Ashley AKA Bestdressed

Ashley centers her messages of empowerment and self-love vis-a-vis her wide array of You- Tube videos on her channel titled, bestdressed. Videos that quelm on authenticity and honesty in a realm that is often contorted to exemplify perfection. bestdressed crafts the video concepts herself, directs them, and edits them until they become the refined beautiful pieces that pop up on your YouTube suggestion page. She has activated a space where it is okay to talk about topics that other YouTubers stray away from— losing your virginity to openly talking about how to combat racism and sexism. Simultaneously, she gravitates toward implementing moments of design appreciation in her Outfit of The Week Videos, discussing how to couple thrifted finds with stellar vintage pieces. Truly, she has become everyone’s sister—the one they can look to for unabashedly honest advice.

“Our culture keeps so many topics taboo, especially for women,” she states. “Politics, sex, swearing, eating disorders, even something as simple as showing your skin without makeup or not sucking in your stomach rolls is seen as ‘risky territory.’ It’s frankly exhausting to be filtered and Facetuned and spandex’d all the time. So, I hope by being vulnerable and honest with my viewers, they can feel a little more comfortable with their real selves,” she continues.

I spoke with her about how her video about sex particularly stuck with me, as I only ever attained sexual advice from the realms of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City and loose references in Seth Rogen movies. I, myself, identify as one of her viewers that never had the older sister or open-minded mom to discuss the topic with, therefore I turned to her videos as the form of advice I could always go to. “I’m so glad the video about sex reached you. Sometimes I feel pressured to create certain trendy format videos that I know will get more views or make brand-friendly content, or at the most basic level make videos that YouTube won’t automatically demonetize.”

She addresses the shock she encountered when the video amassed so many views. “I honestly didn’t think that video would get many views (and knew it wouldn’t make any money), but I felt an urge to talk about something that nobody else would. Sex on YouTube is dramatized into clickbait, joked about, or ignored all together, so I wanted to just sit down and chat about my experiences with sex without stigma and hopefully help some women along the way,” she explains.

There is no one template or script that bestdressed abides by in her videos. She acknowledges that YouTube is a space where people display their best moments in vlogs, but she eagerly shows the highs and the lows of everyday college life as both a student and YouTuber at UCLA. Navigating the demands of both her devoted YouTube subscribers that stretch over 1 million and academia are quite the task. bestdressed willingly expresses the importance of taking a candid approach when it comes to how she portrays herself through her videos.

“Something I learned early on in film school is that creative control is more valuable than money,” she states. “Having complete creative control over my videos, from concept to filming to editing to distribution to “marketing” (the thumbnail and the title), is my absolute favorite thing about YouTube.”

bestdressed asks herself a rhetorical question that displays her intentions on being true to not only herself but her viewers. “Would hiring an editor save me about 30 hours each week? Yes. But that’s a feeling I never want to give up.” There is no hesitation and no inner debate within her own self-reflection. She is someone who finds meaning in creative freedom rather than risking it for a few moments of relaxation. When I ask her the question about how she finds breaks being a one-man show, she lightheartedly jokes saying, “Error 404 Cannot Process ‘Break’.”

“I’m notoriously bad at relaxing because I’ve been instilled from a young age with a good old-fashioned Puritanical work ethic. I hate when people glamorize the “grind” but between school and YouTube, I’ve pretty much worked seven days a week for the past two years. A lot of the things that used to be my hobbies — like thrifting or sewing or taking photos — are now part of my job, which makes work fun but also makes everything into work. I just graduated college last week though, and I’m excited to take some healthy time to unwind! Spending time with friends or my boyfriend without my phone, going for walk in nature (I sound so old lol), or getting lost in a good movie sound nice.”

Even if she were to win the lottery tomorrow, bestdressed’s goals are still cemented to her film work. “I just finished up a screenplay called KEVIN GETS LAID that’s a satire of frat culture and toxic masculinity, but I think my next screenplay would be the one I’d fund. Ever since I watched the FYRE documentary, I’ve been rolling around this idea in my head for a Wolf of Wall Street-style dark comedy about the influencer industry. I think it would be an interesting commentary on social media culture and wealth, and be a great opportunity to have a female-dominated cast.” she notes.

Every aspect from facilitating discussion about personal subject matter to displaying layers of vulnerability on screen equates to the reliability her audience finds within her. “There’s value in making a fun, helpful, well-edited tutorial, but I’m not ignorant of the world outside my fashion bubble,” she says. “I don’t want to look back and think “Damn, I had over a million people listening to me, and all I told them was how to pattern mix?” I try to incorporate issues that are relevant to my viewers and personal to me. The whole genre of “beauty/fashion guru” is so deeply tied with ideals of femininity that I find it hard to keep my mouth shut about feminism. By making videos about fashion, doing my makeup, being relatively skinny, and showing off my relationship with my boyfriend, I’m reinforcing a centuries-old ideal of (straight) femininity, so it’s the least I can do to throw in a sex joke here or there to shatter the illusion.”

