Two months ago, I decided to start up a YouTube account. At first, it was going to be used as a portfolio to showcase my broadcast content; however, when I got accepted into the Disney College Program last month, I had another (exciting!) reason to create and release video content. Since starting up my channel, I've been more aware of what I want and plan to release online and what I want to be kept behind closed doors. And because of this, it's made me think of certain "patterns" I frequently see on YouTube within the past few years...

I've seen many of couples on YouTube break up, and some of them upload announcement videos are either both parties in the couple or separate videos with details of the unfortunate news - and sometimes the reasoning why the relationship had to come to an end. If there's one specific video that has recently caught my attention is Colleen Ballinger's divorce announcement.

Although I don't avidly follow her personal channel or her other channel as Miranda Sings, it was definitely a shocker to see and heartbreaking to watch. Then it also makes me think how many relationships are openly shared on YouTube either because either the users want to showcase it or because watchers keep requesting videos such as the "Boyfriend/Girlfriend Tag" or even challenge videos done by the couples.

Besides relationships being heavily shown on YouTube, I'm also starting to notice a lot of YouTubers showcasing their families on their channel. In certain cases, some families even choose to document the child's growth, and sometimes it's from either the beginning of the pregnancy or the minute the children are born. As much as I wish for some of the parents not to do this due to the negative effects of babies and young children being exposed online, it's not my ultimate decision (or in fact, anyone else's decision) to tell them what to do and what not to do. It's a hard truth to realize, but sometimes it's better to accept it and move on. Fortunately, there are some wedded couples or soon-to-be parents who choose not to do this...

I've been an on-and-off watcher of this one channel called Texan in Tokyo, which features Grace and Ryosuke Mineta, an interracial couple documenting their lives in Japan. They discuss about a wide array of subjects such as living in Japan as a foreigner, how to survive in a long-distance relationship, and how they created their comic books. Just recently, the two put separate videos on their channel with the title (in Japanese), "The End."

Before watching Grace's video, I thought to myself, "Oh no, did they decide to separate!?" To say the least, I was anxious to see another video full of tears and heartbreak. But no, my prediction was completely off - both Grace and Ryosuke made the decision to quit YouTube because they wanted to start a family. Grace also wrote a detailed blog post about their original motive of starting up the channel, their personal choices they made while creating video content, realizing their time on YouTube was almost up, and how they plan to go on with their future without a YouTube channel.

Although this isn't the most popular reason why to leave YouTube (and I bet it was hard decision for them to come to terms with), I applaud them for coming to an agreement that works best for them, AND they stayed true to what they believed was the right thing to do.

So while these two "patterns" are very different, it makes me go back to the original motives of why I started my YouTube channel, and what I want to release online for all of the Internet to see. Not only is it a broadcast portfolio, I'm also using it as an opportunity to become more comfortable in front of a camera. After all, I would love to continue my career as an on-air personality!

I'd also love to showcase my loved ones/social circle every now and again, and I only plan to do so if they're 100% comfortable with it. At the same time, I'd prefer not to overexpose them on my channel because there are certain moments and memories I would rather keep to myself, and I'm sure they would understand and agree as well to an extent. Additionally, I have no intentions of telling the world of YouTube if something extremely unfortunate happens in my life (i.e. a relationship break-up or the death of a family member/loved one) - that's something very personal to me and other people involved in the situation, and it's absolutely not the viewers' business to know all of the details.

It's a tough choice, and it might be hard to follow every now and again (and who knows, maybe my mindset will change in the future). But for now, this is what works best for me... And that's all that should matter.