By Erika Kita
Lifestyle content YouTuber, and photographer Phoebe Zhang who is a senior at Mills High School has made herself known throughout the Mills community. Zhang creates content about her interests such as volleyball, school events, photography, and anything that happens in her life. “It feels like a video diary for me and even if the events in my life are big or small, I like to look back on it and rewatch the moments in my life,” she states. Zhang is also a photographer and takes pictures of school events such as the dances, rallies, volleyball games, concerts, and so on.
Recently, her channel has been taking a small break, but she will start posting more content once prom starts. The video she is most likely going to post next is a “Get Ready With Me for Prom”. Her photography content is also going to rise once prom and graduation starts. She has done two official paid gigs for photography in the past and is planning to do more gigs in the future.
Her favorite videos to make are the ones with friends since she likes to film the fun times she has with them. “Looking back at them is the best part where I can see myself improve and it motivates me to keep creating content.” Throughout her working on her YouTube videos, she finds the videos of her talking by herself the most awkward to look back on, but ultimately motivates her to work harder.
One of her biggest milestones throughout her YouTube journey was going through the entire process of a Vlog-mas. In a Vlog-mas, it essentially consists of one video per day for 25 days of December until it is Christmas. This time-consuming and gruesome work took a lot of her day to create videos daily and made it difficult to do while also completing school and other activities. Zhang states that, “the hardest part of the Vlog-mas series was trying not to repeat content and make a boring day look interesting for the viewers. Making everything entertaining was one thing but recording and editing all in one day just to do it again the next day was very difficult.” Slacking off was not an option for her, and she says that “the creative juices” will just flow as you get into the cycle of making new videos.
Not only does Zhang love making videos for her YouTube channel, but she gains inspiration from watching other content creators as well. Her favorite YouTubers to watch are Nicole Laeno, who also does school vlogs but also dances, Emily Paulichi, who does lifestyle vlogs, Sara Joy, who posts lifestyle and fashion vlogs, and Caroline Manning, who gives advice about life and also get ready with me videos. She likes to watch these YouTubers and calls them her “comfort YouTubers” to watch and relax just like any other viewer. She finds inspiration for her photography work as well. Her favorite photographer is Brandon Woelfel who is based in New York City. He is also a YouTuber and content creator who makes videos and tutorials on how to improve one’s photography. Zhang has made herself known as a future influencer and she hopes her channel will continue to thrive. She is passionate about doing YouTube as a hobby and she hopes that people will continue to support her channel.