She coins fashion and picking certain wardrobe pieces as a pivotal origin of her confidence. In particular she cites a couple essential pieces like chunky black boots from UNIF, turtlenecks, and some killer high-rise jeans as adding to the unstoppable feeling. bestdressed feels ready to conquer the world when, “Sometimes I feel most confident dolled up with a twirly dress and sometimes I love masculine pants and my hair up. I haven’t been to New York in a while, but walking down those city streets surrounded by hundreds of confident people rocking their personal style also gives me this boost of second-hand confidence.”

“Oh, and wearing some cute lingerie underneath my outfit never hurts either,” she adds ever so subtly.

“To me fashion is like art you can wear! It can make you feel like a boss or a 50’s babe or a movie character. Especially if it’s thrifted or something I’ve sewn or altered myself, it feels like a unique extension of my personality,” she says.

Flashback to her 7th grade fashion collection, she recounts some of her questionable outfit pieces. “There are so many to choose from, but if I had to pick one, it would be my scarf phase. I watched one YouTube video on 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf’ in 7th grade and I was sold. For the next two years, I wore a scarf newly every day to school. My favorite was a festive plaid infinity scarf from Target, but warm weather didn’t stop me either. You could catch me in spring with a mint green t-shirt and a pastel striped scarf. I even wore scarves with shorts,” she says.

“YES, SHORTS,” she adds for a little extra emphasis.

Creative control is more valuable than money

The nostalgia spun by archival YouTube fashion advice videos springs upon the fundamental role that YouTube played in her early, monumental stages of life. “I was one of the few kids in my hometown who really latched on to early YouTube, but when the only store within biking distance is CVS, I was desperately in need of entertainment. I watched CommunityChannel religiously and even started an incredibly crappy (and thankfully now deleted) comedy channel when I was in elementary school. I still long for those days of the random webcam skits on the OG YouTube. Later in middle school and high school, as I grew out of my tomboy phase, I watched Michelle Phan, Chriselle Lim, and Jenn Im who helped shape my sense of style and served as amazing Asian American role models who made me feel like You- Tube was a space where I was welcome,” she states.

bestdressed redefines YouTube. It is not just a place for solely entertainment purposes anymore. It’s a place to put your unwavering trust in your viewer’s hands. Plethoras of advice and easier access to knowledge that is often limited to higher education is what amounts to bestdressed’s success. She does not hold any barriers when it comes to her content, she ultimately creates what makes herself happy, not to please the rubric of what will attain the most views. Limiting her to a title of “creative” or “YouTuber” is underestimating who bestdressed is as a person. She uses her platform to offer more knowledge to her readers and give them some time to think about topics that others stray away from, whether those be of race, sexism, or sexual education. She highlights and underlines those topics as if they were boldened on a college-ruled notebook. Nothing is too taboo or unworthy of being heard, bestdressed offers her social commentary through a small 4-minute vlog if she desires. That refreshingly honest perspective has given her loyal audiences that look up to her and frankly bestdressed still finds herself shocked that she has generated a sisterhood and most importantly, a family with her viewers.

“I feel honored and lucky and a bit undeserving. I still can’t wrap my head around the number of people who take time out of their day to watch and listen to whatever bullshit I have to say. I have major imposter syndrome every day but I keep reminding myself that you don’t have to be perfect to be a role model. I’m still figuring out who I am but I guess that’s the part that people like. Sometimes I feel guilty for sitting in my bedroom talking about fashion and not tackling larger, more urgent issues in the world, but other times I’m like hell yeah, showing young women that they can be smart and stylish and sexually active and kick ass does matter, even if a lot of people (mainly men and older folks) don’t quite understand the value. In an ultra-filtered, sponsored, monetized era, it’s really hard to find genuine people, and I hope I can be that for some people,” she states.

When asked what she hopes to manifest for the rest of 2019, she says, “Oh boy, where to start! I always have 10x more idea than I have time to do them. I have a couple exciting new projects in the works that have been lifelong dreams of mine so I guess you’ll just have to wait and see... to be less vague though, I’d love to continue to push my videos to new and more cinematic formats, make mini documentaries about issues I’m passionate about, direct a music video, start a podcast, finish my second screenplay, and think of ways to use my skill sets and all the opportunities I’ve been handed to help the people who need it most.”

In the guise of a media saturated world producing the same reiterations of content, bestdressed is the gem of empowerment we all vitally need. The older sister to confide in, the wardrobe master on a budget, and the friend who will not hold back from telling us the honest truth.

STORY BY JASMINE RODRIGUEZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY DILLON MATTHEW PHOTO ASSISTANTS: LAUREN CASSIANO + KENDALL MAYO HAIR/MAKEUP BY JESSIE YARBOROUGH STYLING BY SONDRA CHOI