Last week, we launched the Inclusive Media Initiative: our mission to support diverse creators and communities on YouTube. To help celebrate our launch, we sat down with one of our creators in the initiative: Fernanda Ramirez.
Launching her YouTube channel in 2019, Fernanda’s follower base has quickly grown to more than 1.28M subscribers. Fernanda is known for her lifestyle, fashion, fitness, and vlog-style content. If you want someone who can feel like your “internet best friend,” check out her channel here and her Instagram @fernandaraamirez.
Theresa: We’d love to learn a little bit about you and how you got started as a creator.
Fernanda: I’ve always wanted to become a YouTuber since I was really young. Now, looking back, it followed me in a lot of ways. I was always filming videos, or if someone else was filming videos, I always wanted to be in them. I was always recording experiences throughout my life even if they weren’t going to go anywhere.
And finally, after I graduated, I had filmed my prom without even having a YouTube channel. And when I got the editing software, I had so much time at home in the summer so I started editing to see what it looked like. I just fell in love with it right away, and I started posting infrequently. The minute COVID hit, I had so much time, so I just kept making content,and I was so consistent. I loved it, and ever since then it just blossomed into what it is now.
Theresa: I love that startup story. It would be great to learn a bit about your YouTube channel, your main focus for content, and your target audience.
Fernanda: My target audience is mainly towards women my age but sometimes it can range from ages 13-40 ! I love that my content can reach all different sorts of ages. I typically find myself creating content for people who are interested in self-care, want to become the best version of themselves, or want to romanticize their life. I think positive people usually gravitate toward my content, as well as people who really love aesthetics. I have an eye for making things look beautiful, and so do the people who watch my videos! I always see them posting when they watch my videos on their stories: they have all their little cute things around them.
Theresa: What has been the most rewarding part of your creator journey so far?
Fernanda: The most rewarding part for me is just getting to live life while doing my passion every day. I think that is the most rewarding part for a lot of content creators – we all get to be creative daily and have our own little community that engages back and grows with us.
Theresa: Do you have a favorite social media platform to create content for?
Fernanda: YouTube is definitely my favorite. I think it’s the platform where people can get to know you the most, since it’s long-form content. People are also so nice on YouTube, and they want to see you succeed. I also started on YouTube, so I feel incomplete without tending to my YouTube channel.
Theresa: What made you decide to join Pixability’s Inclusive Media Initiative?
Fernanda: As you know, I’m Hispanic, and I feel like I don’t embrace that enough. I want to honor that side of myself more, and I feel like YouTube is where I can do that. I want to learn more about this topic myself and be someone that others can look up to in the space as someone who embraces my background and is not ashamed in any way.
Theresa: You bring your whole self to work every day, and how you represent yourself on your channel is so visible to your entire community. As far as your Hispanic heritage, are there any videos you want to call out on your channel that you feel represent this part of identity?
Fernanda: I have a few videos where I’m doing 24 hours of speaking Spanish, and I think those videos are really fun because I’m talking about a lot of things that I grew up doing or certain aspects of how my family is, since usually I’m with my family when I’m filming those videos. I’ve also shared stories in my podcasts of how I grew up and why certain things happened in my family, which at the time, I thought “everyone does this.” But now, growing up, I realize they were a part of my culture and now it is something I want to embrace because not every family has these traditions.
Theresa: I’m curious, how do you think about the advertising piece when it comes to making content?
Fernanda: I really value my job as being a role model for many people and also take it very seriously. For that reason, almost every piece of my content is pretty brand friendly as I know I have a lot of eyes watching me and also that is me showing the best version of myself; which is the main focus of my channel. When I do take certain advertisements or sponsorships, I try to integrate them into the video as seamlessly as possible, so that it makes sense with the video. I never want a viewer wondering how an ad relates to the video or why it popped up so suddenly. I take on partnerships that I believe make sense for my personal brand.
Theresa: I’d love to hear a bit about how you choose which brands to work with?
Fernanda: I always gravitate towards products I use or brands with values I align with. I’ve been blessed to have a lot of sponsorships come my way in the past, so I’m always able to choose brands I actually use, love, or have been wanting to try. I also recently worked with a brand with messaging around sustainability. If I see a brand I like and they’re talking about a larger issue such as sustainability, I look at it as a perfect fit because I also get to learn more as I’m creating content.
Want to learn more about how Pixability’s Inclusive Media Initiative can help you drive intentional media investments that support corporate values and DEI investment goals? Reach out to us today to learn more!