9 minute read
Amy Lee
Amy Lee emerges as a refreshingly honest voice in the You- Tube community. She highlights intersectional feminism on her channel Vagabond Youth and her cozy “AM with Amy” vlogs offer the kind advice you search for in an older sister. Through intaking her videos, Lee provides her audience with a space for mental restoration from any turmoil they are experiencing.
The evidence of Lee’s connected presence with her audience is found within her video’s comments. Within the comment section, her viewers share their own experiences with friendship troubles, identify with her own difficulties, and express their own guiding words. Lee shares her drive for making her visual content more authentic. “As someone who likes to live with intention, it was hard to see what my goal was at the end day when I was posting random hauls or lookbooks. And even though I still love creating and sharing that content, I think I felt like something – something more authentic – was missing. It is 100% paramount for me to connect with my viewers on a different level than just to post and push products at them.” She continues on the creation for the “AM with Amy” series that divulges on everything from dealing with trust issues to the vulnerability that comes from social anxiety. “So when I started the AM with Amy, I felt not only fulfilled but overjoyed that people also loved this diversity of content. I love sitting down every Monday, and I love having a space in which I can be vulnerable and where my community is open and loving. I am so blessed in that way. I couldn’t have asked for a better community.”
The Reformation-esque personal style that Lee has is reminiscent of minimalist Parisian women walking the streets with an iced coffee in hand. Lee shares her year-round fashion staples. “A staple all-year round for me is a classic leather jacket.
Hm, also a good red lip. And a really, really comfortable, thick turtleneck sweater (I have at least 5!) And all gold, gold, gold (statement accessories).”
Lee’s videos open up conversation about issues that the normative YouTube spaces rarely tackle. Lee is a 23-year-old Korean content creator who got her Communications degree from UCLA, so she focuses on voicing for the empowerment of girls, no matter what background they come from. Lee states that it is crucial to amplify the voices of minorities who don’t get the same platform as others do. “Regardless of gender or race or sexuality or any arbitrary category we as humans put ourselves in, I feel that it is so important for people, and I mean all people, to feel like they can achieve anything they want in this lifetime.” She intertwines the law of attraction with the importance of empowering those who are around you. “I am such a firm believer in the law of attraction– for every action put out into the universe, there is a reaction. What you put out into the world comes back to you ultimately. And I think the fact that most people of color are disadvantaged in institutions and laws in the U.S. is exactly why people genuinely really need to empower themselves to keep moving forward. Manifest your craziest dreams. If Oprah, a woman of color growing up in the 1960s South after the aftermath of Jim Crow segregation, can do it, so can you. So can I. I really truly believe that.”
The process of trying to place yourself in society as a person of color can often cement yourself in a state of confusion when you grow up watching media that is predominantly white. Lee stated in her September favorites video that she has an unsurmounted amount of respect for director, Issa Rae, who gives enriched narratives to the people of color that star in her HBO show, Insecure.
74“I think representation in traditional media is incredibly necessary and is an area that is also incredibly lacking. I love what Issa is doing and what Aziz is doing with Master of None. It is so important for the world to see the stories and the intersectionality of people that isn’t typically told on TV or film. Girls by Lena Dunham was cool for example, but it was very white-centric and very cisgender-focused.” She details the importance of including more representation of people of color that aren’t limited to stereotypical roles. “It would be awesome to see more of the stories of people of color, people with different sexual backgrounds, people who are able-bodied and who are not, on TV and film. Because those are real stories. Of you, me, everyone.”
The Los Angeles community is full of young women that affirm their voices to empower others. Lee says that her friend and fellow YouTuber–Jenn Im– was one of the creative forces that influenced her to lend her own voice to the YouTube community. “I feel very incredibly blessed to know and have powerful women as friends or peers in this industry. I am definitely inspired by them and their drive and what they have achieved. Jenn to me is one of the pioneers of fashion YouTubing– she’s kind of a legend. So it’s amazing to be around her energy and her work ethic!”
Lee shares that YouTube was a safe space for her to temporarily escape the lack of diversity found in mass media. “I think one of the main reasons I fled to YouTube for an escape was because I didn’t see anyone on traditional media that looked like me. Being an Asian American woman, I didn’t even know what makeup looked good on me because every Maybelline or L’Oréal ad was of someone who looked so different from me.” She continues on feeling disoriented as a woman of color within her own country. “I think YouTubers get a lot of flak for being friends with so many people of the same race but I think that’s because we are overcompensating for what we didn’t all grow up with. We weren’t surrounded by billboards and ad campaigns (and still aren’t) with Asian faces. All I can say is– it feels weird to be an alien in your own home country, so when I went on YouTube, I turned to Jenn’s content because she looked familiar and liked the same interests! I am glad to have such strong representation online from these women.”
