Chapman vloggers: the students talking to their camera all the time
Erin Eskoff (left), Ally Guerra (right) and Cora Josephine (center) discuss their experience as both a college student and a YouTube vlogger, each with a growing amount of subscribers. Photo collage by SIMRAH AHMAD, staff photographer
Back in September 2021, Ally Guerra started to unpack her belongings in the dorm room that would become the at-home studio for her YouTube channel. With her Canon G7X camera and a Sagittarius' love for talking, Guerra pressed the record button and started filming her "College Move-in Vlog."
Even though it may have been an odd feeling to film a timelapse video organizing clothes in front of her newly-acquainted roommate or capturing moments with her orientation buddies, sophomore public relations and advertising major Guerra said that each video clip serves as a memento for this special day that she can always look back on.
"I look (back) at my move-in vlog, and I don't remember anything that happened that day," Guerra said. "You're never going to be a freshman in college again, moving away for the first time. I always look at my old videos from high school, and I'm so thankful I recorded those memories because it's like a little time capsule. I think it's a really cool thing."
Guerra, who has just over 300 subscribers, is one of the many rising vloggers (video-bloggers) at Chapman. Whether it's a day-in-the-life video with Schmid Gate as the backdrop or tips to study during finals season, each one of these influencers strives to bring light to the Chapman community.
With most of the content geared toward college students, fellow vlogger Cora Josephine told The Panther that the vlogging landscape was a different story several years ago.
"When I was trying to choose what school to go to, I was watching, trying to find on YouTube a lot of videos of other people at Chapman to kind of see what it was like," Josephine said. "I found that there weren't that many videos for me to get a good grasp of what campus life was like here. So I knew that when I came here, I wanted to start vlogging and posting videos for other people to be able to watch and get a better grasp on if they think Chapman is like the right school for them."
Josephine's YouTube channel, which now has almost 13,000 subscribers, began to rise in popularity due to her de-stigmatizing the idea of a typical fitness influencer by participating in the Chloe Ting workout challenge at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While releasing body positivity content and emphasizing important messages is crucial for Josephine, she said each video also serves as a scrapbook of memories.
"It's kind of just like a diary," Josephine said. "Some people journal, but for me, I can look back and see, ‘Oh, that's what I did that week,’ and it's really fun to watch. So I always go back and watch (my videos) every once in a while because it's just fun to remember all the fun things I did last year."
Along with typical college student videos relating to homework and "What to wear to a college party," sophomore business major and rising vlogger Erin Eskoff said she tailors her content to her workload and what is going on in her life.
"If it's a busy week for me, maybe I'll do a productive vlog, or if I'm doing a lot of homework and I have a lot of tests that week, I'll do a 'How I Study Effectively' type of thing because I know those are also pretty popular videos," Eskoff said. "I think the good thing about vlogging is you don't really have to make time for it. I can just go through my day and just film it and that's really all it takes."
With so many different types of vloggers out there — from traveling, beauty to cooking — Guerra said that she hones in on her fangirl persona by vlogging Harry Styles concerts and loads of Disney content. She also strives to bring forth a welcoming personality online without any facade that was present in the 2017 polished era of YouTube where sitting down in front of a ring light with filters applied to the video quality was encouraged.
"(I like to) pretend I'm on FaceTime with a friend," Guerra said. "Because I'm just talking, I'm just being natural, and it kind of just breaks that fourth wall between the person watching my video and (myself). So they just feel like they're just talking to a friend on FaceTime."
While filming vlogs consists of whipping out a camera throughout the day, Guerra said the editing process is much more grueling. Even in 30-minute increments, it can take up to 10 to 12 hours to put together a complete video for these influencers. But, Guerra said she predicts the overall look of a video before shooting — making her dream of each video a reality.
"I'd say I always have a mental idea of what I want to do and how I want to execute it," Guerra said. "That's the first thing I do when I come up with a video idea is imagine a live video before I even film it. Before I even live that day in my head. I imagine how it's gonna look. And then I kind of just manifest that into my computer once I'm done filming it."
The hard word certainly pays off for these vloggers — with Josephine receiving brand deals from stores like Princess Polly and being recognized for her work by students on campus.
"A couple people have come up to me and said, 'Oh, you're the reason I found out what Chapman was and came to Chapman’ or ‘I watched your videos and that's what made me decide to come here,’” Josephine said. “(They say) stuff like that, which is super, super sweet."
Even though the current college generation grew up watching Cody Ko, Emma Chamberlain and Bethany Mota, many still watch vlogs as their form of entertainment. But the question that remains is why people are so interested in watching the daily lives of people in the first place. Josephine said that it can serve as a glimpse into real life versus televised scripted content.
"Everybody is interested to see how other people live and function," Josephine said. "I think (people like) the simple act of watching other people go about their day-to-day lives and doing normal things. Someone could literally be doing like nothing, but I'm still gonna watch it. It's still great to watch, like TV shows and stuff, but I think people have an attachment to content that's really real and that they can relate to."
No matter the subscriber count or views acquired, Guerra said her goal with her YouTube channel is to fulfill her love of documenting her memories. If someone is interested in pursuing a hobby or career in vlogging, Guerra gives simple and familiar advice: YOLO (You Only Live Once).
"'Why not' is my main thing,” Guerra said. “That's what I say all the time. Like why not go to that concert? Why not do this? We only live once. That's my main thing, and I think if anyone could just resonate with it — even like one person — that's my job done."