I've been a 'featured creator' in YouTube Rewind for the last two years.
Both in 2016
and 2017.
But, I've made the decision to
not partake in YouTube Rewind 2018, next year.
And these are my reasons why.
[upbeat music]
Before I actually get into these reasons,
I do just want to state,
I am anticipating a massive backlash over this video, okay? Because I don't think
there is any way that I could carefully word this without
sounding a little bit entitled, a little bit arrogant,
okay? Some of these things are completely selfish.
So, I'm ready for the comments.
All I would ask is that you, perhaps,
try, and to sit through this whole thing before letting me know
that I'm a piece of shit. If you still think I'm a piece of shit
after watching it, then, by all means, open season, okay?
But, to put it really shortly,
YouTube Rewind is the most
self-serving, unprofessional,
ill-judged piece of shit
that YouTube could ever come up with.
This year in particular was
absolute shit, for personal reasons
and also just the content of the video was terrible.
I'm gonna split my reasons into two different sections.
Firstly, I'm gonna start with my thoughts on this years YouTube Rewind, as a creator.
And secondly, I'm gonna give you guys my experience
of being on the set of YouTube Rewind for the last two years.
Spoiler: it fucking sucked.
[Music]
Personally, in my opinion, I think the last good YouTube Rewind
was 2014.
Not only because it had different YouTubers of different sub-ranges, but also because it
just didn't feel oversaturated.
It didn't feel like YouTube was trying to cram
thousands of people into seven minutes
which is exactly what they did this year.
Now, YouTube has obviously
exploded exponentially in popularity, okay?
I think in 2014, I think Felix (PewDiePie) said, like
a dozen channels had a million subscribers,
and now, it's, I think it's over like 2,000 or something stupid like that.
It's, it's, it's blown up, okay?
But that doesn't mean that you have to try and cram
a different 'millionaire'
in every fucking frame!
Obviously, they wanna showcase the biggest YouTubers from around the world, okay, cool.
The problem with that is that people from different continents are saying, "I don't know who this is, I don't know who that is."
You're just showing people 2,000 rich kids.
Great!
You wanna know a simple solution
that would make YouTube Rewind amazing next year?
You can have it for free,
I don't mind giving you this gift.
Make.
Regional.
Rewinds.
Have a YouTube Rewind US,
have a YouTube Rewind UK,
or Europe, or Asia,
or India, or Australia, or fucking Antarctica!
Do different videos! You have the money,
you have the budget, it means you can give more screen-time
to those specific creators.
You can use songs, aren't just fucking "Despacito".
Okay?
You can use songs that are actually popular, in those continents.
And like, I get you could argue: "Well, Emma,
isn't this just dividing people?"
No!
It's giving your creators more screen time,
it's giving them a spotlight.
You have the money, you have the capability, and people would be happier.
There you go!
[Music]
This point doesn't really work
with the last point - I'm
aware of that. Quite frankly if you're a small creator, no actually, scrap that!
If you're not Liza Koshy or Jake Paul,
YouTube doesn't give a fuck about you. Doesn't give a fuck
about me. Doesn't give a fuck about TomSka,
PewDiePie, Marzia, PJ. It doesn't give
a FUCK about you
- unless you have TV potential.
Okay? 2014 was the last good Rewind,
I know I have already said that. But basically, if you look at the part
where like Felix jumps through the roof,
and then it goes into like this classroom?
That's the UK community in there. You've got Luke, you've got
Dodie - I'm pretty sure Nicky and Sammy were there. People of different
sub-ranges, under a million. Some of them- I think Dodie had like 200K.
I think Luke had like 400K! It felt
way more about specific
communities, like the UK 'community', or
the US 'community'. Now it's just like:
"Let's just cram all these people
who don't like each other into the same shot and have them throw slime at each other!" WOO-
Where was Ashens, who uploads amazing comedy content? Uh,
where was Dan/Nerd³, who was
uploading daily until YouTube's demonetisation literally
drove him to fucking therapy! Where's his reward for getting
through all of this bullshit? The gaming community
can pretty much go fuck itself, in
YouTube's mind, right? Quite frankly, if you have under a million
subscribers, and got into YouTube Rewind this year,
it was probably a fluke, because,
it's just 'big' creators. And
this is my main message to you. If you are a
small creator: if this is how they treat big
creators, cramming them all into like,
one specific shot in order to get all of them
together, er, JUST for the GIFs;
if that's what they treat the 'large'
creators like, what do you think they think about you?
