One day in late 2006, author John Green woke up with a harebrained idea: to stop all textual communication with his brother Hank and rely solely on back-and-forth YouTube vlogs and phone calls. Thus, the YouTube channel vlogbrothers was launched and the yearlong project began. What Hank and John couldn't have anticipated was the enormous cult following that grew out of Brotherhood 2.0. We call ourselves Nerdfighters, from Nerdfighteria, and we are made of awesome.
Today, Nerdfighteria has grown into a massive conglomerate, responsible for launching such projects as CrashCourse, SciShow, Sexplanations, Pemberley Digital, VidCon, Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers, Tour Because Awesome, the Project for Awesome, DFTBA Records, Cereal Time, sponsorship of the AFC Wimbledon English soccer club, the upcoming AFC Wimbledon movie, the podcast Dear Hank and John, and so many more. Regardless of whether or not you know of John and Hank, your life has probably been touched by them.
Internet communities like Nerdfighteria represent this weird and wonderful phenomenon that has grown out of YouTube. The internet has given the millennial generation a unique connection to one another and we have used that to form communities hundreds of thousands—sometimes millions—of people strong. And we feel connected to another even though most of us will never meet. While Nerdfighteria is one of the most extreme examples, these communities exist all over YouTube. We wait anxiously for new videos, follow our favorite YouTube stars on other social media, vote in Twitter polls, ask questions, send fan mail, and participate in contests and giveaways. Colleen Ballinger, and her alter ego Miranda Sings, have launched a Netflix original show with the help of their community, the Mirfandas. Bunny Meyer at grav3yardgirl has her Swamp Family and their signature green tie-dye, gator, and sweet tea. Rhett and Link have the Mythical Beasts, who came together to re-launch the duo's favorite drink from the 80s, Clearly Canadian and build Mythical Entertainment, an increasingly higher-budget production company that creates music videos, sketch comedy, and Good Mythical Morning, a weekday talk show that has featured celebrities like Daniel Radcliffe and Amy Schumer as well as many other YouTube celebrities.
Grace Helbig was on E!, Carrie Hope Fletcher and her Hopefuls inspire love and hope and led to Carrie publishing not one but two books in the last year or so, Gigi Gorgeous has brought awareness to the transgender community while also being generally fabulous, hilarious, and inspirational, and Paige Mackenzie launched The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Network, which promotes and supports a lot of young teens in their videography careers. Some of these people even have full-time jobs while also being YouTubers, like Carrie who played Eponine in Les Miserables on London's West End and just began touring with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Truly Scrumptious. Leighannsays works a full-time office job, as does Nat Tran of communitychannel. Others have found a level of success on YouTube that it has become their full-time job. Rhett and Link have even created full-time jobs for many other young people, fresh out college getting internet exposure and awesome résumés.
I have never met John Green, or Rhett and Link, or Leigh Ann, Carrie, Bunny, or Grace, nor have I met more than a member of two of their respective fanbases. Even so, I feel I am part of communities that are supportive, fun, kind, good, creative, quirky people. As someone who was always the odd duck in high school, finding so many people who shared my sense of humor, hobbies, and nerdiness was a literal life-saver. I got the opportunity to look someone in the eye and see a future worth waiting for, something bigger and better than high school. YouTube gave me hope, support, a lot of laughter and a lot of love. A lot of people still look at YouTube as a platform for stupid cat videos and nonsense, but in the eleven years since its launch, YouTube has become so much more than that. We are a community of nerds, makeup addicts, creators, and young people just trying to adult. YouTube has united us, saved us, and created us. We are the Internet generation and over the coming weeks I'm going to explain why being a millennial is something to be proud of, and how we are going to change the world. I hope you'll come along for the ride.
As they say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome.
