that sounds like a sound life decision
Ashley welcome to this new angle of my
room because I couldn't be bothered to
clean up that mess I had asked you guys
for questions for a QA I think over a
full month ago now and then promptly
forgot about it but today because my
life is kind of falling apart and I
don't have time to film a full like
fashion related video alright without
this Q&A real quick hopefully the people
who've asked these haven't unsubscribed
since they asked them like a month ago
let's jump into these questions so my
first one is why did you start a YouTube
channel and who is your inspiration for
starting one so I started this YouTube
channel I think a little bit over two
years ago honestly couldn't tell you
exactly why I started my youtube channel
I just a combination of liking fashion
being a weird-ass kid who liked to talk
to a camera liking to edit videos I
don't think I had at that point like a
unique fashion vision to share with the
world or really much of a personality on
camera but I kind of like just playing
around with the whole video making thing
I also grew up in like a super boring
suburban town where there wasn't a whole
lot of entertainment so yeah why not put
my face on YouTube that's normal fun
fact though I actually also had a
youtube channel before this I think when
I was in like second to third grade my
original channel was called pipe cleaner
studios and it was literally just like
30-second videos with dinosaur figurines
I had made out of pipe cleaners I
remember distinctly there was a yellow
dinosaur named Charlie and he just had
little adventures with his friends I
think one of my videos got like 100
views one time I was like ready for my
YouTube fame at that time I was also
super into community channel and I still
am whenever she uploads like every three
months they also started uploading these
weird like community Channel esque
videos like a super off print version of
communities you know where I was trying
to do like a little bit of stand-up and
like little skits where I would edit
together videos of myself talking to
myself
needless to say bows did not get a lot
of views either but people kind of
started making fun of me and micro Scout
troop about them and then I felt bad and
I told my mom that I had put my face on
YouTube which was like a crime as a
little kid after that I just felt so
guilty about it that I deleted all my
videos and my channel and that my
friends is why I never tell anybody
about my channel nowadays because I've
been scarred oh and the other part of
this question who's your inspiration for
a starting line I honestly don't
remember too many of the channels that I
watched back then just because I feel
like YouTube has a kind of high turnover
rate and I don't watch a whole lot of
the same people that I did two years ago
I think I watched denim back then and I
we really loved Krystal Lynn her channel
is so professional and beautiful but I
think back when she was starting out
more like three or four years ago she
would make these really cool just like
homemade videos of her mixing and
matching Basics in super creative ways
so I really loved watching her videos
and I would watch with him like over and
over and over again okay my next
question is when did you start to take
an interest in fashion and were you
always into fashion no actually when I
was a kid probably up until like ninth
grade I was such a tomboy I hated
fashion and beauty and everything like
girly so much I think a lot of that
though was a result of my mom and like
most of the other adults I grew up
around being second wave feminist and
that they kind of engrained in me like
if I wanted to be smart and successful
and a badass then I had to reject really
girly things and not liking beauty and
fashion and stuff like that was like a
sign of being superficial and like a
waste of brainpower which I do still
admit that beauty and fashion are
definitely more superficial parts of
life and shouldn't be like the focus of
your entire life unless you're me and
you make your money on YouTube somehow
but as I've learned a lot more in
college it is completely possible to be
a girly girl to love your outfits and
your makeup and you know chat about boys
with your friends or whatever and be a
complete career badass like those things
are not antithetical at all and a lot of
ways they can complement one another so
yeah there's your weekly feminist
message but back to how I got into
fashion my older sister was always a lot
more fashionable than I was and every
night me and my family would watch TV
together so the show that she got into
and she got the rest of my family
including my dad hooked on was Project
Runway so we watched probably like seven
seasons of that and we'd always like
critique the runway shows together so
for a while I kind of had this interest
in fashion but I never would actually
dress up and I didn't want to see like I
was trying hard or like I was girly but
finally in high school I kind of broke
away from that and I started dressing a
lot nicer I feel like a big part of