Simple. They DON'T think about you.
[Music]
I wanna get very, very specific on this point, um,
this is actually, believe it or not, a reference to a viral
video. It was done terribly, but
it is supposed to be a reference to, er, the
news reporter on the BBC who had, like, the kid walk in,
you remember that thing? Anyway, the opening shot
of YouTube Rewind
2017...
...was a TV show host.
Well done Susan, you got your fucking wet dream! What's his name?
Stephen Colbert? Or John-
I don't fucking know who it is, cuz I don't, I don't watch TV, I know
that he's on TV and he has a YouTube channel, just like Jimmy Fallon,
just like Jimmy Kimmel, just like Ellen - the people that
YouTube actually push. I think it says a lot
about the direction that YouTube has been
crashing into over the last two years, where they open
Rewind with a TV show
host.
...and Liza Koshy. Obviously!
[Music]
I, ugh.
I kind of get, why
they thought this was a good thing to put in.
I can see how they naively went: "This is a really nice
message of peace, kombaya...", I get it,
but if you take a step back, out of your
arrogant fucking bubble, you can see why
this was just the worst
fucking thing to put in the video! A message of hope,
and unity, because YouTube is obviously the breeding
ground for peace, and love, and respect,
and a place where we can all stand up against
all these wars and racism and terrorism!
Not only was the placement really weird,
they just slung it in the middle, and
then just replaced it with a fidget spinner straight away
like it was just a brief message and then 'Oh, back to memes!'.
It just funny, that
this is a website that has literally had
reports of people being FUCKING radical-
-ised!
Like, essentially, if you really wanna,
push it, YouTube is the reason that some people have
been murdered.
Which is fucking abhorrent! Um,
And it feels like that this was kind of like an open
statement to the press and to the media, you know:
"We don't stand for this, we don't stand
for all this intolerance. We don't stand
for hate speech and terrorism."
You do a fucking terrible job! Okay? Not only are you not
really censoring these videos, you're censoring people like us
who AREN'T DOING ANYTHING WRONG! I feel like the way that you should've
properly done it was to sit Susan down with a fucking
webcam and go: "I'm sorry that I fucked up
this entire website, AND not done a good job at
censoring radicalisation videos
AND this might have led to the murder of many people
- WHOOPS!" That would've probably had more meaning
and probably would've gone down better, but hey, let's all hold hands,
and then go back to fidget spinners! WEEEE!
[Music]
So as I said, um, I've been in the, er, 'UK community'
section of the YouTube Rewind videos for
the last two years - 2016 and 2017.
Now before I get on to this section, I, er - another disclaimer.
I wanna state that, er, they had the same director,
in 2016 and 2017 for the UK part, and I
got on with him so well. He is a lovely, lovely person.
We, we talked about North Korea and he lent me his coat.
And it was... wonderful, okay, However,
being in it both years, I noticed
a lot of things that made the 'cast'
feel very underappreciated,
things that really lowered morale on set.
You're gonna have YouTubers say: "Oh, it was so much fun being in YouTube Rewind!".
Chances are they're probably bullshitting, er,
especially if it's in the UK. Maybe in sunny LA it's
different, I dunno. In 2016 the
UK location was
in London, it was a construction site, out in the open.
Not sure how it passed health and safety tests but...
...it did. If you look very closely: that blur,
that's me! You can also see me here,
for a brief second, as KSI's backup dancer.
Thank you very much! In 2017, if
you look very closely and maybe don't blink. Oh!
Did you see- did you see it? There, there, there, that- that's me.
That's me!
I made it! Mum, I'm famous! 2017 was filmed,
er, at an all-boys school, in London(?)
