Hello friends, and welcome to another video
Today I'm going to be talking about why I left Buzzfeed.
This is a very requested video topic, a lot of you guys have been asking me about this, and I want to be as open and honest as possible with you guys.
I did leave Buzzfeed about six weeks ago, right at the end of January.
I wanted to wait to make this video just until all the videos that I was in that were prerecorded with me in them, were already posted on Buzzfeed's channel, so there was no confusion about that.
Just in case there's anyone watching who doesn't know me, I was a Video Producer at Buzzfeed Video.
I worked there from April of 2015 until the end of January 2017, and I worked exclusively on this show called Ladylike from October of 2015 until when I left in January of 2017.
So before I get started, I just want to say that these are the reasons why I left, not necessarily the same reasons why someone else may have left, or reasons why someone else might not stay.
I'm not trying to speak for anyone else but myself
Buzzfeed is a pretty big company with a lot of different types of jobs and a lot of different teams
And some of the things that I experienced that made me wanna leave
Someone else might not even experience
A lot of people at Buzzfeed also have different backgrounds and different career goals
So I respect everyone's decision to stay or not stay or do whatever they want with their careers
Everyone has their own path.
I'm also not here to trash Buzzfeed or to nitpick everything I don't like about the company
I don't think there are a lot of people who like everything about the company that they work for or have worked for
I know that there might be some people for who Buzzfeed is not their favorite thing
But I'm just here to tell you guys the reasons why I left
And not to trash the company.
So the overarching reason why I left Buzzfeed
Is to have independence
And for me that means a few things but I'll start off with transparency
And by transparency I mean transparency and open lines of communication
Between myself and you guys watching
One of the main things that bothered me was that I was not supposed to communicate with you guys on YouTube.
And what I mean by that is that we were told not to read the comments
But further than that, we were not supposed to reply to any comments in the comment section on the videos that we made
A lot of you guys might know how much I love talking to you guys on social media
But I was never allowed to talk to you guys on YouTube
So if there was a comment that I really loved
Or something that I thought was really funny in the comments
I couldn't say that I liked it
And if there was a question or a misconception
I couldn't clarify anything.
And I think that that's a big part of YouTube
Being able to talk to the people watching
Another point on transparency is that there's really no clarity to the viewers about what video producers do at Buzzfeed and which videos they make
For example a lot of people thought that I was an actress for Buzzfeed
And didn't know that I not only made a lot of videos for Ladylike
I actually started Ladylike with Freddie
Because our names aren't attached to the videos we make
People would often ask me to explain or answer for videos or even articles
That were produced by other people that I had nothing to do with
That were sometimes made on the other side of the country
Or even the other side of the world
And that would often put me in a little bit of a sticky situation
Because I didn't want to speak for other people or what they had created
The only thing that I could speak for was Ladylike
So the lack of transparency between Buzzfeed and you guys
kind of made me not both able to take credit for the work that I did
but also made me overly accountable for decisions that were made in other parts of the company that I had nothing to do with
There are also issues with transparency within the company
Over the 15 months I worked on Ladylike
We could never really get a clear answer from higher-ups
As to
Where they saw the show going
Or what they thought the future of Ladylike was
We didn't have a lot of meetings with higher ups
In fact most of what we heard was through the grapevine
But we did have one meeting
Which was pretty confusing
A lot of it was about changing the direction of the show
But maybe making the format stricter
But then also maybe abandoning the format altogether
All in all it was pretty confusing
And this lack of transparency in particular
Leads me to my next point and the next reason I wanted to leave
Which is that I wanted more responsibility
So when Ladylike first started out it wasn't exactly the darling of Buzzfeed
The first episode had some support
Because it was supposed to be a new show on the Top Knot Facebook page
Which at the time was about beauty and style
But then Top Knot was changed to be solely about hair tutorials
So after the first episode Ladylike didn't have a place there
We were told that we were allowed to keep making Ladylike
But it wasn't really a part of Buzzfeed's big picture plans
So Freddie and I kept making Ladylike episodes
Because we really thought that there was something there
And there were actually other people at Buzzfeed
Who really believed in Ladylike too
And stepped in to help out
And we really all wanted to work on it and prove it
So over the next couple of months Ladylike began to gain momentum
And it was actually able to become a real team at Buzzfeed
Which meant that we got more resources
And we got a couple more producers put on the project full time
Which was awesome and exactly what we wanted
Because it was finally becoming a thing
But as time went on, it felt like big picture strategizing and responsibilities were taken away from us
We were still expected to come up with the ideas for Ladylike episodes
And produce the majority of them
But Freddie and I were not included in any high level conversations about Ladylike
What I mean by that is like conversations about possible collaborations, partnerships, what's gonna be on our Facebook page and our playlist
And things as small as like the branding and what font we're gonna be using
And that was pretty frustrating to me
And when I expressed my frustration and my desire to be included in those kinds of meetings
The answer was "This is how things are, this is the way the company works and that's not your role."
