From the very start of college, I became obsessed with make-up (or beauty, in general) and I found my happiness on YouTube. There were so many beauty influencers that had such beautiful creativity, or just stunning personalities, that I became addicted to watching them. I started following them on every social media site and I slowly started feeling like I was getting to know them more and more. Never would I have thought that I would have found my biggest influences through YouTube or become so involved with their own lives. I would start talking to my friends about how amazing they are and eventually they started falling in love with them too. Not only do they review products and show new techniques every week, but they also have sit-down videos where they genuinely talk about their lives and make-up is just part of the hobby that both of you share. It’s not uncommon for YouTubers to have collaborations with major make-up brands, but the excitement or tears in their eyes when they talk about it with their viewers is what makes them worth watching in the first place.

These three YouTubers have inspired me to be passionate about my hobby and get to admire people that have lived out their dreams in pursuing make-up:

1) Jaclyn Hill

Jaclyn Hill was one of the first beauty gurus that I started following on YouTube, and until this day I get just as excited with every video that she posts or new technique she shows her viewers. She has always been the type of person to be completely open to her viewers and share how much she had struggled in the beginning of her marriage with her husband, due to financial issues. Anxiety has taken over her life, which I can relate to on a great level, and she deals with it in every positive way that she can. I was following her for about three years before she did a collaboration with the make-up company, Becca, and I remember feeling the excitement and happiness for her as if she was my own friend. During the reveal party that Becca had hosted for her when they revealed all of the products they had worked on together, Jaclyn Hill gave such an emotional speech about following her dreams and never stopping until it came true. Not only is she living a positive and healthier lifestyle, but she also has a radiant personality to go along with it. She started from setting up a camera in her room and hoping that someone would see her talent to having almost four million subscribers on YouTubers and working with major makeup brands.

2) Manny MUA

I found Manny through a video collaboration that he did with Jaclyn Hill and his personality completely won me over from the first fifteen seconds. A lot of people are still not very accepting of men wearing make-up, which is sad and discouraging for men that actually want to try it, but Manny genuinely does not care about a lot of people’s opinions. He was working with MAC when he had created his Instagram account and had a huge follow spree, which shocked him enough to want to share his talent on YouTube. He is not afraid to be himself and will turn down opportunities with brands that do not allow him to be his truest form of himself. Not only is that admirable, in the sense of him turning down an opportunity that would have ended up in a payment for him, but it also shows how confident he is in himself. He recently was in a Maybelline advertisement, which makes him the first male brand ambassador for that company. I can only hope to be as fearless as him, in terms of rocking a bold lip or loving the truest form of myself and not being afraid of being different.

3) Tati Westbrook

Lastly, the most recent beauty guru that I have stumbled across is Tati Westbrook. She is, hands-down, the best person to listen to when shopping for any kind of make-up. All of her reviews are bluntly honest and she is not afraid to put down high end companies if she believes that the product that they put out is not worth it. She has created so many different sections of her YouTube channel and she has saved me SO much money. Not many people will outright tell you that a high end company is not worth a penny of your money because she will swatch and wear it all day to prove that point. Her personality is always bubbly and she barely ever allows any negativity to really get to her, which is tough for a job that allows people to scrutinize so freely in the comment sections. Her husband, James, is such a huge support system and even goes on some of her segments to try face masks and skin care products that show the effect on different skin types, other than her own. Her drive to upload videos daily, Monday to Friday, is a work ethic that is so greatly admired by me because editing, sitting down to record a video, and publishing it at the same time every day is hard work. Tati is incredible at what she does and her huge follow spree on social media sites shows no different.