Every year, Bill and Melinda Gates write a letter which highlights the goals of their foundation and describes global and needs and issues. Each letter is meant to raise awareness and call us to action. This year, the letter is addressed to their friend and fellow philanthropist Warren Buffett and talks about poverty. It’s an incredible letter and I recommend you read it. Here’s the link to the full letter.

So before this year, I knew the Gates release an annual letter and I generally skim it, but I don’t always read it all the way through. This year, though, I was persuaded. As much as I’d like to say it was because I suddenly became a better person and wanted to be more knowledgeable about global affairs, I can’t. It was because of YouTube. And not even the trending tab of YouTube (because honestly, I don’t look at that). No, it had made its way into my normal subscriptions.

The best part, I think, about the videos were that they weren’t forced. The videos are not of Bill and/or Melinda making cameos on random YouTube channels and offering a quick, shameless plug for their letter. The videos are not that different than other videos on these channels. Rather, the topic wove its way seamlessly into the content, both entertaining and educating their viewers, which is the perfect way to do things, in my opinion.

Here are a few of my favorites:

This one's really straight forward. John Green (who, you might be surprised to learn, has done more than just write The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns) is just really optimistic about human life.

ASAPScience talks about how the rest of the world differs from the United States, how the earth differs from the universe, that tea is more popular than coffee...and other facts you probably wouldn’t have known otherwise.

MatPat from Film Theory (and Game Theory) tackles the topic of diseases by making a film theory...about Batman? Yep. It sounds like a weird parallel, but he makes it work. Just beware of the bad puns.

Did these convince you to read the letter yet? Popular YouTubers have a great amount of influence on their viewers, whether they like it or not (and whether you like it or not). And this isn’t even a one-time thing. ASAPScience is obviously a science channel. CrashCourse covers an abundance of school subjects (they’re starting mythology next!). The Philip DeFranco show reports news (conventional and internet) while maintaining impartiality between the right and the left side. YouTube is a pretty incredible platform which has the ability to teach and engage. And the people who learn do so willingly. After all, they clicked the videos, right?

There is some weird stuff on the internet. I don’t think anyone would ever dispute that. YouTube in particular is known for its strange content (affectionately known as the “weird part of YouTube” or “that part of YouTube”). I'm neither proud nor ashamed that I'm more educated because of YouTube. It's simply a new medium to reach people and I think that's aweseome. Let it never be said that people can’t learn and become better people through watching YouTube videos.

Let’s just end on Lilly (aka IISuperwomanII), who had the opportunity to collaborate with Bill Gates himself.