A Milestone on Youtube (giveaway)

A lot has happened since my first YouTube video upload on my main channel. We’ve moved two times, lived in 3 different places. I’ve participated in three blogger contests, all beginning with the Allure Beauty Blogger Awards in 2014. Met a whole new community of women. Learned, grown, and hurt. It’s been a crazy two years and I want to thank you for being here. On Mother’s Day, my youtube channel reached 40,000 subscribers. Some might think it’s happened fast. Some, not fast enough. Some think it’s a huge number. Some laugh at my subscriber count. Depending on the day, I feel all these things, but no matter how I feel about where I’ve come from, I am grateful for each and every subscriber, viewer, reader, and even the haters out there. Without you I would not be the woman I have become. Without you, I am not sure where I would be today. Without you, I would not have found a career I truly love. Without you, I would be lost. You have helped me in more ways than I can think of. You have shown me compassion, support, love, and together we have built this amazing community. I am stronger, wiser, and more compassionate because of you. I am braver. I am more vulnerable. Every time I hesitate or fear sharing my personal struggles and experiences, you have surprised me. You have shown me that I am not alone. That we are all in this together. For that I am forever grateful. It’s taken me awhile to figure out what I want to offer as a giveaway. Nothing seemed enough to show my appreciation. I did not want to skip this giveaway, so I thought I would show a token of my appreciation by offering two winners to each win a $50 gift card of their choosing from three stores. This way the winners are able to shop for something that they truly want.

If you would like to enter the giveaway, please watch the video below and enter through the Rafflecopter link, also below. To make it as fair as possible, I do not choose the winners, winners are randomly selected via rafflecopter. The only requirement to enter is to be subscribed to my main YouTube channel. There are also a bunch of bonus entry options that will further your odds of winning. Each winner will be contacted directly and have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be selected. Because of currency exchange and laws, I am only offering this giveaway to those who can shop at the three stores I have selected. This is for the smoothest delivery of the gift card. Once the winner has contacted me, I will order the gift cards online and have them sent to you. Hopefully I will be able to find a solution in the future for those who do not have access to the same stores. Please understand that I am trying to follow all the rules and make it as easy as possible for everyone. Full terms and conditions are available through the rafflecopter link.

Sometimes when I think about the 40,000 subscribers I get so overwhelmed, I cry. I remember when I first started my channel I was lost and needed an outlet and community. Stumbling through the rabbit hole of YouTube, I discovered the beauty community and became entranced. After a few months, I uploaded my first video. My first 20 subscribers and viewers were my lifeline. When I hit 100 views on my videos I was so excited and grateful and overcome with a sense of purpose. YouTube offered a community for me and I wanted to build a strong, supportive, positive place for people. I wanted to make videos to make others happy and also to give myself an outlet. Youtube comforted me and saved my life at a very dark time, I wanted to give back.

Two years later, I quite acting, my lifelong dream, passion, and only career I had ever known, and took on YouTube full time. Thanks to the support of my mom and husband, I was able to transition to a full time YouTuber. It was one of the hardest things to do. To finally say I’m done with a lifelong pursuit and cut ties with the old. For months I would be afraid to tell people what I did full time. While acting was never consistent, people knew what it was, especially living in L.A.  When you say you are a YouTuber, you get this weird look, then you explain. Then the judgmental confused look happens. Then they ask questions and think I’m crazy. Whatever, I’ve come to terms with it and I’m proud to be a full time YouTuber and Blogger, I love creating content and i’m the happiest I’ve ever been!

This past year I have relaunched my blog and focused more on lifestyle and opening up on here. Originally, I had started a blog and tumblr account to document my engagement and wedding. I had no idea what blogging was, I just needed a diary and blogger offered that to me. It’s crazy to look back at some of the first content I had created and where I was mentally. Every time I start to burn out or get discouraged, a comment lifts me. So many of you have reached out via Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and left comments here and on my videos about how my videos helped you, how you feel happier, less alone after watching them. That keeps me going. When my mom had her stroke and I didn’t know how I was going to go on, you kept me going. The amount of stories shared with me helped me realize I was not alone. That this happens to too many of us. How you dealt with a loss of parent or a parent who also had a stroke. This community has shown me how much life has thrown at all of us and how we all keep going. When one of us feels down, we are able to lift each other up. When I need support you are there for me and me for you.

So while my main channel is focused on beauty, this blog will be where I share more of my life as well as my second channel More Serein I’ve decided to not just vlog on the second channel, but to include, anything and everything else. Recently in one my vlogs, I asked if you’d like to see plan with me’s and the answer was yes, so along with plan with me’s, I will be adding “What I Eat In a Day” as well as “Fitness” and more. Exactly what that channel is called, More Serein. I encourage you to subscribe there as well, but don’t worry, I also have a playlist on my main channel page, so you can always catch up there as well.

https://youtu.be/JK8DHll2yJA
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please let me know what you’d like to see more of and where. Hubs and I plan to do more traveling, so you’ll definitely see some fun content soon, but I’d love to know what you are interested in.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for helping me build this community. You have helped make my dreams come true, a dream I never really knew I had till a 2 years ago.

xoxo

Serein