The Fashion and Beauty panel took place on Saturday at Summer In The City. It featured creators including Melanie Murphy, Joseph Harwood and Alexa Losey. It was chaired by Patricia Bright.
The panel, which was held in Panel Room B, was made up of Patricia Bright, Joseph Harwood, Emily-Victoria Canham, Alexa Losey, Melanie Murphy and Rhiannon Ashlee.
The panel started off answering questions that Patricia had prepared, which touched on their inspirations, whether they just do fashion and beauty videos, and the line between their content and their social lives. She then opened up the floor for questions, which saw the YouTubers talking about issues such as the diversity when it comes to fashion and beauty videos on YouTube, as well as whether they feel a lot of pressure to stay positive, because of the topics they cover.
When talking about why she started beauty-related videos, Melanie said: “I did a lot of videos to do with acne, and they’re the ones that made my channel take off. I struggled really badly with it my whole life and I still do even though I’m 26 now. That lead me into exploring other areas around make-up, like why I wear it and why it makes me feel more confident.”
Patricia and Joseph were then asked about diversity on YouTube, especially when it comes to beauty videos.
“I think there’s a pocket for everyone,” Patricia said. “You find what you’re passionate about, so my passion is beauty and makeup and fashion, and there’s going to be other girls who connect with me because of that underlying passion rather than skin tone or background.”
Joseph then touched on the subject of diversity, saying: “I’ve always wanted who I am to just be a small fraction of what I do. The fact that I’m a guy and I look fly as a girl is just an extra. I think it’s important to just have the confidence to be yourself and not to edit yourself, because you don’t know who is watching you. I have so much love in my audience of people that are in the gay and trans community that want to look up to people. They want to see people in the media, they want to see Caitlyn Jenner on the front of Vanity Fair doing her thing.”
The panel were then asked about the pressure to stay positive in their videos, which Melanie said there was a lot of.
“I definitely do [stay positive] because a lot of people who watch me are going through really hard times and I know that from the comments and emails I get. They tell me that they come to my channel for positivity so I definitely feel that even if I’m having a down day.”
Rhiannon continued the discussion saying: “Because I share quite a lot on my vlogging channel I’m always quite honest and if I’m having a really crappy day I will say, but there are a lot of times I think, ‘Okay I need to be positive’.”
Photos: Nathan Li.
Want more from Summer in the City 2015?
Check out our Summer in the City tag, where you’ll find all of our coverage of this year’s event.
You might also be interested in:
- Funding Your Project Panel at Summer in the City 2015
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