“I think my life has moments that are worth sharing.”

Cheyanne Jane is a vlogger and youtuber from Canberra, the capital of Australia, with content ranging from girly, to quirky and weird. But all of it has a focus on humour and her sometimes goofy personality. She has recently decided to invest in some better equipment like quality microphones and HD quality video to take her channel to the next level.

Voicu Mihnea Simandan: You have been video blogging for a few months now. How did it all start?

Cheyanne Jane: I have been uploading videos on YouTube for a while – since about 2008 – but my love of vlogging didn’t come about until I went to a YouTube festival in Sydney called VidInc. It featured Toby Turner (Tobuscus) and my then-fiancée and I dropped all of our plans to go as he is one of our favourite people to watch. We got to meet Tobuscus and I actually found his phone that he lost and got to return it to him.

Toby Turner was great and he put on a great show and was fun to meet but the thing that really inspired me to start my own channel properly were the other smaller and local YouTubers. It made me realise that I could do it too and they were all very nice and surprisingly popular. I met local people like maxmoefoe and Paint and they were very nice. That’s when I decided to start my own channel.

VMS: Why did you choose videos as a means of expression as opposed to writing a blog?

CJ: Basically, I am a terrible writer. It’s lucky though because I think I can better portray my personality through video and I much prefer video editing than writing. First I thought blogging and writing was more effort – it’s not but I am still happy with my choice. It’s hard to be yourself when you can hide behind online anonymity, and it’s more tempting to be anonymous when you’re writing as people can criticise you less. I prefer to be myself!

VMS: Where do you get the inspiration for your videos?

CJ: Most of my ideas come from everyday life and also my husband, who has a lot of ideas that he shares with me. We sometimes brainstorm together; it’s kind of cute. Watching other videos to see what is popular (like tags or challenges) is also good. It’s lots of fun and still counts as “research”. As long as you make sure it doesn’t influence your own style too much or tempt you to copy anything I think it’s very useful.

VMS: Who is your target audience?

CJ: When I use the inbuilt promotion on social media I target females from English-speaking countries aged 13-35. Realistically, though, anyone that will watch me is my target audience.

VMS: What do you expect to achieve with your YouTube channel?

Ideally I’d want to gain some regular viewers or fans and just have my work appreciated. At the moment the channel is there really just to express myself. I think my life has moments that are worth sharing and if other people agree then all the better. It is more of a hobby at the moment but that doesn’t mean I can’t expect amazing things to happen.

VMS: Are you also thinking of monetizing this “adventure”?

CJ: It would be great if I ever had a viewer base big enough to make some pocket-money out of this, but realistically I have no expectations. I’m just doing it for fun at the moment. Monetizing it would perhaps motivate me more, I think, but I don’t want it to become a job or chore. Offsetting some of the time and investments (such as new cameras) through ad revenue would not hurt, though!

VMS: What makes a good vblog?

CJ: Honesty, character, being yourself and having fun! Also things like professional editing, good camera and microphone quality, etc are necessary to make it watchable. No one watches anything in 360p anymore!

VMS: How do you go about capturing your funniest moments on film?

CJ: Sometimes it’s hard because you don’t want to intrude on personal life, and my husband is shy in front of the camera. I am still learning how to do this, but it helps to have a good quality camera on hand at all times. Plan ahead if you’re going to do something that might end up interesting – like trying new food or visiting an attraction on holiday. Keeping a notepad on you for ideas and reminders is also a good idea.

VMS: Who does your graphical work and video editing?

CJ: My thumbnails are made by my husband but I have paid a small amount for some unique logos. It’s always worth the investment because you can use it for everything and it becomes a part of your identity. I am currently teaching myself to edit videos with Adobe Premiere after mostly using Mac programs a long time ago. I am in no way professional but I am getting more confident with each video I edit.

VMS: Why is your channel name “choianne is fat”?

CJ: I created the channel originally to upload videos of my stand-up comedy routine. My self-esteem was low and I made myself feel better by joking about it. Lots of my comedy content was self-deprecating and joking about my appearance or being overweight in general. It also takes away from “haters” who go around trying to put people down for whatever reason – they can call me fat but clearly it doesn’t bother me because I named my channel that!

Also “choianne” was taken…

VMS: What are the best ways to help you out if we like what you’re doing?

CJ: Just watching my videos and subscribing to my channel is great. It tells me that people like what I do and motivates me to keep at it. Liking (thumbs up) the videos and leaving positive comments always brightens my day.