Eye shadow palettes, a bottle of foundation, freshly washed brushes and sponges lay perfectly on top of a white vanity. One eye shadow palette lays open revealing a well-used brown shadow, the silver from the bottom of the pan peeping through. This is where Elyse Lijoi finds herself the most comfortable.
Lijoi, a senior at Ramapo College, wanted to do more with her free time after the long days of classes. She started a YouTube channel in the summer of her sophomore year. Lijoi is a communication art major with a concentration in writing.
With a passion for glitter and everything beauty related, Lijoi starting the channel was a dream come true.
The world of beauty on YouTube was growing along with her passion: makeup. She wanted to have a voice within the community and her channel, “At Least Elyse ” gained the first few followers. She now has 26 subscribers and will be working hard to gain more.
“I always watched funny video on YouTube, but I never saw myself as somebody funny, so I thought that idea wasn’t going to work,” Lijoi said. “But when beauty gurus started to really become popular on YouTube. I thought could be something i could be good at so I thought I’d give it a try.”
After putting out her first few videos, she decided to write a corresponding beauty blog to fill in gaps when school work piled up, making it hard to film and edit videos. Lijoi also has social media in order to connect more with her followers and to keep them more up-to-date if they aren’t constantly checking both pages.
The Process
She set up a spot in her room. Dozens of eye shadow palettes stood in a neat row. Three cups stood in a line holding all different kinds of brushes, some stained with the pigments of color and some freshly washed. Lijoi sits down and smiles at her camera, starting to speak about the new primer she holds in her hand. She finishes her last sentence and turns off the camera. The smile fades as she dreads the next part.
Editing.
“Editing is always the hardest part for me because that’s when you actually hear your voice on camera and that’s when I am actually ready to run away from the entire idea.”
The support she has received has pushed Lijoi to do her very best work. Although she was skeptical about what her friends and family may think of her pursuit of her dream of being a beauty guru, the support they have given her is unremarkable.
“Ever since putting out my first few videos, I have had a crazy amount of support and my friends have been amazing throughout the entire process,” Lijoi said.
As her school work is becoming more and more difficult, Lijoi has taken more to writing her blog rather than making videos. She hopes that after graduation, she will have more time to film videos and write her blog.
The process of making her videos as well as the links to her channel and blog are great assets. I think it may be of value to dig deeper into what inspired her other than that it was just a trend to do that and if any specific beauty bloggers influenced her. I think her perspective is valuable and that her passion comes through, but it could be beneficial to talk more about what she likes about doing it. I think the line about editing is really great as a quote as well because that gives a lot of insight. Your descriptions in the beginning as well as the process were really nice touches.