Monday Night Inspiration: YouTube Favourites

A simple post for Monday Night Inspiration tonight, mostly because it’s past midnight (and my brain is scrambled)! In the last few years I’ve become much more interested in YouTube and the many, many, channels covering a plethora of subjects and interests.

I first became interested a few years ago when Dan started watching Lo-Fi Girl (a music channel, formerly called Chilled Cow), Outside Xtra, and Abroad In Japan. Then I began watching Leena Norms’s videos during 2020 and discovered many of the channels I watch now.

It’s strange that I’m such a latecomer to YouTube – a lot of deaf people use it and have channels, but it was partly because the access has a complicated track record. The auto captions can be a bit hit and miss (especially for live streams) and not all YouTubers opt to turn them on. Luckily most of the channels I watch have good captioning, and some YouTubers actually correct their own captions in the editing stage.

So, here are some of my favourites:

Leena Norms

Leena has been around on YouTube for a while now, and she has an incredible archive of videos. I enjoy them because she’s not afraid to explore topics that might seem controversial to other YouTubers, especially if they’re looking for brand sponsorships (she only works with brands that she likes or trusts).

She talks about everything from books, to climate (her Positive Panic series for eg), sustainable clothing practices and styling, films, and even writing and poetry prompts. It’s her trademark candour and attitude that I enjoy the most, and her willingness to be open-minded and learn something new.

This is one of my favourite videos by her, where she uses an unusual item to give her, and us, some poetry writing inspiration:

Jen Campbell

Jen Campbell is an author and poet, and has written a number of bestselling books. She’s also an avid reader, and disability representation advocate. The majority of her videos are about books and reading.

She does talk on her channel about her disability, disability representation in the publishing industry, and also has a number of videos where she recommends books by disabled authors.

Her videos are often cosy and like chilling with a friend as they go about their day – sometimes she will share clips from what she’s been cooking or the walks she goes on.

How to ADHD

This channel is a treasure trove of information about ADHD run by Jessica McCabe. It was really helpful for me when I first started to suspect I also had ADHD as well as being autistic, although some of the information she shares is also useful for autistic people too.

Her videos range from 4-20 minutes long, so most of them are short and digestible, and some use graphics and animation to explain things visually. She also signposts other resources and talks to other advocates too. I like Jessica’s positive vibe and encouraging attitude. And her catch-phrase ‘Hello Brains!’ never fails to make me laugh!

Khadija Mbowe

Khadija shares video essays about a variety of media and subjects, from Bridgerton, to stereotyping, to critical race theory. She is witty, thoughtful, and I really enjoy her perspective on things.

If you enjoy delving into subjects and analysing media, then this is an excellent channel to watch.

In a similar vein, I also recommend Ash Tanya’s channel too if you enjoy video essays and deep dives.

Ariel Bissett

Ariel’s channel was primarily book based when I first started watching her channel, but then two years ago she purchased a house with her family (for actually not much money at all, since it’s in an out of the way village) in Novia Scotia and started to renovate it, bit by bit.

It’s absolutely spectacular to watch the house she bought, which was in rough shape, transform into a beautiful home.

This is the first video where she tells us about the new house:

Bernadette Banner

Bernadette Banner’s channel is primarily about dress history, with some DIY and reconstruction experiments. It’s really interesting to learn about the history of clothing and how that affects what we wear now, the way clothes are made, and traditional dressmaking techniques and crafts.

I recently found her video discussion about whether fast fashion originated in the Victorian era fascinating!

Kitten Lady

This channel is about the cats and kittens Hannah Shaw rescues, fosters, and re-homes. She has been rescuing and fostering cats for years. I’d been following her on Instagram for a while before I realised she had a channel on YouTube.

She shares a lot of educational videos about cats, how to take care of them, foster, rescue, and how to understand their behaviours. She also shares videos of her cats, and it’s really lovely to see them grow and flourish under her care. Her partner is also the iamthecatographer on Instagram!

And there we have it – I have lots more where that came from but I hope these videos have inspired you in some way this Monday. There’s so many interesting channels out there!

---

This post is part of NanoPoblano, a Cheer Peppers production! If you’d like to see what other people are writing and sharing, please click the image below.