It’s easy to forget there are thousands of other students red-eyed and on their third cup of coffee when you’re holed up in your own dorm room trying to cram for a final. It’s even rarer to find online platforms projecting the occasional ugliness of being a college student.
Just scroll through your Instagram feed and you might see mainly frat party photos or graduation shots with a few captions thrown in here and there, but you will be hard-pressed to find someone live-tweeting their mental breakdown. However, college vloggers, a combination of the words video and blogger, have taken to YouTube to document their years as students at universities.
What makes them different from the traditional DIY-slash-lifestyle YouTuber is their often candid, conversational tone and willingness to embrace the messier sides of attending a university that many can unapologetically relate to. Whether it’s openly talking about the exam they bombed to discussing their current goals in life or providing internship tips, college vloggers showcase their unique university experiences on the Internet for everyone to see.
With YouTube taking over the Internet by storm, these vloggers have found a niche audience and have amassed quite a few fans who enjoy following the ins and outs of their day-to-day lives.
YouTube has produced a creative space that anyone can join with the barriers to entry being relatively low. With that being said, college students have taken advantage of this and are now choosing to project their lives onscreen. Here are the top five lesser-known college vloggers you should be tuning into now.
1. Kayla Pimentel
An upcoming junior at the University of California, Berkeley, Kayla starts off every one of her videos with her catchphrase “great things are going to happen today.” Her bubbly personality and optimism have landed her 14k subscribers thus far. Her YouTube channel chronicles the weeks in her life and the content centers around academics, housing tips, clothing hauls, long-distance relationships, makeup tips, friendships and more.
Her humorous and honest persona describe what it’s actually like to be a student in a highly competitive environment and her videos dabble in the many different elements that holistically make up one’s college life.
She documents her college experience while providing a down-to-earth perspective of what life is like at the number one public institution in the world. Her frequent uploads ensure that you’ll never miss a part of her life and get into the nitty-gritty of the undergraduate years.
2. hiheidz
A mix of experimental art, self-help, life advice and candid confessions, Heidi’s channel is a grab bag of the weird and wonderful online. As an undergraduate at Harvard, she chronicles the people that she encounters. One series features heart-to-heart talks with her friends, describing their pasts and opening up to confessional-like dialogue.
Her original videos were more geared towards the DIY/lifestyle audience but since have progressed to become more of an artsy take on the college experience. She talks about the gap year she took, her travels to Spain and her personal opinions on important subject matters of our time.
One of her videos describes how to get over the fear of public speaking while another showcases her trips to Maui, Hawaii. Her individualistic nature and shameless effervescence add to her overall persona and contribute to the authenticity of her channel, which her growing 23k subscribers can all agree upon.
3. bestdressed
As the channel name alludes to, bestdressed features videos centered around fashion and thrifting. Created by Ashley and named after her high school senior superlative, she describes her channel as “fashion, thrifting and other misadventures of a college student clinging to her glory days when she won the best dressed senior superlative. All served with a spicy side of dry humor.”
She talks to her 70K subscribers about shopping on a budget, body positivity and is humorously real in her self-deprecating commentary. Not only does she bemoan the woes of being a film major at the University of California, Los Angeles, but she also is open about the challenges she faces as a college student.
Her aesthetic fashion lookbooks will be the source for your next date night inspiration and her tips on thrifting will have you scrambling to your local Goodwill. Watching her videos makes her the cooler sister you wish you had.
4. Kris Hui
A mix of fitness, music, lifestyle and everything else in-between, Kris consistently uploads quality content that demonstrates how students can balance both a social life and academics. This undergraduate at San Jose State University is a combination of lifestyle-blogger-slash-fitness-guru-slash-life-coach who dishes out looks left and right.
For all your edgy fashion needs, newest makeup product reviews, meal prep options or latest in electronic music, Kris’ recommendations have you covered. Her videos range from try-on brand hauls to her music festival-going adventures. At the end of the day, her happy-go-lucky personality and wit will have you, along with her other 75k subscribers, binge watching her videos on repeat.
5. Nicolas Chae
Mixing his love for cinematography, photography and YouTube, Nicolas aims to motivate other aspiring filmmakers to hone in on their craft through showcasing what life is like as an undergraduate at Princeton University. Currently, at 19K subscribers, his channel features photography techniques, camera equipment reviews, college advice, vlogs and short films, all shot in the cinematic style and paired with upbeat music.
In addition, his sit-down videos offer sage advice to those applying to college with videos such as “I got rejected from all my dream schools / How to deal with college decision” and “How to have a KILLER college interview.” With seamless transitions, slow-motion angles and aerial footage, his videos take vlogging to a whole new level by sharing the beauty that is the wonder of college life.