And that made me have to step back and realize that my job was video producer
And they were right and that I was never gonna be able to get the kinda responsibility that I wanted at Buzzfeed
Another thing was this awkward dynamic where my name and my face were really associated with Buzzfeed and with Ladylike
But I didn't own any part of Ladylike and I also wasn't included in any of the higher level strategy conversations about the show itself
So my real name and my face were associated with something that I had no ownership over
This kinda got into a sticky situation when the idea of creating merchandise with our names on it came up
Because to me it felt like we were getting close to Buzzfeed being able to sell something under my name
Which is not really what I signed up for
So when you agree to work at Buzzfeed you know that you're not going to own the content that you make for them
I actually think that that's pretty common practice with companies like Buzzfeed and also in the entertainment world in general
Especially early in people's careers
If you make a show and sell that show to a studio, the studio will own that show
Although in most cases even if a company or a studio owns it, you still get credited which is something that Buzzfeed doesn't do
But you make a trade off when you work for Buzzfeed
You give them content and they give you resources
It's a job and it pays the bills
I have no question that making Ladylike on such a big platform was an amazing opportunity
And I learned so much at Buzzfeed
And I'm so thankful for all the opportunities they gave me
And everything that I learned there
But I think there is a difference between them owning the content that I made for them which is what I signed up for when I started working there
And them owning my name which is a line that we didn't cross, but I think that we were approaching
And that's another reason why I left
I think in general my goals and the company's goals just didn't allign anymore
And I know to some of you guys it might seem like an abrupt decision
But for me I made the decision over time and it just felt like the right time to leave
For some people who work at Buzzfeed, having their own YouTube channel is not something that they're interested in
But for me it's something that I've been interested in for a long time
And so that's what I did
I left Buzzfeed at the end of January
And since then I've been focusing a 100 % of my energy into posting videos on this channel
I just wanna say I have no hard feelings towards Buzzfeed or towards anyone who works for Buzzfeed
I've been really loving being able to make my own videos and being able to connect with you guys more
And my only sadness with all of this is that I won't be able to work with the girls at Ladylike anymore
Freddie was actually able to be in a couple of videos on my channel right when I left Buzzfeed
But it doesn't look like that's gonna be possible anymore, nor with any of the other Ladylike girls
Hopefully one day that changes because I would love to have them on this channel and work with them again
But in the meantime you've seen that I've been working with Candace
Candace actually left Buzzfeed in the middle of last year
And I've been really loving working with her
And I also have plans to collaborate with people who are outside of the Buzzfeed pool
And I'm really excited about that too
If you guys wanna watch the videos I've already made
You can click this playlist right here
And if you wanna see more videos, not necessarily like this, but more like that kind of stuff
You can schmash that subscribe button 'cause I would love to have you
For the people that requested this video
I hope that this is what you guys were looking for
I will see you guys later this week with more regular programming
In fact, that will be Tuesday
So we should probably film that like right now
But I will see you guys next time