being confident with your style
especially if you see the same people a
lot is to just keep dressing however the
[ __ ] you want
and then eventually they'll just expect
you to dress in your badass way that's
not what happened to me in high school I
dress way fancier than everybody else in
my school but everybody just like there
was like that's just how Ashley dresses
okay next question is what school do you
go to and what are you studying I said
this before in a couple other videos but
I go to UCLA and I'm studying film
television and digital media even though
they kind of just slapped the digital
media on to the end if I major and we
don't learn that much about it
along that line somebody asked what was
your college in decision process like my
college decision process
was a bit of a doozy has anybody said
that since like the cities' because at
my high school they didn't have a film
program at all obviously since I grew up
in suburban Maryland there wasn't like a
film industry that I could really go and
like learn from but basically just at
the end of my junior year when I was
thinking about what I wanted to do with
the rest of my life I was like well film
is a cool thing I made like one short
film that my classmates said I was good
so that sounds like a sound life
decision Ashley so I decided to apply to
three film schools USC NYU and UCLA
which are the top three undergrad film
programs in the nation as well as seven
other like traditionally academically
good schools so I told myself that if I
made it into one of the top three film
schools then I would allow myself to
give this whole film thing a shot and if
I didn't I probably wouldn't have a
great chance in the industry so I just
major in something normal I guess
so without sounding too obnoxious
hopefully I ended up getting into NYU
and UCLA film programs and then for non
film schools I got into several but my
top contenders were Columbia and
Stanford I got to visit Columbia and NYU
and I Love New York from the bottom of
my heart I think it is by far the best
city in America I sent a lot of time
there as a kid and I'd always go up
there with my dad on his business trips
I was mister in Columbia pretty heavily
cuz I was also a John J scholar which is
like some special distinction where they
basically pay for you to do anything you
want over the summer and also Columbia
has a really good graduate program in
filmmaking but when I visited it became
pretty apparent to me that basically
there wasn't a great undergrad film
program in their film Studies major you
didn't really get to make anything you
were just like studying the old II films
and also Columbia's core curriculum is
thicker boy NYU was really cool it's
technically rank higher than UCLA in
terms of film schools in like the one
ranking of film schools that exists on
the internet but what I do like is that
the program is around 200 people in each
grade which is a lot larger than UCLA's
15 and obviously the main issue was
tuition which is insane with room and
board I think it's like seventy-six
thousand dollars not to say that
out-of-state tuition is cheap at UCLA at
all but it's nearly half the price of
NYU I never actually ended up visiting
Stanford which I kind of regret to this
day at this point I really had my heart
set on being a film major this overly
long explanation then left me with UCLA
I like that had the smallest program and
they also seemed flexible with allowing
me to graduate in three years which
would also help cut my tuition costs a
lot and I also liked that it was right
here
in LA which means that people I meet at
school and internships and stuff are
already in Hollywood which is where I'm
gonna end up I will say especially last
year I wasn't sure if I made the right
choice
especially the fact that I gave up
Columbia and Stanford to come here made
me like really salty when the program
wasn't doing everything that I wanted it
to but at the end of the day I do think
you know you only get one life so it's
worth fighting for a career that you
actually really want hopefully it works
out for me we shall see ask like 40-year
old me who may be unemployed this I
swear is the last college related
question because I realized that I
rambled about that last one for like ten
minutes this one asks you got into
Stanford how do you perform in high
school / what were your EC I'll probably
do a whole nother video about college
application I know that in high school
if they are like the biggest [ __ ]
deal ever
basically my sole purpose in life for 18
years was just to get into a good
college I'll say real quick that I had a
4.0 and a 2390 on the SAT and I did far
too many extracurriculars that I didn't
actually like but basically I was very
much a try-hard but if I have any advice
for college applications I'd say that
especially for like elite school it's
really more about having like a unique
angle than being really really great at
everything letter that the admissions
officers send me from Stanford basically
just said that what they really
appreciated about my application was my
