While many MVHS students may enjoy watching YouTube videos, not many students can say that they have a channel of their own, one of whom is Sophomore Cecilia Jing.

“I’ve been really into film and acting, so I didn’t know how else to get into the industry except for just posting videos of myself online, so I kind of just got my phone and recorded,” Jing said.

She posted her first video on her channel, Queen Jing, eight months ago, and has been uploading sporadically since then. She currently has 152 subscribers on her channel, which has mostly comedic content.

She is most proud of one of her most recent videos, “Actually LOL,” which discusses how people spend so much time staring at their devices each day. The inspiration for this video spontaneously came to her one late night.

“I thought about [the idea for the video] in the middle of the night, maybe 4 am while I was doing homework, ‘cause I was procrastinating so much. And I was like ‘Why am I always on my phone?’” Jing said. She also likes the fact that she was able to include a moral message in the video, which was that people spend too much time on their devices.

According to Jing, getting views is the most difficult part.

“It’s really hard, when you’re starting randomly, especially now in 2016. YouTube has been around for more than a decade, so there are so many people joining it every single day,” Jing said.

She has had a channel for almost a year and the most views that she got on a video was about 1,000.

“It’s mostly on luck. It’s on sharing, spreading around to your media,” Jing said.

However, creating the content and being able to make people laugh is of greater importance to Jing .

“Something about that just makes me feel so giddy inside and motivates me to make more,” she said.

Jing also enjoys dance and violin, and plans to incorporate those more into her content in the future. Acting and filmmaking also play a big part in her content.

“[YouTube] is just a way for me to practice all the skills,” she said.

Many students are nervous about creating a channel because they are afraid of what other people will think Jing explained. She went through the same struggle, but after watching many other YouTubers’ first videos, which all said the same thing, to just go for it, she decided to take the risk.

“Honestly, just go for it, but like, be yourself, be funny, which is what most people are,” Jing said.