Quotes About Authenticity

Who I was was not acceptable to black L.A. youth: the way I spoke and my sense of humor. Everybody else had relaxers and pressed hair. I wore my hair in an Afro puff. Nappy. The way I dressed. It was all about name brands at the time in L.A. I had no idea. All those things, I failed miserably at.

Something like 'Sex And The City' was insulting - women all clawing on to their youth when there's such ripe territory in honestly exploring women's lives as they get older.

Since the 1960s, mainstream media has searched out and co-opted the most authentic things it could find in youth culture, whether that was psychedelic culture, anti-war culture, blue jeans culture. Eventually heavy metal culture, rap culture, electronica - they'll look for it and then market it back to kids at the mall.

With actors, all our ages are out there for all to see - you can't hide anything, really. And it's kind of a relief. This is my age, this is what I look like without makeup on - who cares? That youth culture - that lying about your age - it's all denial of death anyway.

I'm not the sexy girl. I'm more youthful and innocent, the girl who wears jeans and T-shirts and sneakers. But fans have accepted that I'm a tomboy. There's a different group of people who find that attractive.

There are so many voices on YouTube, and there are incredible creators that are popular for a reason. And although it's great to be inspired by them, nobody is going to subscribe to a second-rate version of them. It's really important to put your best foot forward and be your best self because you will always be the number one version of you.

Before I was working professionally, I would do YouTube covers. But as a creative person, it was really hard for me when I wasn't releasing my own music. That felt unnatural to me.

I grew up watching YouTube and it was tough feeling like everyone I watched had a perfect life. I couldn't help but feel that my life sucked when I watched their videos.

I'm a strange person - I don't really get rewards out of how many hits I have on YouTube. I love it, and I'm grateful, and it's important to me. But does it equal peace within me? No, it doesn't.

We have entered a time when a writer's first idea is his best idea, when the first thing a reporter hears is the first thing that she reports. We live in a time now when we have seen major television networks take video off of YouTube and broadcast it to millions of Americans without verifying whether the video had been fabricated or not.

In the beginning of my YouTube channel, I feel like I was doing what everyone else was doing, and I kind of felt very pressured to fit in with everyone.

YouTube videos, they're more personal and more real than a commercial on TV.

The thing that has always struck me is that there has always been a bit of a hole at YouTube when it comes to authenticity, human emotion, fun and play.

YouTube has always been a diary for me. I'm here to share what I do, share my life, and if people want to watch, more power to them. But regardless of my intention, if people are looking at what I do and am treating it like I'm a role model, it doesn't matter whether or not I want to be.

There's something about YouTube, where you're not being anybody but yourself. You have the opportunity to start as yourself from the very beginning. From the very first video, you choose what you say, and you choose what's right and wrong for your presentation of yourself.

To me, what's really an important difference between traditional entertainment and digital - on YouTube specifically - is that people thrive when they're authentic about themselves.

There's no Hollywood tradition of maybe not telling people that you're gay to protect your future ambitions. The YouTube world is a little unprecedented. I think what people are seeing is that the more true to yourself you are, the more an audience will connect with you.

I'm so fascinated by YouTube culture. I have no idea how it's working, but more and more people are becoming Internet famous, and it is because it allows you to have an atmosphere in which you feel comfortable to be yourself, which you might not get otherwise.

I'm not trying to brag, but if I did expose my life, it would be a good YouTube series.

I'm having a lot of fun playing myself out there on YouTube and showing who I am and getting to do projects that make me happy versus satisfy what people think a girl should be doing.

I definitely have to censor myself a lot of the time because I'm used to just being a loose cannon, and I'm used to doing and saying whatever I want because I work on YouTube.

I think online, like on YouTube and stuff, people could pretty much say whatever they want. They have no filter in their brain, because no one knows who they are. They're totally anonymous, so they could say whatever they want. But when they're in person with me, they wouldn't say those things, because I can actually see who they are.

There's just something, maybe it's the authenticity. I think that's the appeal and why people choose to watch really unpolished and unprofessional videos on YouTube over these multi-million dollar television shows.

I was 27 when I uploaded my first YouTube video. I had a master's degree and was running a small business. I had had good jobs and bad jobs and was fairly secure in my identity and understood who I was. When my audience or the algorithm wanted me to be something, I knew with a fair amount of certainty whether I wanted to be that thing or not.