When 18-year-old Jade Bowler first turned to YouTube for studying advice two years ago, the best tips she could find told her to get hold of "aesthetic highlighters," and to light a candle for her study space. Turns out that advice wasn't actually so helpful.
Two years on, Jade's combining A Level revision with her vlogging side gig. She's part of a community of teen study vloggers imparting advice and motivation to hundreds of thousands of their peers.
In many of the videos, teens film themselves just sitting and studying in silence. In others, they speak directly to the camera about their routines, hopes, dreams, worries, and rejections. These videos don't just dispense useful tips and tricks for getting the most out of study time; they also provide a community for studious, academically minded teens who feel isolated and in a minority at school.
SEE ALSO:How to protect yourself when social media is harming your self-esteemWith almost 170K YouTube followers, UnJaded Jade, as she's known to her followers, has pulled in over 900K views on some of her most popular vlogs. Jade told Mashable she believes this appetite for videos about revision is down to the pressure teens feel to achieve academic success. "I think the stress and heightened exam pressure placed on teenagers these days means the online study community is a place where people can just go and relate to others," says Jade.
She says this pressure isn't helped by the UK's new GCSE and A Level exam systems, which many feel are much harder than the previous exam system. For those reading outside the UK, GCSEs are exams taken to complete secondary school in the UK when students are 16 years old. A Levels are the equivalent of senior year at U.S. high school, and students take these exams on key subjects in order to go to university. Recently, reforms were introduced on both types of exams.
GCSEs were recently changed to abolish most coursework and controlled assessment (work which is marked and supervised by teachers), and relies almost exclusively on exams. A Levels have also changed from a modular system to a linear model, where students sit all the exams for their qualification at the end of the full course.
Jade thinks "Study With Me" videos—in which vloggers simply film themselves revising in silence—can give students a "burst of motivation to keep studying." But she also thinks that hearing "how others are coping" in the run-up to exams can be comforting and reassuring. "At the end of the day, we’re all going through the same thing at this age, so I know that I love watching studying videos purely because they’re so relevant," says Jade.
She feels the reason behind her connection with viewers is down to her aim to be as honest and authentic as she can be. For Jade, that means sharing warts-and-all footage after being rejected by Oxford University. "If like me you didn't get a place, it really isn't the end of the world," Jade said through tears. "I know today I'll be sad, but I know tomorrow is just, same day, I'm still Jade, I'm still doing well at school, and I'm still planning on getting good grades. It just means it wasn't meant to be."
Jade told Mashable that she tries to talk candidly in her videos about how she's feeling about school. "If I’m feeling low, getting stressed about school or am very much NOT on top of everything, I always do my best to share these things to help normalise the fact that none of us are perfect; in both the online revision world and in real life," she says.
"I have been pleasantly surprised by just how many 'Hermione Granger type students' there are."
17-year-old Ruby Granger is also combining her A-Level studies with vlogging to a crowd of over 174K YouTube subscribers. Her videos focus on productivity and organisation tips, and she also shares the odd video about the reality of academia (including her own Oxford rejection vlog).
Ruby feels that the reason study vlogs are becoming so popular is due to an increased pressure on children to succeed. "Especially as girls, we want to prove that we can do everything that boys can do," says Ruby. It is, perhaps, no accident that the vast majority of study vloggers happen to be teenage girls.
"In a society where there is heightened competition and pressure to succeed, I feel that an increasing number of young people really do care about their studies," says Ruby. "It not only then seems natural, but pragmatic, that students should tune in online to hear other people's study tips."
For Ruby, being part of this community has meant finding other students who are just as passionate about academia and learning.
"Having connected with people through my channel, I have been pleasantly surprised by just how many 'Hermione Granger type students' there are," says Ruby. "At my school, I am definitely the minority and especially when I was younger, few students were actively interested in their studies."
"For students who are picked on for liking school, I hope that my platform can show that them that they are not alone."
Ruby is heartened by the fact that students younger than herself are getting in touch with her. She speaks to and receives comments from children aged between 12 and 14 who tell her how much they love learning. She hopes that for these students in particular that her channel can provide "some comfort."
"I proudly admit that I am a 'nerd' and a 'study enthusiast' and, for students who are picked on for liking school, I hope that my platform can show that them that they are not alone," says Ruby.
17-year-old Rhiannon Clark is an A Level student with over 28K YouTube subscribers. In her videos, Rhiannon shows how she organises herself, how she uses timers to increase her productivity, and techniques for condensing notes and making essay plans.
Rhiannon says that she has "always had to work" to achieve good grades—something that she believes makes her videos relatable and realistic for followers who rely on hard graft for academic success. Rhiannon also cites the new UK exam system as a reason behind the success of these videos. "I think people are also a lot more motivated to work harder now because of how much more difficult and competitive the new exams are," she says.
Rhiannon owes much of her academic success to fellow study YouTubers who she's watched and learned from. "I know for a fact that I wouldn't have done nearly as well in my GCSEs if it weren't for revision YouTubers," says Rhiannon.
15-year-old Evie Flynn began entering the "study side" of YouTube in January 2017 when she uploaded her first "Study With Me" video. By summer 2017, the response she was gaining to her revision videos was so great that she decided to exclusively create study and revision vlogs. She feels that this keen interest in videos about studying is because young people "are beginning to see the importance of valuing education." Now revising for her GCSE exams, Evie has over 17K subscribers and some of her videos have gained over 100K views.
The majority of the comments received by these YouTubers are positive, but Ruby says he has received "hate messages."
"Perhaps the most frequent one is that I must not be very intelligent if I have to study so much," she says. Ruby says she can accept this point as it is "a rational conclusion" to draw, but she makes a point in her videos of noting that the reason she studies is because she enjoys it.
For these diligent students, helping their peers by sharing tricks and tips makes them feel part of a bigger community of studious teens. And, for those who haven't found an IRL community of likeminded students at their school, this online community is desperately needed.
This might the first time we can wholeheartedly say that we wished this particular vlogging trend had existed sooner. Long may it continue.
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