as a sophomore in high school in 2006, my love of film and the internet collided when i discovered youtube. It gave me a direct connection to people all over the world, people who looked like me, who I never saw in films or TV.

i made my own videos because it was fun and it seemed cool to get a lot of subscribers. i learned that if i made “response” videos to my favorite and popular youtubers, i could gain followers quickly.

eventually, i became one of the top 100 most subscribed channels in the comedians category — though this only took a few thousand subscribers at the time.