People always love to peg someone famous as their role models. Names like Taylor Swift or Eli Manning are usually thrown around, but to me these people aren't role models as much as they are "unobtainable goals" models. Honestly, I don't even find actors, singers or athletes role-model material, because people either fall in love with their character or their persona that has been crafted by a public relations team.

YouTubers are where the real role models are, and Zoe Sugg is my role model of choice. Now, before you start attacking my point by bringing up people like Sam Pepper, there's always going to be a few bad apples in the bunch. So many YouTubers I watch are self-made stars that started off by recording their thoughts on an outdated camera or webcam simply because they had a passion for making videos. Zoe, known online as Zoella, took that video-creating and blogging hobby and turned it into her own empire, which includes a makeup line, three books, multiple tours and a beautiful house in Brighton, England, all before the age of 30. Not to mention she's cultivated almost 11 million subscribers on YouTube (on just her main channel), 8.8 million followers on Instagram, 5.43 million followers on Twitter and was the first woman in the UK to receive YouTube's coveted diamond play button.

Zoe maintains two channels, her main channel and her vlogging channel, and is constantly posting new content to both. Her vlogs are where I really started to realize she was role-model material because they were long, follow-me-around videos that depicted her everyday life. Being able to have access to her daily and see how genuine and real she is has helped shape her as a role model in my eyes. She films without makeup in a society where women are afraid to post anything online without first looking perfect. She openly speaks about her depression and anxiety, and she offers frequent advice to her viewers. She is really one of the people online that uses their platform for positive messages.

So, to me, Zoella does not even compare to the Taylor Swifts and Eli Mannings of the world, because she is so much more than just a face on my laptop screen.