Snervous (2015)

           This time last year I was completing my MA degree. It was a rough two years in grad school. They were some of the most difficult two years of my life. Fortunately, my last semester went pretty smoothly. I was finally happy with who I am and I was really working harder and smarter to do my best not only in school but in life. From August of last year to December I worked tirelessly on writing my thesis.

            One night I decided to take a break and headed over to my favorite social media site Tumblr (check me out on all three of my blogs: ClassicsDoItBetter, These-Modern-Times, and LetsGetReelz). As I was scrolling through my dashboard I came across a post of this video called Epic Rap Battles of History. I had somehow, someway heard of Epic Rap Battles and decided to take a look. I did not make it through the entire video it was a little too silly for my liking at the time. It was a rap battle between Romeo and Juliet and Bonnie and Clyde. I had no idea who the people were in the video on top of thinking it was weird. A few days later I was yet again taking a break and scrolling through my dash when I came across yet another video. This time I noticed it was video of one of the girls from the Epic Rap Battles video and I remember thinking “what does she do that she was in the rap video and has this video?” Well, that girl turned out to be Grace Helbig and it was her video called What Christmas Songs Really Mean. I liked it I thought Grace was funny and having her dog Goose at the end helped out and I watched a few more whenever I would take breaks from working on my thesis.

            My life has never been the same since watching the Epic Rap Battles and Grace Helbig videos. Since becoming a fan of Grace’s I have become a fan of so many other YouTubers (and have met a ton of them since including Grace who is one of the sweetest people ever). Mamrie Hart is everything I aspire to be in life (met her too! And let me tell ya, the woman gives the best hugs ever!), Hannah Hart is a source of constant creative inspiration, Anna Akana is editing and creative goals, and Olan Rogers has a fantastic laugh and full of wonderfulness (only to name a few I watch regularly). Another YouTuber I have come to admire and enjoy watching to no end is Tyler Oakley. Tyler took me a little longer to get into for some reason but now I can binge watch his videos all day.

            I have not been a Tyler Oakley fan for that long. The first time I saw him in a video was when I was binge watching all of Mamrie Hart’s You Deserve a Drink videos (by the way if you have yet to watch Mamrie Hart… what are you waiting for?! The woman is hilarious go watch her right now!) I came across Mamrie’s video Tyler Oakley’s My Ty Thai Mai Tai. I loved their chemistry and ease together it was clear that they are friends. Plus, Tyler was really funny. I watched a few of his videos after but I did not really become a big fan of his and watch more of his videos until I began to meet more people in the YouTube fandom. Really, I have only been a fan of Tyler’s for the past five months.

Yesterday, Tyler came out with his documentary Snervous. I was so excited to see Snervous. Of course I bought his incredibly entertaining book Binge and loved it. I was interested in having a visual for some of the stories in his book. Snervous is a documentary of where he came from and how he got to where he is now. His life is not all glitz and glamour which is so refreshing and wonderful to see. Tyler is close with his mom, his best friend Korey Kuhl runs his day to day and traveling and events things, and he even gets upset when things do not go his way or fans get a little too overzealous.

            The part I liked the most in the documentary was when Tyler explained how there are YouTubers for everyone. There are so many vloggers on YouTube with so many different personalities and styles of vlogging that there is someone for all viewers to enjoy. He also said that he and other YouTubers are there in a way for their fans. There is a Tumblr post about YouTubers that says something like all I have to do is click on their videos and they’re there for me. That is so true. Whenever I feel down or stressed all I have to do is click on videos by my favorite YouTubers and I feel better. Tyler is one of those go-to YouTubers I watch whenever I feel bummed out (Mamrie is my number one). With Tyler and other YouTubers, they are something familiar and something I know will always pick me up.

            I got the opportunity to meet Tyler for the first stop of his Binge Book Tour in Ridgewood, NJ in October. For the few minutes I got to talk to him and give him a hug he was so nice and so sweet. You can tell that Tyler really loves his fans and appreciates them in the documentary. He knows he would be nowhere without us as fans and he gives our support back to us (I feel like that is how it with a lot of YouTubers and it makes being their fan so rewarding and so much fun).

            Tyler Oakley’s Snervous documentary is fantastic. Never once did it feel like I watching a documentary of some mega untouchable superstar. It felt like I was watching a documentary of an online friend who I proudly and fully support. Watching Snervous made me admire Tyler ten times more than I already do and it made me proud to be a supporter of the YouTube community. While the rest of traditional media and the traditional world may not know Tyler Oakley, me and millions of others do and we appreciate everything he has done and continues to do in a wonderfully positive way.