Beauty guru Michelle Phan is one of dozens of female YouTube content creators lending their voices to a new global campaign to empower young women by writing letters to their younger selves.
The #DearMe initiative, launched by YouTube this month in honor of International Women’s Day, aims to help girls confront self-doubt, bullying, and pressure through video letters uploaded to the site. Among the participants in the launch of the campaign are Indo-Canadian comedian Lilly Singh (known as IISuperwomanII), Mumbai model Scherezade Shroff, and bilingual vlogger Chika Yoshida, who filmed her video in both English and Japanese.
“Going way back to my younger days, growing up in the tiny town of Anacortes, Washington, my biggest insecurity was being one of the only Asian students at school,” Yoshida says in her video. “I always wondered to myself, ‘Why do I have to be the different one? Why do I have to be the one with the small eyes, the coarse black hair, the yellow skin, the flat face?’”
The #DearMe videos featured across YouTube range from discussions about beauty to faith to accepting the flaws that make an individual unique.
“YouTube is a place where people can come together, share interests, relate experiences and offer each other support,” YouTube marketing manager Cathy Tang said, citing viral campaigns such as #ItGetsBetter and #ProudtoPlay as examples of the conversations that YouTube have helped foster.
Since debuting the #DearMe campaign on Tuesday, YouTube’s announcement video has been viewed over 1 million times.
