Five of the Best: 2016 NextUp Winners

Don’t know the 2016 NextUp winners? Well, you do now!

If you don’t already know, YouTube NextUp is a competition for content creators with less than 100,000 subscribers. It’s aimed at helping smaller channels grow and hone their professional video skills. Winners not only receive funding for new, super-cool equipment, but also secure a place at the week-long YouTube Creator Camp, which we desperately want to attend!

This year alone, 16 channels were selected in the UK, meaning that there are 16 more YouTubers for us to love and become obsessed with. However, 16 channels is a lot, and if you didn’t know them before, you might not know quite where to start. But fear not, TenEighty is here! We’ve become obsessed with these 16 channels and through an incredibly difficult elimination process, have selected five creators to form what we like to call the “NextUp 2016 Starter Pack”.

So here they are, Five of the Best: 2016 NextUp Winners!

WHO AM I? – doyouknowellie

First on our list is Elisa Spigariol, an Italian creator living in London and all-around inspiring creative person! Ellie does everything – and we mean everything! – from covers to book reviews to beautiful, eloquent reflective pieces about her life.

We love this video because of Elisa’s unapologetic honesty and her poignant commentary on identity. She brings up the idea of self-awareness, questioning if we can ever truly know who we are. It’s a vulnerable reflection that had us sitting back and asking the same questions of ourselves: Who are we? Can we ever know? Is it important to find out?

We may have fallen into the lake of existential questions, but that’s the reason we can’t get enough of this video! Besides offering some seasoned advice to tie up the conversation, we’re inspired to do some similar soul searching. What will we find? No idea. But at least we’ll have Elisa there to help us along the way!

VEGAN BREAKFAST: EASY FRENCH TOAST – Cheap Lazy Vegan

Next up (get it?) is the lovely Rose Lee, whose videos will make you so hungry that you won’t be able to finish one without running to the kitchen! Now, you know that we here at TenEighty HQ are always on the go – and by “always on the go”, we mean “in the middle of an eternal YouTube marathon” – so we never seem to have a lot of time to cook.

Well, we didn’t think we had enough time. That is, before we found Rose’s channel. She has so many simple, delicious recipes that we’ve started eating like royalty, which is a huge improvement over our instant noodles. This video is a perfect example of how easy Rose has made it for us. Those pancakes? Delicious. That peanut butter stir-fry? Simply to die for. From breakfast to dinner, we have more recipes than we know what to do with. We want to make them all right now!

Rose also has a great collection of videos on her channel showing what she eats in a day, along with inexpensive food hauls and stunning travel vlogs. All are helpful looks into her vegan lifestyle and are never devoid of positivity. The best part is that trying to be vegan doesn’t even feel like effort. We get to save animals and eat French toast whilst we do it!

LEARN TO UNICYCLE IN 2 HOURS AND 38MINS – Mike Boyd

If you haven’t previously met Mike Boyd, be prepared to believe that anything is possible. His channel is devoted to learning challenging skills in remarkably short periods of time – and we mean remarkably short!

Watch in anticipation to see if Mike will actually be able to do the activity he’s learning (hint: he usually is able to and quite skilfully, might we add) and it’s great fun to cheer him on and share in his victories. He also has a great sense of humour about each of the challenges. We know we shouldn’t laugh when someone falls off a unicycle, but it’s actually pretty funny!

Plus, whenever Mike learns something new, he looks at the camera with such elation that it makes us want to join in. So not only will we have to learn how to cook Rose’s French toast, we’ll also have to get our lazy butts up and pluck up the courage to try unicycling whilst we make it!

Are Instagram & Photography Aesthetically Pointless? – PhilosophyTube

If there’s anything we love more than French toast and unicycles, it’s philosophy. Have you ever questioned the aesthetic validity of your Instagram feed of fancy coffee shops? Us neither. At least until we watched this video by Olly Lennard.

Olly started his channel with the goal of helping us to actually apply philosophy to our daily lives, as opposed to merely studying it. We love this specific video because it merges higher philosophical concepts with photography, which has become more ubiquitous than ever because of our general obsession with Instagram.

We’re asked to confront the question: When I look at a photo, am I interested in the photo itself or am I interested in the subject? Or rather, when I look at that photo of coffee, am I interested in the coffee as a subject or the aesthetic way the photo captured the coffee on that wood table with my MacBook and fancy macaroon? Olly comes to a few conclusions, but essentially leaves it open ended. So we’re able to ponder this question for the rest of the day (or week). That’s the power of PhilosophyTube!

Just don’t enter into a Dan Howell-type existential crisis while pondering his questions.

The Curse of Crabingsworth Manor – Thelaserbearguy

What better way to end our list than with some top-notch animation from Matt Ley, who many of you will know from his work on Eddsworld. The Curse of Crabingsworth Manor is one of our favourite cartoons from Matt. We mean, have you ever seen animated characters speak so fast with such wit? There’s a bit of dark comedy, a bit of slapstick and some amazingly posh accents. If Crabingsworth and his detective remind you of Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs, you’re definitely not alone!

The entirety of Matt’s channel is equally well produced, with stunning colour and sound design, quick comedy and on-point characters. Shenanigans and tomfoolery ensure and you’ll be laughing the whole way through. Seriously, you won’t be able to stop!

The best thing about Matt’s work is that you can watch his videos over and over again and notice something new every time. What’s better than a lifetime of laughs in each three-minute video? That’s right, nothing.

So there you have it…

Five of the Best: 2016 NextUp Winners! We can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was to narrow it down to just five creators – everyone on the list is so talented. If you like this starter pack, don’t forget to check out full list, and let the YouTube marathons continue!

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