kind of entrepreneurial side like one
summer I started an Etsy shop and I sold
my art I told them that I had a fashion
blog although I don't think I mentioned
my YouTube channel obviously I ended up
in film school anyway which was
basically the result of the script that
I wrote in like one week so that work
was like low-key for nothing anyway next
question is how do you find time to
balance school and YouTube uhm this is a
good question for me now because I was
struggling a little bit
especially since I'm graduating in three
years I've been taking a lot more
classes than average also to help pay my
tuition up until last quarter I've been
working part-time at restaurants as well
I will say I'm super grateful that
things have actually gotten a lot easier
in the past two quarters because YouTube
is now paying enough that I've been able
to quit my part-time jobs so that's just
another thing off my schedule although
now I also edit two videos a week for
some other youtubers so it is kind of a
lot on my plate ever since I turned 16
I've been working two to four part-time
jobs in an attempt to save up for
college I am pretty used to being a bit
over scheduled I'd say with any time
management issue it's mostly just a
matter of not spending too much time
thinking about how much you have to do
and just actually doing it and also when
I'm working I just
take a whole lot of breaks or watch TV
on a regular basis oh and it also helps
to have a really dead social life so
okay our next question is how do I feel
more confident in my clothing I really
like this question because I feel like
confidence is such a big part of any
outfit that you wear it's like
confidence is the best accessory is a
quote that sounds nice I think like
anything in terms of personal
development being confident is just a
process especially when you're a
teenager I feel like it just takes a
certain number of years to like throw
into your body and also your personality
and who you are I'm definitely still
working on my confidence but I feel a
lot more like comfortable and at home in
my own body and my own face and
everything then I did a couple years ago
if there's any like quick tip fix that I
could provide though it would be to get
a good full-length mirror and get some
good natural lighting in your room when
I was living in the dorm last year first
of all we had a really bad mirror from
Target that literally distorted you to
make you look shorter
and second of all the room was really
darn it all we had was this gross like
green yellow fluorescent light but look
in the mirror every morning when I put
together my outfit and I thought it
looked a lot worse than it actually did
so yeah just do yourself a favor and get
yourself a nice little setup so that you
can see how your outfit actually look I
got a couple questions about my workout
routine and I'd say first of all watch
this video that I posted a couple videos
ago about body image and kind of my
weird journey down like the fitness
rabbit hole of exercising way too much
now I don't really go to the gym anymore
first of all just because all the
Jimbo's really intimidate me so now
pretty much just like a couple times a
week or whenever I'm feeling like it
I'll just do some exercises like on the
floor of my apartment mostly I just do
some light butt and ab exercises and for
cardio I pretty much just walk to class
go shopping and have sex okay I have a
lot more questions but my roommates are
coming back home soon so I'll just
finish off with this one which I thought
was really cute and it is when did you
have your first kiss so this is some
pretty classic like YouTube story time
[ __ ] but my first kiss was actually
really really cute
although the guy's a bit of a
interesting guy now there's this guy
that I had liked for a long time and he
asked me to our junior year prom so I
think I was either 16 or 17 at that
point there was a lot of buildup in like
awkward 16 year old sexy texting we
didn't actually kiss at prom because we
are wholesome Christians like that just
kidding we were actually just outside
talking when the slowed hands came on so
he missed it but after prom he basically
took me through this neighborhood and he
like led me through another houses
yard he may jump over a fence which was
definitely illegal and then led me to
this patio area and he was like here we
are
and I thought it was somebody else's
house and I was really freaked out and I
thought we were breaking into somewhere
and then he was like just kidding this
is my house and I have like chocolate
dipped strawberries and sandwiches set
up for us so that was really cute we had
like a little nighttime picnic and then
we lay and watch the stars and then we
kissed so yeah this is like pretty much
the cheesiest first kiss story ever but
I'm glad I have a cute story alright
that's all I have you guys I think I'm
gonna try to do like an outfit of the
week video because I don't think I've
done one in like a month and a half and
I really like making those for you guys
so yeah I will see you guys then bye
[Music]