“The greatest reward for me as a creator is to be able to inspire all women to find happiness for themselves without having to wait for others.”
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your channel?
My name is Ava and my channel is AvArest. I have loved solo traveling for almost 10 years and originally had no intention of creating content. But when COVID-19 happened, it freed me up and I had the opportunity to start making YouTube Shorts as a way to relive my previous travel stories.
How do you come up with ideas for your Shorts?
I like to immerse myself in the lives of the people I meet. They have taught me that even the small things around us can be more valuable than you think. I get my ideas from what’s around me that interest me and every time I get excited about that, I'm sure it's going to be a good clip.
Did someone inspire you to start making videos?
I didn’t watch many videos previously, which may seem like a disadvantage as a creator. But for me it's a plus, because it lets me be 100% myself ? no pressure, no need to follow anyone, and just live my life making videos of whatever I want to do. For me, the “creator's happiness” is what makes content do well.
International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month are about celebrating and empowering women. Do you feel YouTube has helped further these causes?
YouTube Shorts has given me and many other female creators the opportunity to showcase our abilities. It has been a great support for women, and I hope I can keep making YouTube Shorts for a long time.
As a female creator, what has been the most challenging and most rewarding experience for you?
My challenges as solo female traveler creator include planning my travels, researching places to go and filming alone in an unfamiliar location. After all that, I have to find a way to tell the whole story within one minute, even though some clips took me a week to record. All that can be quite challenging. But thankfully, I enjoy it and the greatest reward for me as a creator is to be able to inspire all women to find happiness for themselves without having to wait for others.
What advice do you have for women thinking of starting their own channel, and how can YouTube encourage more women to start?
First of all, you have to feel the urge to do it. You want to talk about anything you're proud of and are more than happy to share it. I think that’s how you should get started, regardless of gender. If you’re happy when making videos, it shows in the content and will make people watching them happy, too. When you make content that makes you happy, I believe YouTube Shorts will give you the support you need.