Nowadays there are many “popular” YouTubers that use their platforms in the wrong way, or they simply just care for the money their subscribers can give them so in the dark times, let me show you the light that bestdressed is. When I was younger I liked the British YouTubers like Zoella and Joe Sugg, then as I got older it turned into mylifeaseva, and later Shane Dawson. Right now, my favorite YouTubers are bestdressed, David Dobrik, Mr. Nightmare and Emma Chamberlain. To tell you the truth though, the only channel I still keep up with is bestdressed a.k.a. Ashley. Ashley is a 21-year-old from Maryland that moved to Los Angeles when she started college. She is a film major that has now graduated from college. I first started watching her when she only had a year left before graduating. What is so special about her that I am writing a whole article about her? Well Ashley is a feminist. A very intellectual funny feminist. A lot of YouTubers nowadays only care about receiving views and subscribers but Ashley is very careful and thoughtful about her content (it takes her over 10 hours of editing for a 20-minute video) AND she speaks about current problems. She also does not speak about these problems in a way that is unbearable. What I mean by that is that there are other YouTubers out there that speak up about current problems BUT the way they express themselves bores me. Ashley is fun and funny, she knows how to get her point across in a way that keeps me interested.
There are two videos I always think about because she said the realest things ever. The first video is called “How I Learned to Love Being Single (+why you should too)”. This video is one of my favorites, I like everything she says in it but there is this one piece in the section “slut shaming” where she says she hates “the fact that women are considered sluttier if they have sex with multiple men than if they’re having the same amount of sex with one man in a relationship… some of my friends even now will talk about their number as in the number of guys that they’ve had sex with and [trying to keep] that number low. I think a lot of women feel pressure to not sleep with that many guys in their lifetime. For a long time, I did, and I felt like every new guy that I had sex with, I was ticking one box off of my f****** like a bingo board. I only had so many chances in my life, so he had to be worth it and now like I don’t f****** count like who is counting? Are you serious??” I agreed with all of this so hard that I felt angry, because it IS a thing when it shouldn’t be. Women should not be shamed for having a “high” body count, it is nobody’s business with whom we are having sex with, however many times.
The second video is called “Taking Myself on a Date”. My favorite part of this video is when she says, “You know, I feel like it’s such a prevalent idea in media and movies and TV shows that it’s not okay to be alone, especially as a woman. I know that idea is so outdated, and we all know that we do not need no man. But sometimes I doubt whether we actually believe that, you know. It’s like, “Oh you don’t need a man, but you should be panicked if you’re over 30 and you haven’t married and settled down and have kids yet because then what is the f****** point of your body if it can’t produce children anymore.” I don’t know. It just sucks that…I feel like women are taught that we’re less valuable on our own”. THIS. THIS. THIS. How many times are we told by family members “are you dating anyone?” (me at every single family gathering when I am barely 20 years old), people telling my parents that at my age, I am close to getting married when I am not even thinking about that yet because like I said I am BARELY 20. Ashley does not only say those wise words, she also says this, “I can’t help feeling like I only have a certain number of good years you know, before I need to settle down and find the one. I think part of what’s really harmful is the way that this like, dance of dating and marriage is phrased as if a woman has to like trick a guy into marrying her or like “hunt one down”. Because it’s so rare that a guy would want to marry you instead of just f*** you. You know, and I really used to buy into that.” How true and sad is that? Women are indeed raised to think like this. I have a cousin who is 29 and she is not married or dating anyone, and I just hear family members telling her that her time is running out. Why does society have to be this way?
Ashley is such an inspiration. She is really independent and also speaks up. She has helped me shape the way I view things sometimes because I can end up believing the negative society pressures women are taught to believe (like the example with believing my time is running out at the age of 20). Not only that but Ashley does videos where she speaks about important topics that have been deemed taboos because women should feel oppressed according to society. One of those videos is called “Losing my V Card, Masturbation, and Other Sexual Adventures“. I understand that is an explicit video name but I think that she is helping other women become more open about things like these. I hope that you will consider giving Ashley a watch, she is indeed one of the best YouTubers/Influencers out there, trying to make this society better.