepticeye remind me of Tripp Sixx because they all are funny and loud people. The gaming YouTuber Tripp Sixx, he posts videos about his setup for gaming and the product he uses. For many YouTubers they don’t share their equipment with their viewers but I thought that it was really cool that he does that. Tripp Six also cares deeply about his channel and his audience who are watching. All of this goes back to the big and small channels. At the end of the day we are still putting effort into what makes us happy or what is going to make us happy in the future.
Transgender People on YouTube
What is transgender? Transgender is personal identity that doesn’t correspond with their birth sex. In other words it’s also gender identity that differs from their sex. There are many YouTubers out there who are transgender. Two of them I know of is Gigi Gorgeous and Nikita Dragun they are both transgender women, who were assigned male at birth. Before Gigi Gorgeous changed her name it was Gregory and she created a YouTube channel. On her YouTube channel she made videos about her experience and her transition. Back in 2013 Gigi Gorgeous made a video talking about her being transgender. That’s when most of her transition was done. Recently Gigi came out with a documentary behind the camera about her experiences called, ‘This Is Everything’.
As for Nikita Dragun she is the opposite of Gigi. Nikita went through her transition and also created videos about it. She did Q and A’s for her subscribers or just for anyone who wanted to know more about her transition. In 2015 Nikita Dragun announced that she is transgender. Now that Nikita has fully transitioned, her fans and other people ask her what her sexuality is. She says that before transitioning she felt like a girl who was trapped inside a boy’s body and that even though she liked guys before, that didn’t make her gay. For Gigi Gorgeous she came out as gay in 2016 recently. During both of their transitions a male make up artist named Jeffree Star has been talking and supporting them through his channel as well. There has been many YouTubers who have been supporting others who are transgender and some who are thinking of transitioning. Even though they are getting a lot of support they’re also getting a lot negativity. These days we are still working on being open and accepting everyone for who they are. Jazz Jennings is a 16 year old girl who is transgender. Jazz is known for her T.V show called, “I Am Jazz”. She was assigned male at birth as well in 2004 she identified as transgender when she was only four years old. At that age she was one of the youngest kids who identified as transgender. With the support of her family, they let her wear gender neutral clothing. Back in 2011 Jazz came out with a documentary called, ‘I Am Jazz: A Family Transition’ this documentary is about being transgender and her life. Later in 2012 Jazz Jennings came out as pansexual she says that she loves people by personality not looks. Jazz created a YouTube channel to show that transgender people are just the same as everyone else.
We’re all different in some way, not everyone is the same. During this time we have grown by accepting each other for who we are. There is still a long way to go especially for the LGBT+ community. Transgender people are the same as everyone else, they’re human like us. I don’t understand why those people get so much negativity because of one thing that’s different. We are all humans and we all deserve respect.
What Students Actually Think
Have you ever wondered what goes through a classmates head? Recently, I have been interviewing some classmates. I asked them what goes through their mind during school. Two of the students I interviewed talked about college and their futures. They both explain more about what’s important to them and how they are planning to achieve that goal. It all ties back into school and what we are leaning now. Our school is a college based school and in the junior class we are finding colleges that we are interested in going to. As a junior student I’m also thinking about my future and how things will work out.
Kaylie H. is a senior here at Animas High School and during one our classes I decided to interview her. I asked her, “What goes through your mind? It could be something you think about during classes or just in general.” Kaylie took a second to answer before saying, “Well I think about random things like if there was to be a school shooting what would I do and how would I react. I put myself in situations that could possibly happen and think it through. But since I’m a senior I start thinking about my future and how it will go during my classes. What my future is going to be and how the class is going to affect my future. Sometimes I think of someone from my past to come in my life and take me on an adventure. Or I would think about an old friend who is homeschool and I would wonder how they would do in a public school. ”
I interviewed one of my friends named Quinn L. he is a junior here at Animas, and he answered, “I think about how I can afford new clothes from H&M and how far away different holidays are, so I can get money to afford new clothes. I also like to think about how I would answer the phone if it rang and the teacher wasn’t there. I also like to think about what I am doing after school and what is the easiest way to avoid social interaction.”
I also interviewed Holden G, who is a junior in my class. I asked him the same question. He answered, “In class when we are supposed to be reading or working I just start to think about my future. Animas is mainly about college preparation and focusing on getting students on the right path. At this point it’s been a habit of mine to think about my future and plan ahead in terms of college and what I want to do with my life. It’s just thoughts about that. There’s always going to be some distraction like drama with friends or stuff like that but for the most part thinking about my future and thinking about my life. Sometimes it’s about what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the day.” From these interviews I learned more about each person and how important their education is to them. Each of these students I have a class with and before interviewing them I didn’t know two of them that well, except for one. I don’t really talk to Holden and Kaylie but after the interview was over I talked to them more. They’re really nice people to talk to and very funny. The other person I know is Quinn, I’ve known him since the beginning of junior year, he’s really funny and interesting to talk to. This article was interesting and fun to write I got to know more of from my classmates.