Both shoots were outdoor shoots...
We had fun! We did not have fun, that was a lie. It sucked.
So I just wanna state that obviously I know that
all film shoots, whether it's a short film, uh,
a Hollywood movie, or YouTube Rewind I know
that there are always massive waiting times,
because you're not the only person being filmed, okay? Uh,
you have to wait your turn - I understand that.
There is always more waiting than there is actual
filming, that's always the case, it's
not YouTube exclusive. However, nobody on
YouTube Rewind was there because they were a budding actor
in LA desperate to make it
and see their name in lights. No one was there, you know,
just to be a background extra.
We were all there because we'd basically been conditioned to believe that
YouTube Rewind is a MASSIVE privilege, that
we should feel HONOURED to be a part of it. Which
seemingly justifies the long hours
standing around in the freezing cold unpaid,
I guess. More on that later. So the first year was
middle of October 2016, and
this year was the beginning of November. Dunno if you've
been to the UK, but it's pretty FUCKING
cold then. I actually went back and looked it up: last year,
middle of October, it was around 11
degrees Celsius, in the morning, at like
8:45, when I was due to be on set.
It felt like maybe 3 degrees you could see your breath
in the air. So let's talk about the first year. Um, got
in the car, er, that YouTube paid for, just,
you know, uh, I can't take that away from them - they did pay for my transport.
I don't think they paid for many people's transport,
but they did pay for mine. Got in the car at like, half 6:00 in the morning, got there
for about... I think, like, quarter past 8:00, I was due to be on set at
8:45; I remember turning up early because traffic
was really, really good. I turn up on set, um, I go to wardrobe,
where they're like: "Here, have some ugly,
black jeans and some ill-fitting boots, and
you're going to be wearing JUST a shirt!
Just...
Know it's October, but just a shirt." Got
dressed, they did my face, kind of well, I guess.
And then...
...booted out. You know, "Out! Out of wardrobe!"
You know, "Moving on! On your own!". Um,
and then, and then pretty much we were all
just left standing around, waiting for our part. Now I
actually had to pretty much, uh,
offer up my services to be in, uh,
in other shoots - in other parts of the shoot.
Because I was so mind-numbingly bored
waiting for my part, like, I didn't have to
film I think until, like, half 2:00/3:00,
so why I had to be there at 8:45, I don't fucking
know.  But it was my first year, and I was excited, I was like "Okay,
this is great, I'm gonna be in YouTube Rewind, I'm
gonna get my moment, Everyone's gonna recognise me, it's gonna be great."
Um, and it was just, a really
difficult day. It was like a 9/10 hour
day. Uh, just out
in the freezing cold. Now, you could say:
"Emma, everyone works out in the cold, okay? People have REAL
jobs," you know, "they work
9/10 hours, on their feet, in the cold." I know,
I've done that too! But every real job I've had, I've been paid
for it!
Again, more on that later, I think. Morale
was pretty low. During the, er,
dance part, where you see me for at least two frames,
I was er, the backup dancer for KSI and Casper.
Who can I just say, uh, were absolutely lovely and really
professional, and very sweet as well, and
they just nailed it. Every single take they
did it perfectly. But for some reason, we had to get it again,
and again, and for safety, and from this angle, and from that angle.
I felt like maybe YouTube/the higher-ups were
you know, telling our director: "Get every
angle, get as much as you can." Only for them
to use maybe like, one and a half/two seconds of a
three-hour shoot, you know? It's rough.
"Oh yeah Emma poor you,
you know, being a YouTuber is so hard, you have,
you have it SO difficult, Emma,
you have to do one day of actual labour!"
Nobody, whether you're in Hollywood,
whether you're working at a drive-through at a fast-food restaurant,
whether you're on a YouTube shoot, nobody should have low morale when they work.
