A face to the voice
thoughts on starting a YouTube Channel soon
(This is my first post with audio, so we’ll see whether I make a transcript for it or not)
This is the first time anyone here is hearing my voice and…not sure how I feel about that! I don’t think I have any sort of…particular accent (at least only to the people that don’t know whether I’m American or English and I’m English…trust).
A few days ago - about 2 or 3 days ago - I was in a lecture and I got a message from my boss saying he basically wants me to become a part of the inner circle of the community that I now work in (which is an acting community) and that his aim is to have everyone on YouTube with their own monetised YouTube channel. Interestingly, I have had a YouTube channel before!
Back in primary school, I had always been a big fan of YouTube. I hadn’t gotten into social media like that yet. I wanted to wait until I was actually 13 (or at least around that age) before I got onto Snapchat, before I got onto Instagram, I found all that (age regulations for social media) very important. So, I leaned towards YouTubers. I loved MyLifeAsEva, Michelle Phan, I loved Buzzfeed…Yes, Buzzfeed. No matter what anybody says about Buzzfeed, I’m not going to lie, they had their good moments. They really did have their good moments. It was full of millennial humour, but they really did have their good moments! I wasn’t big on… talking…with other people? At least, I didn’t really have the opportunity to talk to a lot of people my age or be around a lot of people my age outside of school because my parents were very overprotective. So, the most leeway I had to interacting with other people was going to the park. When I went to the park, even though it was approx. 3/4 mins away from the flat I lived in, it’d either be me and my little sister (5 years younger than me) have a tiny bit of time alone in the park, playing in the park before our mum came to get us, OR our mum would be on a bench watching us play. And then kids would be like ‘Is that your mum?’ (2x) and I’d be like…yeah. Then they’d be like ‘oh…hey!’*
*You could tell that it was kind of uncool…but it is what it is.
So I really thought that YouTube would be the community I was looking for and I’d be able to build something from there. I put out about 1 or 2 music covers. They didn’t do really well because, in my opinion, I didn’t look at the songs that’d work best with my voice. I was also a fan of Sophia Grace, so I did 2 covers that Sophia Grace did - we have wildly different voices btw. One of them was ‘Work’ (Rihanna ft. Drake) and the other I just can’t remember right now. So because of that, it was more like the song was wearing me out instead of me singing the song. I did a room tour, which was very awkward because me and my sister shared a room, which was very tiny. We had bunk beds and I just showed my bunk bed and the stuff around our room. So that was…that was interesting, to say the least. That YouTube channel lasted for about 2/3 weeks because it was all being done under my mum’s nose until a guy from my primary school watched it, told his dad, his dad told my mum. She watched every single video I had posted and forced me to delete every one…and I was punished for having a YouTube channel. A few years down the line, she found out people make money off YouTube and asked me to make one again. I said ‘You’ve kind of traumatised that experience for me, so I’m okay!’. Now, I’m being asked to make a YouTube channel again! Which is, again, really really funny.
Honestly, in terms of content, I’m not sure what kind of content I’d make. Whether it’d be offshoots of my Substack posts, storytimes, rants, music covers…I’m not sure yet. But one of my uncertainties is now having a face to the voice, a face to the words, just something you can easily associate me with when I’m putting myself out there.
The thing about Substack is that even though I have my face on my profile and I’m very candid about my experiences, it’s…substack. I don’t expect a large amount of viewership from Substack. I don’t expect my parents or relatives to be on Substack because they don’t read! They don’t read! Straight up. They don’t read. But YouTube…that’s something everybody has. Even if you have a short attention span, all it takes is someone saying at 2m36s, Halle says this and I’d probably be confronted on it and I just don’t want to have that sort of experience. And it’s so weird (to have to think about) because I’m at a weird stage of my life. I don’t want to make content that’s for children and young teens. I want to make content for late teens and 20+. But I don’t know how to draw the line without becoming too explicit/candid and not having a conversation spark from relatives. I’m Ghanaian. The amount of leeway needed to be as candid to my family about my experiences is (nonexistent). That’s one of the uncertainties that I have.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of someone consuming my work and thinking ‘I understand this, I understand you, we understand each other’. That’s a feeling everyone desires from all social media. Even though a lot of people criticise social media, you can’t ignore the benefits. The benefits are the sense of community. I want to make that form of community. I’m just not sure how I’m going to translate the community I want with the protection needed from conversations I don’t want to have about my life. Even if I do have a conversation about what I’m doing now, I really couldn’t give a damn. I’m 19. I’m actually grown. I’m not grown grown where I can threaten to move out (yet). But I’m grown enough that when I make a decision in my personal life, I’m not exempt from advice but if I feel I’m being insulted/disrespected, I have the privilege of saying I’m not going to listen to you. The reason why I have a better relationship with my parents is because if our conversations are no longer constructive and just shaming me, I’m not going to listen. It’s how I manage in personal/professional situations and it suits me very well. I just won’t listen.
I would love recommendations for late teens/20s bracket content to build a community (from YouTube) without being too explicit, avoiding uncomfortable conversations but keeping leeway to show myself! I’m thinking of basing my channel on my Substack posts because I believe they’re quite diverse in material. It’s been reviews, reflections on memory, assumptions on life…all pretty metaphysical/philosophical. We shall see about that.
Thank you for reading/listening! Yes, I ended up making a transcript, clearly. Pls comment any recommendations/tips OR if you have anything you’d want me to cover in a video!
-Halle
Pretty voice. Interesting article. Looking forward to more <3