Hey there, it's Inés from Draw Curiosity!
Now, I don’t know about you but I always enjoy watching Channel Year in Review Videos,
and so I’m going to be extremely self-indulgent today and I'm going to tell you what’s happened
in 2016, give quite a few thank you’s and what’s to come in 2017!
And fear not, there are plenty of science videos underway if this isn’t quite for you.
Draw Curiosity officially launched in May this year, but to be honest, the idea has
existed for far longer.
Ever since I was little I loved nature and maths, and I had always wanted to make my
own documentaries.
But in spite of that, it took me a very long time to get started…
18 years to be exact.
To be perfectly honest I lacked a lot of self-confidence, but we’re not going to go into that.
The good news is that earlier this year, I finally had a significant change in mindset
and I decided to follow that dream.
I’m not really sure why it took me so long, nor how come it happened so suddenly, but
I’m really glad that it did happen.
It was January 2016, I went to SICB to present my PhD research, SICB being a huge conference
in America - and I had an absolute blast.
Whilst I was there I attended a science communication workshop, and long story short, I wasn’t
that bad at it and I also got to meet Marc Abrahams, who in case you didn’t know, he
is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes.
And he said the following to me:
Now, whilst I’m sure this would’ve been said to anyone, it made me start thinking
seriously about starting something up this year.
And this is where the person I’m definitely most grateful to comes in: my wonderful friend
Mina.
She has been so unbelievably and incredibly motivating, supportive and encouraging from
Day minus 1.
Her words were: “So... you’ve been wanting to do that for so long, why haven't you started
yet?”.
So she helped me come up with the name Draw Curiosity, and she promptly made me buy the
domain, get the YouTube page, the Facebook page, get back into Twitter... basically get
started.
And I gave myself five months to launch the channel.
Five months might sound like a really long time to launch a YouTube channel, but I worked
very hard in that time.
I laid out the website just the way I wanted it.
I invested in a camera bag, and I made myself take my DSLR out so I could learn how to use
it properly.
I learnt how to edit and animate in the software that I switched to.
There were many other logistics as well, such as finding the right music and the art.
Huge shoutout to CryoSleepKitten, whose music is the background music to every science video,
and to Thastor, whose mystic house song Johnson is Draw Curiosity’s theme tune.
I’m also incredibly grateful and humbled that incredible artist and friend Caro Waro,
and animator Cristina de Manuel worked together to put together the channel art and the characteristic
intro animation to this channel.
I love it so much, and it ALWAYS inspires me to make sure any video I publish lives
up to it.
And of course, I also practiced my science communication.
I entered several competitions.
Perhaps most notably, I entered FameLab and made it to the regional phase!
I discovered that I was equally thrilled and terrified about talking science to an audience.
And since then, I've joined Toastmasters and I've signed up to every speaking gig I could.
So, I'm happy to say that I am no longer nervous before giving a talk, and in fact, I think
talking to a live audience is now one of my favourite things to do.
I am really, really grateful to everyone who has supported me alongside this endeavour
from the start - my friends, my parents, Joe and all of you who have offered support and
feedback in some way!
I also discovered that I really loved the process of making videos.
And perhaps the most pleasant surprise of all is discovering the other side of YouTube
- how lovely the community that watches science videos on the Internet is!
I mean, I love making videos but to an audience like you, it’s honestly my pleasure.
Draw Curiosity always grew quicker than I expected it to, but I would definitely say
the tipping point was pitching and creating the guest video for Tom Scott - so, thank
you so much Tom!
Draw Curiosity went from just shy of a humble hive of around 400 lovely people to a colony
of over 10K equally delightful people in a week!!
And I’m thankful to every single one of you.
All of you who watch any of my stuff, those who subscribed, who click those thumbs uppy
buttons - but particularly, those of you who comment and share my stuff.
I have never seen as many lovely and intelligent comments as I have in my comment section,
nor so many nice people actually trying to answer each other and spread knowledge.
It blows my mind and I love it, so again - thank you so much.
I was forewarned that I’d probably get lots of mean people on my channel.