Nobody- nobody should be made to feel undervalued, and like, you know,
"You're just a GIF", or "You're just a tweet
for YouTube Rewind", and that's definitely how a
lot of people on that shoot felt. And I can tell you, there were
so many people on that shoot (who I won't name) who were also very
frustrated and very annoyed and very exhausted
and very cold. Um, my manager, who is very-
he is lovely, but he is very quick to call out if
I'm being an egotistical brat,
you know. He will say: "Emma you're being a fucking entitled asshole."
Even he was saying: "This is ridiculous.
We've been here for so long, everyone is fed up."
Um, he was bored out of his mind, I was bored out of my mind, EVERYONE
was just fed up. So let's talk about 2017, right?
"Emma if it sucked that much, why did you go back? Why
did you do it another year? What's fucking wrong with you?"
Because last year sucked so much, and because
this year has been like, a really, really, like,
cool, important year for me, with the Apple/music thing
and, you know, writing and releasing my own book,
and doing a tour,
because it's been such an amazing year, we went back to YouTube and said:
"Hey, thanks for inviting us to come back this year,
Emma would love to take part.
We would just like clarification that maybe this year,
things are easier," you know, um,
The-the- "the shoot will be quicker, and that
Emma would get more screen time." I'm not that petty
about screen time, okay? Uh, I'm not saying I
should've been like the BIG focus. I was one of the smallest
people on YouTube Rewind, okay? 1.4
million subscribers is not that big anymore. Um,
so I get- I get that I
don't get like a massive feature, I understand that.
Uh, but I think anyone, of
any size, if they were on
set for like ten hours in the freezing cold,
filming for like, three hours, doing the same dance, over and over
again. I think if they got like, two or three frames in the video,
they'd be pissed off too. You know, it doesn't matter if you're big or small, that would
infuriate anybody. We got an email back from YouTube saying: "Hey, yeah, Emma's had an
amazing year. We promise, that Emma is gonna
get a frontal shot of her pouring
slime on herself, it's gonna be
amazing, she's gonna be front and centre." And we were like: "Great!"
This is all- this is all I wanted. I just, I just,
my little arrogant self, you know, all I wanted
was *my moment*.
So, 2017 for the UK was set at an all-boys school.
At least I think it was. It was some sort of boarding school anyway, in London.
Again, it was another early shoot, it was like, you know,
turn up at like, 9:00 I think for me this time. There were people
who had been there for hours and hours before me,
like TomSka, er, Connie,
they'd been there from like half 7:00 in the morning. Which,
you know, I definitely do not envy. I get on set and
again it's the same thing, the waiting around, uh,
in the cold. Obviously you could go in the building, uh,
you could go in the classrooms to warm up, but the thing is,
you know, you needed to be around
just in case you were called on set, you know.
Did the makeup, did the wardrobe, it was just like a plain
hoodie I think, this time. And then...
...The wait, the wait began. The cold,
dreadful wait. It was actually slightly warmer,
this year, but it was still really pretty cold.
Hours of waiting... I remember that lunch was called
before I was even filming. I-I-
I was there from like 9:00, and er, I didn't get
on-on- on set, like, on filming, until
like way past lunch! So I was just sitting there
for like, four hours, doing nothing. Again,
I know that's how it works, but that doesn't mean that it didn't
suck. I finally get to my filming part and
it is supposed to be me, um,
DanTDM, some other guys I think
from Spain and Saffron Barker and
we are supposed to be in this- this little
pool of slime - which was anticipated, they had briefed us on that. Uh,
this- this pool of pink slime and we were gonna be
picking it up, and splashing it around and dancing
and throwing slime at the wall and it was gonna be great,
you know? Where the hell
did that Sun go? I finally, after hours and hours
get into this tiny little pool of slime, and
uh, yeah, it's cold, the slime is cold.
Of course it's fucking cold. I ended up sitting
in the slime, for I would say an hour and a half to two hours,
which is a long time to be covered in this thick,
heavy slime (and it was really heavy
as well). And I- I got soaked in it
- we all did, you know, um,  but I specifically, for reasons that I will
talk about in- in a second. I got absolutely
just... covered. Head to toe
in this slime. Out in the cold for two hours?
