Why did YouTube star leave YouTube?

Why did YouTube star leave YouTube?

  Michelle Phan is a Vietnamese-American YouTube creator who makes videos of herself doing make-up.  She posted her first video in 2007 when she was 20, and more than 40,000 people  watched it.  Now there are more than 8.9 million subscribers.  She became so popular that she worked with famous cosmetics companies like Lancome and L’oreal.  Later she launched her    own brand called MyGlam which grew to be worth $500 million. She was named “Forbes 30    under 30” in 2015, which is the list of 30 most successful people under age 30.  Yes, she is a    star. 

   She suddenly stopped posting video clips since July 2016. People wondered what had          happened to her.  After almost a year, on June 1, 2017, Michelle posted an 11-minute-video     clip titled, “Why I left”.  Her story was stunning.

  As a child, Michelle grew up watching her mom, a nail artist, often fighting dad over money.  Mom told Michelle to “become successful, like a doctor, then you can make money and be     happy.”  She didn’t want to be a doctor so she went to an art school, but promised her mom   that she would one day become successful and support the family.  She believed if she had    money she will be happy.

 

“That one video changed the course of my journey”

  When she first posted her first make-up demonstration video in 2007, it was just for hobby.   But as YouTube became more popular, the creators were able to make money.  She was able to quit her part-time job and make her hobby into a successful career.  “I did it mom! I was         successful.  I was happy,” recalls Michelle.  Soon she was able to support the family. 

  To make her career more successful she left her family in Florida and moved to California.     She began to work with cosmetics business and she worked harder and harder.  With her help, her mom was able to retire. 

“The taste of success was like a drug.”

  But once she stepped foot in the business, she couldn’t slow down.  She was keeping herself busy.  She always felt she wasn’t doing enough.  “I figured,” she says, “the more productive I    am, the more successful I will become, because money buys happiness.”  But instead of buying happiness, it had a cost.  She was growing tired.  Staying busy was the only way she knew to   forget about her stress, but that made things even worse.  Her pride didn’t let her show her    weakness to others.  Eventually she was isolated from her family, friends and viewers.  She lost all joy in her life.

“Once, I was a girl with dreams, who eventually became a product, smiling, selling and selling.”

  one day, she packed up and left to Switzerland.  She says, “I left everything - my dreams,      success, the life I built that I worked so hard for - all behind me, and didn’t look back.”  There   she was able heal, learn and grow. She went to school to learn new things.  She found peace in nature.  She learned to accept her past, either good or bad, but not let the past control the     present.  She recognized that had become a product because she let money replace herself.    “You can’t buy happiness,” she declares, “but you can create it.”  Realizing this, she was ready   to do what she wanted.

  “I want to create”

  Michelle concludes her video by mentioning what she wants to do now.  She says she just     wants to create because that’s what makes her happy.  “Back then, I was just someone who was showing you how to look beautiful.  Now I want to show you how to feel more beautiful.“  She has begun to live her own life again.  Not driven by money, not as a product, but as happy     Michelle.

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