BUILDING A FOLLOWING
Maintaining a YouTube career in college by Suparna Samavedham / photo by Celine Koh / design by Solana Chatfield
After a long day of work, most students prefer to settle down with a stack of homework, a favorite Netflix show and some well-deserved sleep. Boston University’s elite videography superheroes, however, stay up tirelessly throughout the night, editing and filming content to post the following morning. They are forced to cut corners when it comes to having a social life, participating in extracurricular activities and school work. Devoting their time towards a passion is a boon. The recognition, sponsorship and money they get are a major bonus. But as Kings Kommentary owner notes, “not all that glitters is gold.” By dawn, Nnamdi Kingsley Okwerekwu (Questrom ’19) is a BU student majoring in
74 the buzz
business. But by dusk, Okwerekwu runs Kings Kommentary, a channel devoted to comedic content filled with pranks and rants. The channel has acquired over 330,000 followers within its three years on YouTube. Making time for both school and filming keeps him busy. “We all know that BU is no joke,” Okwerekwu said. “It's been challenging balancing school and YouTube, but I think that God gives his biggest challenges to the toughest warriors and I think I'm a pretty tough warrior. So, I'm going to just keep going and try to keep balancing everything.” Okwerekwu said he has appreciated the love that he receives from family and friends, and his subscribers are new source of love for him.
“It feels good to have 330K plus followers because there's a lot of love in that, and that's why I do this,” said Okwerekwu. “I love ‘love.’ I love the idea of love. With the girls, but also with life: with family and friends and now my supporters.” Okwerekwu admitted that though he doesn’t know where the future of his channel is headed, one thing he is sure of is ensuring its progress. “I hear the number, and I want to keep going higher,” said Okwerekwu. For others, YouTube is more of an intimate journey. It is an attempt to document life or a chance to connect with people from all over the world. Kellie Rose Belarmino (SAR ’21) runs a channel with about 2,000 subscribers. She uses her channel to record her life at Boston University.