Yeah, that was... *laughs*
...that was, that was definitely rough. Now there was kind of this
unspoken thing between myself and the team (I guess
it was unspoken just in case I made an 'exposed' video)
It was basically like an unspoken promise that if I did something
nuts in the slime, if I did something really
cool, then I would get *my moment*.
I would get my moment of, you know, on
screen time for at least like, two seconds - I just wanted two
seconds out of seven minutes, you know? How arrogant
of me! So I was like "You know what?", you know,
"You can't expect something for nothing, I'm going all in.
If I show how dedicated and committed
I am to getting this 'front and centre' bit,
then the editors will be like 'Hell
yeah, this is a great shot'" So I got down on
my knees, alright, I scooped all this slime
while the others were dancing behind me, and I pour it
over my head; I'm making it fucking rain over me man.
There's just this sheet of pink slime, it goes
all in my hair, it goes all over me,
I'm laying down in the slime, you know, I'm doing
all sorts of things. And the team just look at me like: "Yeah
you're gonna, you're gonna get, you're gonna get your moment". They didn't say it,
but they looked at me like: "Hmm, that's- that's the really, really
good shot." Once that was FINALLY over,
we got to use the showers in the, uh, in the school,
and, um...
Because my hair is so bleached, the slime
stained my hair! Um, I was
not told that the slime was obviously
made with fucking food dye.
Which of course, when you've got bleached, damaged, porous
hair like I have, it- it stayed
pink, like a pastel pink
for like, two weeks before it finally shampooed
out. It took a long time, I nearly had to g-
I- I was very close to going to the hairdressers and saying: "Just cut it, just...
I can't get it out", you know.
I didn't want to dye it dark, cuz I was like: "This is..."
Uh, we ended up emailing YouTube being like: "Hey, we're gonna
need some like, compensation for this, at this point, because...
...you've ruined..."
And it was dry, and it was like, breaking off
Cuz it was made of glue, this slime was made of glue!
Oh I don't fucking....
I don't know, I don't make slime, you know! I guess you could say that
was my fault, but I do think maybe if I'd been prepped on it,
maybe I wouldn't have... done the slime thing,
you know. So I got my hair stained, everyone's
hands were like, bright blue or
bright green or bright yellow or... deep pink,
in my case. Everyone got...
completely stained, which can I just state is actually very
unprofessional, because I don't think anyone was briefed
that they would be stained, possibly. What if
someone on set had a film shoot to go to, the
next day? Or was filming a YouTube video, the next day, and-and-
and had green hands? Like...
people should've been briefed about that, people- just as a
professional heads-up. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I'm in the freezing cold,
feeling like absolute death - it made me ill
for like, about week. I know that sounds like just an extra
thing I'm piling on, but I really did have a real bad
cold after that. I forgot about that, that was rough. I got
completely stained, but it was okay because I was gonna get my
moment, right? *My moment*
Did-
Did you miss me? Did, did you-
Look, there it, there it, oh, there I go
That was, that was nine hours, on set
drenched in slime that you guys didn't see...Oh actually, no!
I was wrong, you DO
see me get covered in slime! Do you know where you see it?
Yeah, that's my couple of seconds of screen time, fuck yeah!
Worth it! It was just...
...an unpleasant experience
and I don't put it down to the director, I don't put it down to many of the crew
members, I believe they were told, by heads up
on Skype or something what to do. I don't
blame them, I just think the whole...
...the whole thing was bullshit.
Everyone was cold and... done.
By the end of the shoot, everyone was just like: "I'm done, just get me in the shower" *laughs*
Everyone was fed up with it. Morale was low,
but I feel like we need to talk about another couple of things.
[Music]
I feel like this is gonna be a sticking point
of the video that people pick up and
pluck out. Out of context perhaps?
You know, I wanna state that it doesn't really...
...irk me that much. Do I really
care that I didn't get paid for the day?
No, not really.
But...
...as far as I know, at least in my experience,
no creator was compensated for their time.
