1. Megan MacKay
VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT: How Trump Could Happen in Canada and If Your Anxiety Could Talk
Megan’s tagline is “Comedy. Politics. Feminism. Puppies.” The promise of puppies will likely hook you in, but the dual citizen’s hilarious, informational and easily digestible videos about the political climate in Canada and the United States will make you stay. She’s also intersectional with her feminism and intimidatingly witty with her words. And though her comments on politicians can be scathing, she never leaves you hopeless about the future, and consistently provides her viewers with avenues for community activism.
2. Kayla Briët
VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT: Smoke That Travels and childhood
Kayla is a young Native American that’s talented in both the arts and sciences. As a self-taught filmmaker, musician and composer, her masterpieces have even taken her to the White House Film Festival. But she’s also a coder that currently studies how computer science can create interactive forms of storytelling. “Smoke That Travels” is a personal documentary that blends snippets of music and dance to tell a story about her experiences with loss and preservation as a Prairie Band Potawatomi. It’s absolutely stunning and it’s won a lot of accolades — so it’ll probably win you over, too.
3. Shameless Maya
VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT: Growing Up in Racist America: Meet My 100 Year Old Granny and Losing the Person You Love
If you click on a video of Maya’s, you’ll notice almost immediately that she’s vibrant, thoughtful, and always wearing her heart on her sleeve. She started her YouTube channel as a social media experiment on “shamelessly” promoting herself — and years later, she continues to share her emotions and experiences with her audience openly and expressively. “Growing Up in Racist America” is a touching interview between Maya and her great grandmother. It’s an intimate, quietly powerful story about the injustices against our loved ones and their triumphs in overcoming them.
4. Lucy Moon
VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT: My Sister Has ADHD and Hi, I’m Lucy
The backgrounds of Lucy’s videos are always clean, fresh and bright, and so are most of her lifestyle videos on fashion and travel. But she’s also adept at starting darker, difficult conversations so that topics that are always spoken about in hushed voices are finally out in the open. In “Hi, I’m Lucy”, she speaks honestly and bravely to her viewers about her struggle with alcoholism despite her young age. “My Sister Has ADHD” is a more cinematic piece, but another beautiful example of the fact that everyone — despite appearances or impressions — is fighting their own battle.
5. Justkissmyfrog
VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT: Alternative Small Talk and The Women Who Went Missing From Sport
It feels as though Leena, or “justkissmyfrog”, is already my best friend. She has a talent for putting my most internal thoughts into eloquent words, but she’s also silly, sassy and a little quirky. She’s exactly the kind of person I’d want to have a long heart-to-heart with on a tough day. Her work in publishing often means she posts a lot of videos about books, but she’s also a writer and thinker herself. In the days after the Brexit vote, she published “We Are British: A Poem” and more recently made a stunningly sensory video called “Alternative Small Talk” about the struggle of being an introspective extrovert.