Break Free Roselle

Chapter 1 - The Youtuber

       Getting everything ready to shoot a video is second nature for me by now. Choosing the mannequin and wig, fixing the camera in the right angle so only my hands will be shown. Setting all the tools I'll need to accomplish the hairstyle I'll be showing this time. I've done this so many times that by now I can prepare everything without thinking much about it, just going over my head the best way to explain it.

I do these videos once or every two weeks in which I show how to accomplish certain hairstyle, sometimes I even shoot my hands doing it on myself to help people do the same to themselves. I haven't done that lately as I've wained some weight over autumn.

For someone who's always inside home, becoming a youtuber sounded farfetched and impossible. I mean, what can I share? What life experience do I have? What social skills make me an appealing character? In my nineteen years the farthest I've gone is the big terrace we have, the rooftop and the hospital. That I can remember, maybe when I was a baby Mum took me somewhere but I'm not aware of it. As if my lack of life experience wasn't enough, I don't look like something people will enjoy watching on their screens. Other youtubers are witty, funny, cute, talented or whatever. What can an overweight girl who doesn't have a single friend aside from her own mother say on a video blog?

Honestly, I don't even know how I started doing this. I have always liked playing with hair. Mum bought me every doll I wanted but instead of playing house and such, I played to the hair saloon. My dolls always had very different styles and as I grew up, these styles became more intrinsic and I started to make up my own ideas instead of copying the ones I had seen. Mum also always allowed me to do her hair when she was home, sometimes even preferring what I would do over her own stylists. Moreover, I always played with my hair, doing something different with it.

Right now my hair is actually cotton candy pink and one month ago it was like a rainbow.

I used to watch videos online, wanting to learn new techniques and such, and I stumbled upon youtube tutorials. I copied them and started growing curious, wondering if I could do the same. I didn't want to show myself, I didn't want to show my face and be a model like others, but I wanted to show what I could do.

And that's how I shot my first video, just to try out. It was such a shock when I actually received comments and views, people telling me it was easy to follow and thanking me for the video.

I bounced around the house laughing like a fool when I got my first subscriber.

Probably, I got addicted to that type interaction and for that reason, I continued making videos, answering to people's comments but never showing my face. I used the mannequins I had for practise to illustrate and it kept growing from there. I'm not a mega famous youtuber, but I do have a few thousands subscribers by now who eagerly await for a new video every week.

Mum is aware I do this and supports it, as she always does when I show any kind of interest in anything, as long as it does not expose me physically to people. She always watches my videos and likes them.

The head mannequins I have are very diverse. Different hair colours, textures, lengths and such. I like working with different styles and make sure to keep a wide range of options for me to practise. Today I'll be working with long, heavy and thick black hair; that type of hair that always gets loose because it's too straight and you can't keep it in any hairstyle unless you cover it in kilos of hairspray. My followers have asked me how to accomplish a messy hairdo with that type of hair without having it falling thirty minutes later and without using a whole can of hairspray.

It's not an easy task.

Once I have it all set to start recording, I begin with the usual speech welcoming viewers to my channel and new video. I might not be physically appealing, but at least I have a good voice I don't hate hearing when I edit my videos. It's soft and calm, it sounds patient and kind and I guess that helps my videos.