YouTube is not exactly like, a dying industry,
okay? Google is not exactly running low on
funds. And you can say: "Well Emma, you got to be in like the
biggest YouTube video of the year, what are you talking about?" But,
this whole being 'paid in exposure' thing has long
been a massive
problem in any creative community, you know, artists
getting asked to draw something for a retweet,
or things like this, you know, um,
"Well you're gonna be a video, so that means you CAN take the whole day off, right?"
But, all of these YouTubers who were there on that day, I'm talking like, you know
TomSka was there, Connie was there, Dan was there,
LDShadowLady was there, Saffron Barker was there, uh,
tons of people were there. I don't know, if
they got paid or not, I can't actually confirm that.
But if they weren't, that's a lot of people,
amongst others that I don't really know or remember that...
...That would've had to take a whole day off from, from filming,
or- or doing their 'real'
job if they have one, I don't know. The fact is I did YouTube Rewind
on a day where I could've been here, in my office,
writing a song, or filming a video
- which would generate me income, which would help me pay my rent. Of course,
you can say: "Well you're a
fucking rich YouTuber, 1.4 million subs"
But,
anyone contributing to a service
should be paid. Unpaid work has been like a massive
conversation this year, so I'm actually kind of glad YouTube
Rewind accidentally covered it! You've got loads of retail workers
who weren't paid for their extra days, or extra
time. You've got the argument about
the wage gap, you know. Nobody should
feel like they are underpaid, or not paid at all, if they're,
if they're doing a service - if they're providing something.
And we were providing our 'brands', right?
I'm aware of how I sound right now, okay? I know,
it's disgusting. I actually got a tweet from someone saying:
"Even in Hollywood, extras are paid now".
Extras are paid! And the people that you're,
you know, acting like, you know: "Oh, we'd love
to have you on set."
They're not- they're not compensated for their time. Which I just,
you know, it just added to the low morale
of the whole thing. It was like an underlying, unsaid thing, like,
like: "I guess none of us are getting paid here." No one said it, but
like, it was a vibe, I felt like it was a vibe. Maybe it's just me,
money-hungry, YouTuber, hey! Like I said, do I massively
care? No, not really.
Um, but there will be people who,
who would've deserved to been got paid, and they weren't paid
you know, or, maybe, worst- maybe,
worst-case scenario,
maybe some of them did get paid, and some didn't.
I couldn't tell you that, but I wouldn't be fucking surprised.
[Music]
Just to add to the low morale of the whole
thing (and this is from my experience, not necessarily from anyone else's).
When you're on set for 9/10 hours, and you're left
waiting around for hours, and
hours. Like, for instance, this year, like I said, I got there for like half 8:00/
9:00, can't remember what it was.
I didn't start filming until at least, like half 1:00/2:00, it might've been like
3:00 by the time I started filming. I'm sitting there, in the cold,
waiting around, bored out
my mind, not sure what to do with myself, and then, uh,
some big YouTubers, who were
going to get a ton of screen time, uh,
were dropped off, and they arrive and everyone's like: "Oh
hi! Nice to see-". Like everyone's pandering to them. I'm like:
"Yeah, fair enough. Like, they are really big,
and everyone really cares about these people. They should be getting
the screen time, I totally get that, and
I get on with them great, whatever." But they turn up at like,
half 11:00; they're wrapped by half 12:00.
Like, they turn up, they get their wardrobe, they get their makeup.
They start filming IMMEDIATELY, the second they turn up,
and then they're gone. Like: "That's a wrap for these guys. Well done
see you later." That was it and I'm still standing there, waiting
to film!
It was nuts! Like, doing that in front of
the people that had been here for hours, tirelessly,
it's just, it's one of the most demoralising,
insulting things, and I know it's
not exclusive to YouTube, it probably happens in Hollywood all the time.
My point is it shouldn't happen, it shouldn't happen anywhere.
No one should be made to feel like less of a big
deal than anyone else. YouTube is full of fragile
egos, okay?
Thousands of arrogant, egotistical people,
all on one shoot is a terrible idea!
