Getting to know Hailey Elizabeth
Known to her nearly 400,000 subscribers as Hailey Elizabeth, Miss Hailey is everything we love here at Our Era: funny, entertaining, and can make us double-check our closets at night. She specifically specifies in talking about conspiracy theories, cults, YouTube drama, and is the perfect person to ask when something big happens. We sat down with her to chat about her channel as well as her personal life, and we hope that by the end of this you love her just as much as we do.
Hey! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hi! I’m born and raised in a very small town right outside of Chicago, Illinois . with my parents and three sisters! I honestly love the hustle and bustle of the city as well as being close to my family so I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere for a while. I also do YouTube for a living but I currently go to community college studying to be a screenwriter. It’s always been one of my dreams to have one of my scripts produced or work on sets of action movies! Because ugh! How cool would that be?
When did you start your channel? Why?
I started my channel back in September of 2020 but didn’t start posting until November. In college I had a cinematography class and we had to upload our short films onto YouTube. It was through that class that I realized I actually really like producing and uploading videos onto YouTube, so I made a separate channel (my Hailey Elizabeth channel) and started uploading my own non-school related videos. I would’ve never guessed how far I would’ve gotten with it but I’m so so grateful!
What inspired you to make the type of content you make? More specifically, why makeup and conspiracy theories?
I was always deep diving on conspiracies, YouTube drama and true crime way before starting my channel, just for fun. I loved channels like Brittany Vaughn, Bailey Sarian, and Danielle Kristy and I thought that genre of content looked like so much fun so I tried it out and I loved it! Doing my makeup while talking about certain topics just feels more comfortable and makes it feel more like I'm just hanging out with a friend filling them in on problematic figures or wild conspiracies that I discovered while we get ready.
Do you have any YouTube inspirations?
Oh there's so many! But I really love the channels “Damon Dominique” and “Sam and Colby”. They’re style of editing is *mwah* chef’s kiss. How they make their videos so entertaining the whole way through is so inspiring and everytime I watch their videos I feel so motivated to create videos of my own. But I also love channels like Urmomashley, Jenn Im, and Emma Chamberlain. Their videos always and instantly put me in a good mood and make me want to make vlogs too haha.
Your channel seemed to blow up really fast. Did you have a following on any other platform(s) before you began?
No, not really [laughs]. I did a little bit of Instagram and TikTok but didn’t have many followers on them. YouTube was the first platform I gained a lot of followers on and that I really loved to do, but I was not expecting how quickly it blew up over such little time! I feel like my YouTube community is so sweet and it feels like we’re just one big friend group.
What is your favorite video you have done?
This isn’t a specific video but I’m very proud of my “Dangers of Family Vlogging Channels” series! I feel very passionate in that there should be stricter rules when it comes to children in vlogging content on YouTube. The child labor laws don’t apply on YouTube because the footage is taken and produced by the families themselves, not a larger company. That series is my favorite because I feel like it got a big conversation going regarding vlogging channels that profit off of their children, and the children get none of the money and gaining more attention to the issues that YouTube should resolve.
How much research is needed for each video, considering how long they are?
It could take anywhere from 2-3 days to research my videos. Conspiracy videos take me about 2 while deep dives on content creators take me around 3 because there’s a lot more to cover!
Do you have any advice for aspiring creators?
My advice is to just do whatever makes you motivated to do more. Whether that be gaming videos, true crime, art, etc. It’s honestly a game of luck with social media, you just need to keep pushing content out that you’re proud of until one of them hits the right side of the algorithm and you start getting recognized for your work. But YouTube is also a platform to be creative and have fun and I feel like if you do just that, you’ll go far with it. No matter what, never stop doing what makes you happy and never base your worth of stupid analytics! If you’re proud of it, that's all that matters! You are talented, creative, and have so much to offer to this world, don't die with your talents still inside! Go achieve your wildest dreams and live your best life!
Check out Hailey Elizabeth’s YouTube channel here, and follow her on Instagram! She truly posts the best content and we hope that we can only see her following get bigger. Subscribe and follow!