Lee’s uplifting aura took years of fully grounding herself and getting in-tune with how she wanted to present herself on YouTube. Her form of self-expression came through filming and editing her own videos, and her self-knowledge came with reading books that dealt with spirituality. Lee states that the internal pressures that stem from the demanding career as a YouTuber took a while to overcome. “I think for a long time, I had this wall up. I wanted to create this persona of me being a super cool, laidback fashionable girl. Because I felt like, in fashion, it wasn’t cool or appropriate to be goofy or dorky. I really wanted my viewers to see me a certain way, but something about that was so incredibly inauthentic. Because if you know me in real life, I am the biggest dork! For me, the creative concepts flowed more seamlessly when I started to break that wall down.” She claims that by breaking this veil that was obstructing her from truly being herself was she able to produce content that was representative of who she was. “I try to smile more or leave my bloopers in my lookbooks too now. That was always my biggest internal pressure, personally. But otherwise, being creative on YouTube is so freeing because you could literally post a 10-minute video of you sleeping and no one would say that that’s “wrong” content. I love how open and bizarre the content on YouTube can be.”
She lends her words of advice to young girls who want to create their own YouTube channels, but are demotivated due to rising insecurities. “Just do it! Nothing is stopping you but yourself. Here’s the thing: You can fail at something you hate doing, so you might as well try to do something you love. I truly believe if you are in it for the right reasons (and not fame, money, free products, etc.), you shouldn’t let your insecurities or doubt get in the way. Go out there and create!” Lee communicates that what truly changed her perspective on life was being enlightened by books. “I really love “The Book of Awakening” by Mark Nepo, the “Book of Joy” by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, and “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. Overall, I have a genuine love and curiosity for spirituality and those books definitely helped catapult me into an amazing journey of spirituality.”
When she looks forward to the future, Lee closes her eyes and imagines traveling the world. She unfurls to Local Wolves her aspirations for the upcoming year. “I am a huge fan of traveling and I love producing content overseas, because not only is it an amazing experience but I also feel more connected to my audience from different parts of the world. I also just genuinely love to create content for brands I love and use, so when I put these two together, it’s just a force to be reckoned with! Therefore, in the next year, I would love to travel and create awesome content for brands and just be able to connect with my viewers from all over the world. But overall, projects or not, I am just excited and motivated to be progressing more and more each day, as cheesy as that sounds.”
Amy Lee transcends the boundaries of YouTube by developing videos that capture your undivided attention and change the drawing board of your own life. Through her vlogs, she details her own experiences that advise you to steer clear from frail friendships, strengthens the confidence of her viewers, and celebrates the voices of women of color. Her sincerity clings to her words as she fulfills her viewers with raw words of empowerment and encouragement.
Dear Amy,
You’ve told your mom how you “want to cut off your boobs!” because it seems as though you’ve gotten your period much earlier than everybody else and no one in the second grade has BOOBS yet! Your mom will also never let you forget you’ve said such a statement.
Your mom will be the most important person in your life, but some of the things she advises will make an indelible mark on your soul, for better or worse. I hope you learn to take what you need, but also to find the strength to kindly disagree when you do.
You will spend most of your days creating– Xangas, Myspace layouts, Geocities, a thousand AOL usernames. Funbagsx3 is not a cute username, it’s a weird sexual innuendo, so get rid of it. xxxBabyCartwheelerxxx is the best, most sensible choice for your age. Plus you do love to cartwheel! I want to tell you that your fascination with the internet, all things digital, will manifest into something larger than life, something you cannot even comprehend. You will not only find a community and a space, filled with other beautiful digital creations and works of art, but also you will learn how to make a career of it. So keep doing it. Keep doing what you love. And hug your mom lots when she buys you your first DSLR and MacBook to edit videos with, at 17. She’ll always be your number one fan.
When it comes to school and boys, you will prioritize books over butterflies. You’ll always be that way, but don’t forget to have fun. You like to stress over eveeerything. You’ll struggle a lot with body image, and find something wrong with essentially every body part on you. It doesn’t get easier– you just get smarter and stronger. You will question why God, or whichever greater force in the Universe, didn’t make you look like everyone else. I can’t say you will learn to love your monolids, but you will learn to hate them less. Most importantly, you will learn to be a voice, not a victim.
Overall, you’re doing just fine. Keep on keeping on.
Amy Lee