This isn't me saying: "Oh, I should've been treated
the same!" It's just like, don't make it so obvious
that, that they are the big thing of the day, like
they are the massive, big deal. Don't leave call sheets lying around
going: "You must get this moment for a GIF. You must get
these two for this moment. You must get this, this, this,
this, this, this, these people, these people." Don't leave those call
sheets out for everyone to see. Like, that's just...
You know, that's not gonna make your cast happy.
This is just my experience, of course. I'm probably just
moaning for no fucking reason. That's me, that's my brand!
[Music]
The final nail in the coffin for me, after
YouTube Rewind was released and I saw my two frames,
fine, whatever. The... big finale
for me, the big thing to top it all off,
the icing on the cake, was, um...
We were all promised that we would get emailed photos,
cuz there was a little photo shoot thing to promote...
...to promote the Rewind. Everyone was gonna get photos sent
to them through their partner managers and stuff,
so they could tweet about it and go: "Hey, did you see me in YouTube Rewind?",
holding a little button(?) You might have seen some people on Twitter
hold- holding the button. I took a photo of that, um,
holding the button, um...
I never got any pictures through. Uh,
other people did, like Connie got them.
Um, I know that because Connie is on the same management as me.
Connie got forwarded all of her like promo photos that she could post
about YouTube Rewind.
...We got no email, I got nothing. Which was
more of just a blow to my ego, really, more than anything else.
You know, that was more of just like an insulting kind of thing. Um,
YouTube posted a photo of me, with
the guys, in the slime - and they tagged my friend
Em Ford, instead of me, they tagged another,
they tagged another 'Em'.
Um,
And uh,
when my manager and I emailed about
all of these grievances,
for this year, saying how we felt
like we'd been really betrayed, and let down...
Our emails got ignored. Completely.
Um,
That to me was really like the final
point where I was like: "YouTube do not..."
It's not just me, but like, "they don't value me,
as a creator. They don't value me as...
a valuable asset to them."
I just...
The shoots made me feel unimportant, and the treatment afterwards
made me feel even worse. So really for me that's like, the,
the main thing, you know. Forget all the cold,
and forget, like, the pink slime, and, you know,
forget all that. Really it's just that they...
I felt like it was a complete waste of
my time. Two years running.
So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be in it next year,
if they ask me - which they won't, because they'll see this video! But,
I'm not gonna be a part of it. I don't care if my channel somehow
miraculously blows up, and I end up with like, 20 million subscribers.
I don't care if I'm the next fucking , like, Taylor Swift! I don't,
I don't give a shit! I'm not, I'm not gonna be in it.
I don't...
Cuz I know it will be exactly the same, cuz I was promised this year that it
wouldn't be the same as last year, and they lied.
It was exactly the same, if not, worse. So, um,
Yeah, fuck 'em. Fuck YouTube, is,
is basically my thoughts on the whole thing.
Again, this was just from my perspective, other
people might have really fucking enjoyed themselves, I don't know.
But, I for one...
I'm an asshole, I wanted *my moment*,
and I didn't get my moment. So, er...
It just sucked, it just sucked. Um,
I understand, that there are gonna be a lot of people saying:
"Emma, there are thousands of people who would've given
anything, to have been on YouTube Rewind. So many small"
creators who are trying to make it, who would've loved
to be in your position." But until you're actually on the set,
where you're treated like a piece of crap, or not really spoken to, or
out in the freezing cold. Until you're doing that,
and you feel like you might as well have not been there,
then you can't say it, I promise you.
The idea of YouTube Rewind
sounds amazing, from the outside, when I first got invited, I was like:
"Oh my God, YouTube Rewind". Um,
I was like that. I was like "Oh my God, I've dreamed of this moment,"
and it's nothing like you think it would be. It's not
glamourous. Um,
yeah, it sucked. So, anyway, that was
this impeccably long video, my
apologies.
Thank you so much for watching, let me know if you think I'm
just a butt-hurt,
egotistical,
asshole. I'm still making videos, by the way. This isn't me, like,
leaving. In fact next year I'm actually gonna be...
...trying to film more stuff.
But, YouTube Rewind...
...can just fuck off.
Catch you later!
