Charliegh Arrigo, a junior at Concord High School, stays busy between schoolwork, French Club, CRTC Health Science, and a job at Roy’s Nails where she answers the phone, makes appointments, and helps with cleaning.
But unlike other students at CHS, Arrigo also makes YouTube videos.
Arrigo first started this with friends in middle school.
“It was just stuff like me and my friends doing stuff like yoga, or just stupid things… I got older and just didn’t want people from school seeing it,” Arrigo explained.
Now Arrigo is more comfortable uploading videos as long as she is having fun and being herself.
Arrigo mainly posts makeup-related videos including tutorials. But she explains that branching out and creating different kinds of videos is something she wants to do in the near future.
“I want to stay with makeup but I would also like to do other things because not everyone likes makeup . . . Makeup isn’t my only personality trait. I have other interests.”
Some people use YouTube to learn a new language or learn how to fix a car cook a turkey, but the site has also become a popular entertainment outlet. Some popular YouTube personalities have been able to create a living just by uploading videos that get views and likes.
“I don’t have the mindset of ‘Oh, I’m definitely, 100%, gonna get famous and do this as a job,’ but if I ever got the opportunity to do it [YouTube] as a career I definitely would,” said Arrigo.
Right now she’s imagining a future in medicine. “I’m in Health Science and I would like to become a surgeon… I think YouTube is just going to be a hobby.”