I never expected to make the videos a full-time job. I thought I would continue to work as a freelance Web designer and just do the videos for fun. But the audience built so quickly that it became full-time.
— iJustine
We had just gotten the Internet; it was so slow, but I would view the source code, copying and pasting the HTML, trying to figure out how it all worked. I had no idea, but I wanted to teach myself.
If there's something that you're passionate about, don't let other people take that passion away from you. If they tell you it's something you can't do, most likely you can do it, so don't give up.
I love doing all the tech videos, especially unboxings. That's usually my initial reaction to everything: I'm super excited, so getting to unbox a new gadget, so it's so exciting!
No one even has to leave their computer to find cool and interesting people to hang out with. Everyone is online in some form.
Nothing can really prepare you for live TV because you never know what's going to happen. I think, for me, what really helps is I know what I'm looking for when I'm shooting things, so it definitely helps to have that eye and know what camera you're looking at.
I've always taken apart calculators and anything I can get my hands on when I was younger. When I was around 12 - like, 6th grade - my parents always had around Mac computers because my mom is a teacher. So I'd always be playing around with all the crazy applications and making banners and printing things out and always into graphic design.
I love mobile gaming. I love being able to take everything with me. If I start a game on my Wii U, say, I want to be able to pick it up on my DS and take it with me when I'm traveling.
For me it's all just one big online world. Everyone has a favorite social network, and some people like YouTube more than Facebook or Twitter. But I make sure that when I post a new YouTube video, I post it on Facebook, and I tweet about it.
I produce some of my music videos on a $200 budget. But I produce most of my videos on zero budget. I have a studio in my apartment - which is actually just a green screen I have tacked on my wall and some lamps to light everything.
I've always talked to people about my grandmother, who is really into technology and has been on Twitter since 2006. It's unreal how tech-savvy she is.
I like to experiment with different things and find different uses for them. New things pop up every day - Snapchat, Vine, Parasail.
It's daunting to go back through the past, to read tweets and come across Facebook profiles of people who have passed away. It stirs up memories you never actually shared online or never will share online. It was a very emotional process.
I'm sitting there for hours editing the vids myself. But I have a PR company and a management company. I use some editors for some of the cooking videos because they can be so long.
I like video games. I like tech. I like travel. I like my dog. I like food. I'm like, 'That's what I'm going to focus on.'
I get e-mails daily from people asking me what major I chose in college, how I got started, what equipment I use, etc. Most of the e-mails are from young kids who are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up.
Even if you're going into a field that has nothing to do with computer science, just having that way of analytical thinking and being able to process information and break it down is important no matter what you're doing. Having that knowledge of code is something that you can apply to your daily life.
For me, growing up coding and computers and video games wasn't something that was cool, but it was something that I was always passionate about. I never let the fact that that wasn't something that was cool take me away from it.
When I moved to L.A., I had nothing but a computer, a lighting set, and a suitcase.
I'm a big mobile fan, so I love seeing all of the latest technologies with phones.
When I was really, really young, I wanted to be a cook at Bob Evans because my parents would always go there every Sunday after church.
I made my first website in sixth grade. I was the only girl in my computer programming class.
I don't just shoot videos and post them. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.
I think my online personality and my real life personality are very, very similar.
I hardly use a computer anymore because I have everything on my phone.
'The Vampire Diaries' is my favorite show, so being on it was cool. I really wanted to be on all of my favorite shows, so I was on 'The Vampire Diaries', 'Law and Order', and 'House.'
I originally studied graphic design and video production. I had wanted to be a programmer - I loved development and coding - but it turned out that I really enjoyed doing the frontend more than backend development.
Creative people feel huge ownership of our content; we want everything to be done ourselves. But in book writing, there's a process: editors, PR people.
I've always loved tech. Loved Apple. That's what I started vlogging about.
I'm in L.A., but I don't do L.A. things except go to meetings.
Even though I do share a lot of stuff, it's a very small portion of my life. And I think you just have to be careful because, anything that you post, it essentially is there forever. If it's not something you don't want everyone to see, don't post it.
When I grew up, I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't really able to have access to people other than like, my family, so being able to just have that access to people and technology to really change the world is incredible.
I'm dating my iPhone.
I love texting and DM'ing on Twitter. I will pretty much avoid talking on the phone at all costs.
I think I started doing more of the video probably in college. My major was multimedia, so it was probably closer to then because that wasn't really readily available and easy to do.
I've always loved technology. Growing up, I loved Nintendo and video games.
If I post something, and my audience doesn't really like it or if they have other suggestions on how to make it better, I can take that feedback and instantly apply it to the next video.
I would love to be on a really good show and share all the stuff that goes into creating a big TV show and get my audience into it. I think that makes it personal and makes the audience feel like they're a part of it.
Always ask for advice. I email with a lot of girls that are like, 'How do I do this, how do I do that.' Stay up on what's cool and what's interesting.
When I was really young, I was using VHS tapes to record.
I have a really terrible memory.
The challenges of writing a book are very different from writing a blog or tweets. I've been writing a blog since I was in the 6th grade, so I had this style of writing that was definitely not proper for writing a book.
I don't feel like I've ever fit into a specific mold ever since I was very young. That's what so cool about YouTube is that you can do whatever you want.
