Courtesy of Charlize Chiu

Debuting her song “You and Me,” junior Charlize Chiu plays the guitar for her first live recording on Youtube. Chiu spent almost three months working on additional verses and instrumental parts. “The most challenging aspect of running social media accounts is finding ways to stay motivated and please everyone on each platform, including myself,” Chiu said. “Sometimes people don’t like the same things as I do, and that makes things hard.”

Growing up, junior Charlize Chiu spent her days watching Youtubers like nigahiga, Smosh and Shane Dawson. Now, she finds herself following in their footsteps with her growing Instagram and Youtube accounts.

“I found my inspiration just by watching a lot of other YouTube videos, especially when I was younger,” Chiu said.

Chiu made her first Instagram account in 2016 and had accumulated almost 4000 followers, but decided to start over with a new account featuring pictures with a variety of edits, outfits and styles of makeup.

“I would work on creating little skits but I didn’t really like the ‘vibe’ of my old account so I ended up deleting it and created a new one with different content,” Chiu said. “What I really like about my new account is that my followers and friends are always hyping me up on my pictures and that has helped me gain a lot more self-confidence.”

And while she does not hold herself to a strict schedule, Chiu understands the importance of posting quality content on both of her accounts on a semi-regular basis.

“It can be stressful at times, because when you don’t post for longer than a week, people will start to unfollow you, and you have to post things that appeal to your followers as well in order to keep them,” Chiu said. “I know that numbers shouldn’t matter, but it’s also the fact that you want people to see the content you create and work hard on and you don’t want people to lose interest.”

Along with her reestablished Instagram, Chiu decided to take her influence a step further with a Youtube channel for her sketches and music.

“In fifth grade, I started recording song covers just for fun, so from the start I knew that I wanted to display some of my musical abilities online, but really I just make whatever I feel like making and try to come up with ‘sketches’ or tutorials for my videos,” Chiu said.

After posting videos such as bathing her dog, cooking brownies and vlogging with her friends, Chiu released her first piece of original music June 11 under the title, “You and Me.”

“I began writing the song in April when I started getting excited about summer and thinking about all the things I would do, and just put them in a song,” Chiu said. “First, I came up with a pattern and chords that I thought sounded really nice together. After that, I came up with the lyrics and just put it all together.”

The song has almost 200 views compared to Chiu’s average of 50-100 views and was entered into a contest on a music channel called M3GreatRiffs, who shows people’s original songs and then asks his subscribers to vote on their favorite for prizes like gift cards and 3D printed trophies.

“I didn’t win the contest, but the responses I’ve been getting have been amazing. My friends and family have been super supportive, and to my surprise, everyone seemed to genuinely enjoy the song and some even began sharing it with their friends,” Chiu said.

Managing three active social media accounts has allowed Chiu to learn about the ins and outs of video editing.

“In the beginning, I never edited my videos at all. Now I edit using iMovie because I don’t have anything advanced like Final Cut Pro, but it still works well for what I use it for,” Chiu said. “There are so many types of editing styles that I just recently figured out that can make your videos funnier and more entertaining to watch.”

Chiu not only appreciates the lessons she learned from her accounts but is thankful for the opportunities she’s had to meet with and get to know her followers.

“At the end of the day, I’m just really grateful for the amount of self-confidence I have gained,”  Chiu said. “And when I connect with my followers through Instagram and they reach out to me and ask me for advice, I love that I am able to help them.”