Many students show their individuality differently, whether it is through art, music or sports. Many students have a way to channel who they really are and present it to others. Recently, videography has become a common way to do this.

Junior Maggey Atcheson has been involved with YouTube from a young age and has expanded into running three successful channels.  “I started doing the one with my cousins when we were little and we were messing around with my dad’s video camera,” Atcheson said. “We put it on the computer and edited it and then we thought it would be cool to start a YouTube channel and just kept going with it and it started growing.”

Originally she and her cousins ran a collaboration channel alongside their own, which meant that they worked with other girls to form ideas and create videos together. This resulted in the success of their own channel which now has 176,638 subscribers.

“[My cousins and I] joined a collab channel with seven other girls…you auditioned for it and there was 600 people who tried out for it,” Atcheson said. “[The subscribers] found out about (our other channel) and those followers started going to TheCheernastics2 and the following grew from there.”

As the channel with her cousins flourished, Atcheson went on to create her personal channel in order build up her confidence and express herself better, so her subscribers could get to know her on a more personal level.  “I definitely think it’s easier to talk through a camera to my fans and I guess I’m a little different on camera and I can be more of myself than I am in person,” Atcheson said.

Much like Atcheson, junior Audrey Ide decided to start a YouTube channel spontaneously and has two active channels. “I was bored one summer like in sixth grade, so I decided I like making videos, so I’m going put them up on YouTube,” Ide said.

Ide expressed that she was a bit shy in front of the camera and does not like watching herself. “I think I’m probably the same [on and off camera],” Ide said. “You get to create videos and you can express your creativity.”

Despite the difficulty of being a bit shy, she has discovered ways to work through it. “I like to pick a song I like or that describes how I’m feeling and edit with pictures and video,” Ide said. “I love vlogging. If I wasn’t so shy I would love to talk about lots of different things,” Ide said.

Making videos and putting them on YouTube is just one way students show off their personalities. Junior Kallie Beebe is an avid artist and draws when she wants to capture moments and emotions, similar to many other vloggers.

“(I express) myself through drawing or various forms of art and writing,” Beebe said. “(I think YouTube) is good because some people express themselves through talking to large and audiences and it’s a great way to connect with people they usually wouldn’t.”