In 2013 I finally realised that youtube was pretty decent, and not just for one off things but for original series and cool stuff.. yes I’m a bit behind the times 🙂 I subscribed to a lot of different stuff, things I’d never have found if youtube wasn’t there for the viewing and I thought I’d share my top 5 for you. Some of these were around before 2013 and one of them I actually found 2 days ago, but as it was being made in 2013 I’m counting it. Below are the first episodes of the shows or, if it isn’t a series, one of my favourite episodes from the show.

1. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (LBD)

   This, sadly, finished in March of 2013 but it was excellent while it lasted. I remember stumbling on a random episode one day without realising what it was and thinking how it seemed very coincidental that there was a Lizzie Bennet with a vlog who had sisters named Jane and Lydia. To coincidental in fact, because it’s actually a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, a very good one considering I thought it was exactly what is was pretending to be. I watched nearly all of this in about 2 days and wanted more!

   There was a lot of social media integration into this with each character having their own twitter accounts and some having spin off shows to work with the LBD. The show has won awards and done a bunch of comicon panels and super cool stuff. If you’re into Jane Austen it’s definitely something to watch.

2. Emma Approved

   Emma Approved is made by the same people that created the Lizzie Bennet Diaries except it’s taken from the book Emma rather than Pride and Prejudice. Initially, I didn’t think I was going to watch this because it wasn’t that great in the beginning but then I realised it was actually more that I dislike Emma than disliking the show.

   Joana Sotomura plays Emma very well which is where some of my dislike probably came from, for anyone that has read the book or watched a different version of this, I’m sure you can relate. Not only that, but Brent Bailey who plays Knightley is wonderful and I often wish this was from his perspective

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3. Stuff Mom Never Told You

   Cristen makes some great videos, mostly about being a woman in the world today and discussing stuff like our bodies, men and anything really relevant that comes up day to day. She also does a great segment called Herstory that focuses on a lesser known woman in history and she interviews them (she dresses up as them and basically interviews herself, it’s pretty neat) and provides sources on where you can find out more.

   The video I provided above is one of my favourites and one of the most relevant to me, it’s about women who aren’t particularly interested in having kids and how to deal with people wanting to know why the hell not. When I watched it I thought “finally, someone who understands how annoying it is!” because, if you’re in my situation you know how frustrating it is when people tell you you’ll change your mind about having kids or look at you like you’re crazy for not wanting them.

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4. Sex+

   I was really surprised about how much I learnt from watching Laci’s videos. I can’t even remember which was the first one I watched or why but I’m really pleased that I did. Sex+ videos are about sex, sexuality and bodies and people in general. It’s mostly targeted at late teens but I think everyone can find something they didn’t know by watching them. Laci is doing some great work with educating teens on safe sex and how to be comfortable with your sexuality in a country where sex ed is lacking in most schools.

   There are some excellent videos on learning about your body (like the one above) and how to look after it and how to be more confident and comfortable with how it/you look. If you’re interested in more videos like this you might also like Sexplanations, it is a bit different to Sex+ and is more about knowledge on sex in general and the different types of sexuality there are, a bit more grown up than Sex+ but both are quite good.

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5. Welcome to Night Vale

   This was referred to me a few days ago, I wasn’t going to give it a chance because it was a podcast and I’m not very good at listening to things like this. I can’t do audio books because I just get to distracted and forget to listen. I decided I would though and I’m glad I did, it’s possibly the strangest thing I’ve ever listened to – that I’ve enjoyed anyway- and the narrators voice is amazing, I love listening to him. Welcome to Night Vale is a story of the goings on in Night Vale in the style of community radio station updates, it’s very eerie and creepy and I’m not really sure why anyone lives in Night Vale but I like hearing about them all the same.

   Especially Carlos and his perfect hair that Cecil loves so much.

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After putting these all in a list I realised that they’re mostly women hosted shows, which if you look around on youtube you’ll notice that other than beauty/nails/hair/etc these are hard to come by, it sort of makes me wish I’d added Emily from The Brain Scoop to the list. She recently made a video about the lack of women on youtube with more than a million subscribers, she also recently did a video on the skinning of a Squirrel.. both interesting, the latter a bit disturbing – probably don’t watch it if you’re a bit squeamish, it is useful if you want to learn what a Brain Scoop is though.

Let me know in the comments what you’re watching as I’m always looking for something new! And remember, all hail the might glow cloud!