Newcastle's Georgia Productions is bubbly, quirky, "a bit weird" - and a self-made success story. The 19-year-old has 500,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel, released a best-selling book last year and is about to embark on a sold-out national tour.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
She is also one of the featured online video content creators at next week's VidCon Australia conference in Melbourne and is hosting the opening show. VidCon attracts the world's best online video and digital creators, and their fans. Georgia, who is known for her comedy skits and relatable videos targeted at a tween, teenage and young adult demographic, will be joining some of the world's leading YouTube, TikTok and online video stars.
She's come a long way since a high school teacher discovered her videos, found them amusing and encouraged her to share them online. Georgia was 13 at the time.
"When I first started I didn't actually have any idea what YouTube was," she tells Weekender.
"I was kind of a weird kid and thought I'd make these little videos to try to make my friends laugh. Anyway, my teacher saw the videos because they were on my school laptop, thought they were really funny and showed my principal. And then my principal showed the whole school at an assembly. He was the one who said I should put them on YouTube and I was like 'OK, OK, I'll give it a go'."
Georgia studied drama in years 11 and 12 and "did really well" however is self-taught when it comes to video editing. She has watched a lot of online tutorials. As for her sense of humour, she credits her father ("My Dad is the biggest dag and I get my sense of humour from him. He's very Australian and laidback.")
Online content creation and influencer marketing has become a career for creators like Georgia. But how does this professional YouTuber make money?
"AdSense. It works out the revenue I earn from watch time and views on YouTube - that works through the advertisements they play before and during the video, that kind of thing," she explains. "But I also get a lot of brand deals. It just depends if they think that my content would suit their brand. There are other ways, but these are the two main ways YouTubers make money from what they do."
Georgia released her first book, The Amazingly Disorganised Help Dictionary, last year and is about to embark on her national tour, Georgia Productions Live, which sold out in less than a week. At VidCon Australia she will sit on a few panels with other YouTubers.
"People can ask questions about my videos and how I script them, or anything they want to, basically," she says. "I'll also be doing a meet and greet and will host the opening show, which is pretty cool because I've never done that before.
"I used to get nervous when I first started getting recognised. I travelled Australia for a book signing last year and thousands of people showed up, which was really intimidating. At the first one I burst into tears because it was so overwhelming, but I got used to it."
Being an online video content creator working from home can be a lonely business. That's one of the reasons Georgia is so excited about VidCon - she gets to talk to other content creators; share stories and have a laugh.
"You can feel a bit isolated at times, being a YouTuber," she says. "It can also get a bit stressful, and you feel the pressure every now and then to get a video up each week. If you're having an off week you have to pretend that everything is all good and keep going [laughs]. I am eternally grateful for the audience I have and I always thank them for their patience and understanding."
The online world is renowned for trolls and unpleasant keyboard warriors. Thankfully, Georgia has mostly positive experiences to share.
"Do you need a thick skin? I think it depends on what you make on YouTube," she replies.
"Take Isaac Butterfield as an example. He's very, very funny but because he is considered controversial some people have a problem with that and will tell him. But if it's not someone's cup of tea they should simply not watch it. I don't get that much hate. If I do, I don't really see it because, and I know this sounds cocky, my comments section is usually smothered with positivity. Most of the time it will be 10-year-old boys going 'You suck' and I'm like 'Thanks, I'll take that one to my grave" [laughs]."
