So here is where I start to brag about my best friend and then tell you what it's like to be friends with this crazy girl.
A few years ago when I was 16 years old, a blonde girl sat down next to me in our high school choir class. We started a casual conversation about the dreadfulness of summer ending and how excited we were to be upperclassmen.. and before I knew it, this girl was my best friend. Sarah is by far one of the goofiest people I know. From the very beginning of our friendship, we have been beyond weird together and our teachers in our mutual classes from that point on probably loved/hated us because we were so distracting. But they secretly knew that we were hilarious. Sarah is just like me in so many ways and gets me like no one else does, but there is also something about her that a lot of people know her for. My best friend, Sarah, has about 384,000 subscribers on YouTube for her beauty channel, BeautyPolice101.
Pretty cool, right? When I first met Sarah she was just starting to really get into her channel online. Sarah sits in front of a camera on a tripod in her bedroom and talks to the world about anything and everything. Her channel is primarily a beauty, fashion, lifestyle channel. She makes makeup tutorials, talks about the newest beauty products that are hitting stores, and also vlogs her life daily (she takes around a camera and shows her viewers what she does during her daily everyday life)
During my time of being friends with Sarah, I have not only watched her grow, but I have watched her career grow in more ways than one. She continues to inspire people everyday according to her comment section, and people find so much beauty in her virtual presence and the optimism they feel when watching her videos.
Something I have learned through my time of being best friends with this girl is that people idolize her in so many ways. Sarah has gotten recognized in public plenty of times when we are together and as cool as it is, it's always a little strange to me. Sometimes I forget that my completely normal and down to earth best friend is also followed by about 384,000 other humans on the internet. I myself have even been in a few situations where I have been approached and asked if I'm "BeautyPolice101's best friend" (which is always pretty funny). I have even been to a YouTube convention with her, BeautyCon NYC, which is essentially a huge gathering for YouTuber's, their viewers and makeup brands. I watched my totally normal friend from Ohio sign so many autographs and take countless pictures with her fans and viewers and it was pretty fascinating and cool to watch. In situations like these, it always makes me take a real step back and a realization hits me that every single famous person we all idolize and praise every single day as a society is completely normal too.
Sure, it's so easy for us to say this. "Famous people are regular people too blah blah blah." But seeing an example of this first hand has truly changed the way I look at it. My best friend is an extraordinary human being who is changing the world and impacting lives in so many ways. People refer to her however as "goals" and post endless comments about how her life is perfect. This happens with just about every pretty person that is well known in the world.
By being friends with an internet famous person, I have learned that what people see on the outside simply is not what the situation is all the time. People are people. Humans are humans. We all have flaws and I think that as a society as a whole, we should stop comparing ourselves and envying the lives of others. Sarah is inspiring to many individuals out there and I think that that it is so beautiful. Inspiration is beautiful; but never confuse inspiration for envy. I could not be more proud of my best friend and all that she does. Being friends with her has taught me so much about the way teens today need to look at themselves and others. I know Sarah Burgett will continue to change the world and the lives of all those that look up to her in the best way possible.
You are you for a reason. Never find the spark in another human more beautiful than the one within yourself.
