- I have definitely always felt weird.
Weird to me is just being comfortable
in your own skin and just expressing yourself
even though it might not be what everyone else is doing.
Don't be afraid to be weird.
It is happening.
My name is Rachel Maksy and I generally describe myself
as a costumer and content creator.
Yeah, that's generally how I describe myself.
So my work is really inspired by anything I consume
in my life, like pop culture or fairy tales
and especially this time of year,
I tend to go towards the more creepy side,
just blending everything nerdy and whimsical altogether.
For me, creating the sort of content I make I feel like
is definitely full circle from when I was a kid.
Of course, my favorite holiday is Halloween
so every single year,
I would just be counting down the days until Halloween
until I could dress up or pick my costume
or do my makeup, or have my mom help me with my makeup.
I think the first time I got a camera, I was 12 or 13.
I'm pretty sure I begged my parents to get me one.
I then started venturing into making
really embarrassing little YouTube videos.
I would try recreating my favorite movie scenes.
So this is the kind of flavor of home videos
I would be making and forcing my friends to do.
Our own little Hollywood productions
in my neighborhood growing up.
Actually, there's some special effects
coming up here, ready, wait.
Oh, she slapped me.
Oh my god, production value, oh no.
I did end up going into film school.
During film school, that's where my love
of really heavily costuming things took off.
And then sort of realizing that I wanted to dress
like that all the time,
like making myself my own main character kind of.
I felt like having that alternative style
from what you normally see was a way for me
to set myself apart on social media
and as my vintage style grew, I noticed that people
were really connecting with that on Instagram.
I think people just like in real life
generally tend to appreciate
seeing someone dress a little bit different than the norm.
The more eyes I had on my page, the more people were asking
for video content and video tutorials
on how they can do the hair that I was doing.
And so that led into me starting my YouTube channel.
So it is officially my first day as my own boss.
As I ventured into full-time, I was able to
take more time to make stuff.
I had never really sewn much
before I had started my YouTube channel
and that was something that I started on camera
and I tried to include the whole process messing up
cause I think a lot of times
when you are watching a YouTube channel
of someone who really knows what they're doing,
it can feel really, really intimidating and overwhelming.
So I wanted to kind of assure people
that you don't just learn things overnight.
Personally, I feel like chaos and mess
is part of the fun and part of the entire process
and you really can't learn without it.
One of my favorite parts of cosplay and costuming
is being able to portray your favorite characters.
And for me, generally that comes
from either characters I grew up with
or I tend to really gravitate towards
really brave and badass women.
There's just something special about making that costume
and doing your makeup like them and your hair like them
and putting the costume on and you just feel empowered.
Maxelline started in 2019 and it started as just a way
for me to celebrate my love for the Halloween season.
So I do 13 looks in the month of October
whether that be my favorite characters
from horror films or dark fairy tales
or even just outfits that are inspired by probably pumpkins.
It's a lot of work, but it's something
that I look forward to all year long
and it's something that I start planning
my 13 characters probably in January.
So I made this skull last year
for my Jack Skellington costume, and so instead
of just sitting around in my attic, I am gonna wreck it.
What I'm working on now
is sort of a skeleton pirate woman.
And so for this, I really, really want to just
make everything look really grimy and gross
and like she's been dead for 300 years or something.
I'm sure that's a lovely noise.
I really love just the entire vibe of October.
I think people become a lot more brave
and they get excited to make their costumes
and that's just something that I like to do all year long
so seeing people get excited about it in October
makes me really, really happy.
I'm really, really thankful for social media
as much as sometimes it can be a little hard to navigate.
I think it's really,
really helped me get really more passionate
about the things that I'm passionate about and share it
with people and see how they get excited about it too.
Something I've definitely had to overcome
is overthinking the entire process cause I think again,
it comes with sort of comparing yourself
to other people and seeing other really,
really clever ideas that people come up with
and then comparing your own ideas to that
and something I'm trying to focus on, especially lately
is just making videos that make me really, really excited.
And if other people are really excited, then that's awesome.
And if not, that's okay
because I had a ton of fun making them.
I hit one million subscribers a couple months ago.
It's wild because it was sort of this mythical number
that I had just in my head
from when I started my channel.
I was sort of thinking if I ever hit a million,
that'd be crazy.
And so I did, and it's crazy.
It's weird to think that many people actually care
about what I put out into the world.
Little me, little 13 year old me,
I'd like to think she think I'm pretty cool.
I'm kind of doing now what I thought would be
the impossible back then.
And so if I could just tell her anything,
just keep on doing what you're doing,
keep on being weird and keep making weird videos
with your friends because someday it's gonna be your job
and it's gonna be really, really fulfilling.