I’m actually used to people being mean cause I used to be bullied at school, but honestly,
the worst egg on this channel wasn’t really that bad, and they came well before the Tom
Scott video.
So that’s all good.
It’s also very exciting that we reached 10K subscribers.
It’s a milestone I was hoping to reach some day simply because at that point you can unlock
the YouTube Space - which means access to nice studio space and therefore better videos,
and also the ability to enter YouTube Next Up - and unbelievably, Draw Curiosity achieved
both of those things in 6 months!
So you can expect some very nice episodes shot in the space early next year, as well
as a few science travel vlogs which will also cover the YouTube Next Up shenanigans.
I actually still can’t quite believe that either of those things happened and I am so
humbled and lucky and grateful.
Thank you so much!
And I’m not only grateful to you guys, you are pretty incredible, but I’m also very
grateful to the absolutely lovely and welcoming community that the educational creators on
YouTube are.
YouTube creation has been far from an isolated endeavour.
So thank you to everyone in WeCreateEDU, the Internet Creators Guild and other various
educational and sci-comm oriented groups who have supported me and each other, who have
been so lovely and welcoming - everyone I’ve met, worked with, am working with and will
be working with - I don't dare actually mention names out of fear of missing someone out,
but you all know who you are.
It has been quite an incredible year.
Not at all what I expected, and I am just so grateful.
Of course, it’s not always been roses and glory.
I’ve definitely been more stressed and exhausted this year than I would have liked, Draw Curiosity
isn’t the only thing I’m working hard on.
I’m also working on my PhD which I'm hoping to hand in by the end of 2017 and that can
occasionally be a lot more stressful than I care to admit.
Some of you may also know that I have OCD, and this year I’ve been working extremely
hard to overcome it.
If any of you have gone through CBT and ERP to overcome an anxiety disorder, hopefully
you will know what I mean by: it is a very hard work - but hopefully it will also be
very rewarding as well.
So, it will be worth it in the end.
But right now, it's exhausting.
And of course, in addition to that, life always has its natural ups and downs, but you know
- that's just life lifing.
But in spite of that, in spite of being a bit more stressed and exhausted than is ideal,
I’m really proud and satisfied with how hard I’ve worked this year and that the
hard work is actually paying off!
So again, thank you very much for sharing this journey with me.
And anyway, that's kind of enough sentimental soppiness from me.
I do want to discuss plans for the next year!
Next year is gonna be pretty tricky.
I am aiming to hand in my PhD by the end of the year because my funding is gonna be running
out pretty soon, and that means that I might have to slow things down in the latter half
of the year.
So, my plan is to shoot a lot of episodes over summer, and then release them gradually
to cover that busy period whilst I’m writing up.
However, I do promise that once I’ve done everything I can to ensure that I become Dr.
Dawson, I will be back in full force.
:)
That said, the start of the year will be pretty exciting!
I have already got quite a few episodes filmed, so I just need to edit them, publish them
- I’ll be playing catch up posting everything shot at YouTube Space, interspersed with some
science-themed vlogs which I’m very excited about!
They cover from when my friend Jon from Stated Clearly came to visit and we scienced away
in London, an event with EDF Energy, and of course, YouTube Next Up!
I also have a few collaborations and a few even more new episodes that I've been writing
and preparing - so it should definitely be a fun year.
I’m also possibly visiting CERN to shoot a couple of episodes and will definitely be
visiting VidCon Amsterdam in April - so if you happen to be going, please do come and
say hi!
Anyway, this has been a really long and self-indulgent video and for some reason - you’re still
here watching it!
So - a few people have asked me here and there if I have a Patreon.
I don’t, but I have been thinking about maybe releasing one in 2017, or maybe after
handing in.
I’ve got quite a lot to think about, but I do have a question for you - what are your
thoughts on Patreon?
If you wanted to support Draw Curiosity - which, by the way, will always be free - what type
of perks would you want?
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, and thank everyone who’s watched till the
end.
I appreciate all of you, so thank you for making my 2016 a pretty snazzy one and…
here’s a happy toast to you for a wonderful 2017!
Bye ;)
[Music: Thastor & Cryosleepkitten]
[Subtitled by {your name} into {language}]