YouTube recently held a contest called the NextUp Women to Watch, where entries were invited from women creators across the country. The contest was aimed at spotlighting and supporting women on the channel.
The creators had to meet certain requirements, like a certain subscriber count, to participate in the contest.
Forming a part of the Women to Watch India Class of 2019, are 12 winners who will attend the five-day creator camp in Delhi, ongoing currently. Through various sessions, they’ll learn content strategy, camera work, production design and other skills. YouTube will also host past winners of the contest to share their journeys. They will also win a voucher worth Rs. 1,40,000 to invest in production equipment, to help grow their channels. Here are a few women who made it.
Veronica Awungshi, Delhi, 89K+ subscribers
Born in Manipur and brought up in Meghalaya, Veronica Awungshi, now 23, shifted to Delhi in high school and later graduated from Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University. She started making fashion videos in 2016, and sharing them through her YouTube channel.
She later tried her hand at dance and lifestyle videos (shopping, travel, restaurant reviews), which have now become a major part of her channel. The initial response that she received from her community as well as her family wasn’t positive. “They used to think that I’m just a spoilt kid living in Delhi and wasting my parents’ money,” she says.
It was after she won the title of Miss Spring 2018 at the Shirui Lily festival in North East India, and competed for the title of Miss Manipur 2018, that her community became more accepting of her. Awungshi’s family, she says, “are still new to the idea of YouTube as a career and want me to study further.” However, she enjoys the process of creating content and is determined to carve out a niche for herself as a creator.
Ramsha Sultan, Delhi, 67K+ subscribers
In 2016, Ramsha Sultan, now 24, started her own beauty channel on YouTube. An electronics communication engineer with a masters degree in business administration, Ramsha offers advice on skincare, make-up, and what she calls “modest fashion” (styling a burkha, for instance).
Ramsha Sultan
She started making videos in the final year of her engineering college, to satisfy her “creative thirst”. “It was a real struggle to manage both,” she says, but a year later, she started receiving numerous queries about places to buy “the perfect hijaab to be worn around the head” from her viewers. Sensing a “a gap in the market” she also also began an online store with scarves and accessories manufactured in Delhi and Kashmir.
Every year, she does a Ramzan talk series, where she “aims to bring an end toIslamophobia by clearing the misconceptions people have about the religion , ” through lifestyle content. She explains why women wear a burkha, why people fast, the reason for the Namaaz, amongst other topics.
Prerna Srivastava and Parul Kaul, Ghaziabad, 70K+ subscribers
Two students of biotechnology, Prerna Srivastava and Parul Kaul, both 21, loved dancing from when they were together in school. In college, they decided to start their own dance channel on YouTube, called Unmasked. They currently have more than 57 dance videos across various dance styles such as BollyHop, jazz fusion and contemporary.
Prerna Srivastava and Parul Kaul, the duo behind Unmasked
While Prerna is a professionally trained Indian classical dancer (Kathak and Bharatnatyam), the Parul has trained in certain Western dance forms. However, it was when they posted their first few videos in 2017, that they realised that their “dancing quality was not up to the mark.” They also got some negative feedback about their fitness, which they had to work on.
Currently, they go to college through the week, choreographing and shooting videos over the weekend. “We have promised each other to continue with YouTube full time, if our subscriber count reaches 100,000 by the time we finish college,” they say. Prerna and Parul aim to form their own dance crew and start a dance academy in the future.
Shalini Mandal, Bhopal, 86K+ subscribers
Shalini Mandal, 24, started her channel in 2016. Beginning with beauty related content, she currently covers lifestyle, fashion, skincare and self-care regimens.
Shalini Mandal
An electronics and communication engineer, Mandal got to know about YouTube in her second year of college and was fascinated by the process of creating informative and realistic content for people. However, she took up a marketing job after college, which she later quit to become a full time creator. “I was a total introvert and used to think that I was only meant for a 9-5 job,” she says.
It was also her salary from that job which helped her in finance the production of her first few videos. Mandal, who believes in hard work and consistency, has now collaborated with over 10 brands, while yearning to motivate people through her content. Inspired by creators like Bethany Mota and Shreya Jain, she aims to have her own production company and a clothing line in the future.
