For those of you who happen to keep up with my weekly articles here at Odyssey (shoutout to you, Nana), you may or may not have noticed that at the end of each one, I bid farewell to my readers with the phrase "stay rad, stay bad." Now, as much as I would like to take credit for creating phrase, and as much I would like to claim the bragging rights for being super cool and edgy and different, doing so would make me a liar, and, not to mention a huge a**hole. And I'm not that lame.
You see, my "signature sign-off" isn't actually mine at all. The phrase originated from and was inspired by my favorite human on the internet (and probably my favorite human on the planet, tbh), Sarah Baska, or, as most know her as, Kinda Sarah.
Sarah is an 18-year-old Viner-turned-YouTuber from the West Coast, and her media content is current, random, and hilarious. Sarah was born in Huntington Beach, California, and raised with her older sister, Rachel, who is featured in some of her videos as well. She grew up in a small town in Oregon and worked at a trampoline park, which are of course also featured in some of her Vines. Sarah's always enjoyed making YouTube videos in her spare time--she started Vining when she was about 16 years old, but her account's popularity didn't start to really take off until the summer of 2014. Since then, she has gained over 600,000,000 loops on Vine, 87,000 subscribers on YouTube, 150,000 followers, collectively, on her Twitter and Instagram accounts, and has made a special appearance at the 2015 Video Music Awards.
(Don't mind my tears. I'm a just proud daughter.)
But that's enough early life history and statistics, I think. (Mainly because I feel like I know too much about her, and if Sarah ever sees this, I'm going to feel really embarrassed and creepy.) So, let's talk about why Kinda Sarah is my all-time favorite internet celebrity, and why she should be yours, too.
1. She is literally the funniest person in the history of the universe.
I'm not even exaggerating a little bit. The first time I ever witnessed the comical genius that is Sarah Baska was when my friend sent me video of her first ever Q&A. There was talk of her favorite color, favorite songs and, of course, One Direction's penis sizes. Every Saturday since then has been an endless stream of laughter, and constant texting conversations with my best friend consisting of nothing but incoherent sentences.
Also, in one of her most recent Q&A videos, she answered one of my questions. I totally didn't scream or anything, and I definitely take a screenshot and send it to every person that I have ever come in contact with... Ahem.
2. She is so hashtag relatable.
Honestly, I think that Sarah knows me even better than I know myself. Like, she just gets me, you know? She undoubtedly takes the term "TRUUU" to another level. Every weird emotion, every creepy thought about my crush, every erotic fantasy about my favorite celebrity--Sarah has also experienced.
Thanks for making me feel not so lonely, girl.
3. She's 1D AF.
No one understands excessive, all-consuming, soul-crushing fangirling like this woman. Whenever I feel like crying over One Direction, I know that I can always her YouTube channel and find something to get me going. Besides the fact that she absolutely loves 1D, I think my favorite thing about her is that she doesn't care who knows it. She knows what it's like to be ridiculed for being "one of those girls," but she could not care less what others think about her. She embraces her passions, whatever they may be, fully, and she has inspired me to do the same.
4. She is super hot and gives the best beauty advice.
I mean... Just... Look at her. Is she even real? Is she a figment of my imagination? Is her hair made out of kitten fur, angel tears, and the souls of my enemies? Because I'm 99.7% sure that it is.
In all seriousness, Sarah Baska is gorgeous. Like many YouTubers of our generation, she has a couple beauty and tutorial videos, but the main focus of them isn't so much the instructions or product suggestions—it's her stressing to her viewers how important it is to know their own self-worth. Sarah makes sure that we know that everyone is different and everyone has different styles and preferences, but we're all hot no matter what. And, to me, that is far more sincere and valuable that some celebrity pushing me to buy some certain brand of eyeshadow.
5. She treats her viewers like her friends, not just like her fans.
Even though Kinda Sarah is extremely prevalent in today's media, and has her social presence grow more and more every day, I have never felt so close to a public figure. Whenever Sarah is out at a concert or an event, she has tons of people hugging her and talking to her and wanting to take pictures with her, but she doesn't make it seem like a chore at all—she genuinely enjoys meeting us just as much as we enjoy meeting her. She is always replying to tweets and video comments, and you can tell that her "fanbase" is something that is very important to her. For that, I have so much respect for her.
(Also, I haven't met her yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the whole world will know when I do.)
In conclusion (because this is basically a formal essay), if you've made it through this entire thing and Sarah Baska still isn't your favorite human in existence, you are lying to yourself, and I can no longer associate with you.
No, I'm totally kidding... Sort of.
Anyway, Sarah, if you, for some unknown, totally impractical reason, ever get to read this, I just want to say what's up. Also, I admire you so, so, so much. You know, just in case writing this article didn't exemplify that enough. I think that you are absolutely wonderful, and even though we live on opposite coasts, we will be friends. Even if I have to hitchhike all the way from North Carolina to Oregon, we are going to sit down, watch "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" and "Never Back Down," (because I know that those are your favorite movies) eat macaroni and cheese (because that is my favorite food), buy tickets to see One Direction when they come back from their hiatus, and cry over how daddy Harry is.
Aaand that sounded a lot less weird in my head. Whatever. I'm just gonna stop while I'm ahead.
As always, friends, thank you for reading If you wanna check out some of Sarah's videos (and trust me, you do), here's the link to her YouTube channel.
Enjoy.
