Social Media Integrity Blog, Episode 2: Bella Jung

Bella Jung is a junior at U-M double-majoring in business and user-experience design. Bella’s creativity and outgoing personality inspired her to create her own YouTube channel and personal vlog. Her videos capture a candid representation of her experience as a University of Michigan student. Many prospective students have even used her channel as a tool for deciding to come to Michigan.

https://player.acast.com/umichstudents-social-integrity/episodes/bella-jung

Bella, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your vlog? What do you hope to achieve with the vlog?

I’m a junior at Michigan: I’m studying business and I am working on a dual degree with the School of Information, studying user experience design. I started my YouTube channel right before the start of my freshman year because I was always looking up videos of YouTubers who went to Michigan. There was one person, and she graduated a few years ago, so there was definitely a need for someone to do that. And, I don’t know, I’m an outgoing person so I thought that I could do it. So I started making videos, and then when I got here, I started vlogging a lot. Honestly it’s become somethingI do when I have time. I’d like to do it more; I’m trying to get back into it. But it’s been fun for me to interact with other Michigan students and prospective students and get them excited about coming to campus. And also just the vlogs in general, vlogging my day-to-day or a game day, it’ll be nice for me to look back on. 

The future of the YouTube channel, we’ll see where it goes. I think it’s definitely going to evolve depending on my career, and what I do after college. 

How did you get started with your channel? 

I’ve just been watching YouTube since I was in seventh grade, and I think that seeing average people doing it made me feel like I could do it too. I’m studying business but I’ve always been really creative, and I’ve known  how to make videos since seventh grade. I played around with iMovie a lot, then I just got really into making videos for school productions. I had all the video editing skills; it was just getting comfortable in front of the camera. The most exciting part about it for me, what kept me going, was that people were requesting more Michigan-related videos. But I will say, now that I’m getting older, I don’t want my channel to be just Michigan-focused. It’s hard because I’m growing with it, too. So that’s something that I’m always thinking about.

Your vlog realistically portrays the life of a Michigan student. Has openly expressing some of the stressors that come with being a student here helped you face them or helped other people face them?

My freshman year I pretty much portrayed a typical freshman experience. I was doing a lot of social outings, going to game days—doing all the fun stuff. Then I think that kind of portrayed U-M as being just a fun/party school. And then that summer after that I did a “pros and cons of going to the University of Michigan” video, and that’s just me openly sharing my opinions. 

I think my sophomore year, I definitely got stressed out a lot more with school. Like I said, I’m a dual degree and I’m doing it in four years. I get questions about that specifically—like maintaining a social life and doing all of that.

When I was a sophomore and the freshmen were coming in, like during Welcome Week, I’d just be walking around and kids started coming up to me and saying, “Oh my God, you’re Bella from YouTube!” Or I was out at Winter Fest, and then these kids were like, “Oh my God! Hey, it’s you!” 

I’m president of my business fraternity now and a lot of the kids, while they are rushing, will say, “Oh my God, your ‘How I chose the University of Michigan video’ was so relatable because I was choosing between the three schools you were choosing from too!” And it’s just, it’s really cool that kids literally said that to me during rush when, not even when I was president, when I was a normal brother. And it’s awesome to see that I had that individual impact.

A lot of times I get questions asking, “If I don’t join social Greek life, will I still have a social experience?” And I’m always like, “For sure, obviously.” And then I get a lot of questions about Ross as well. I have a whole video on Ross, about the competitive nature of it and how you find community within it. And I feel like I can help with those questions.

One of the comments I got early on was “This is all fun, but you’re not showing life as a normal student, outside of the social experiences.” Which, I think I do a way better job of portraying that now, as a junior. But I also think freshman year it’s really hard to find time alone to film yourself—that was a struggle I had. Especially living in Markley, in a shoebox. I loved Markley, I really did, and I loved my roommate, but I would never vlog myself speaking in front of my roommate even though she knew I had a YouTube channel. It’s just, it’s so awkward. Or if I wanted to vlog in Ross I use my phone. I have another camera, but I use my phone in Ross because I don’t want people to know that I’m vlogging. 

Do you feel a bit of a disconnect between when you’re actually filming the video and then when people come to you talking about the content?

When I am talking to people I don’t know as well, I’m way more honest with them. But when I talk about it with my friends I’m like, “Oh, it’s casual. It’s nothing.” But I am passionate about it, I just don’t like it to be something that makes me different.

How have you overcome that? Because that’s such a common fear: being judged. 

That’s the thing: it’s so easy to create an Instagram account or blog, but it’s so weird, you put out a video of yourself and it all kind of changes. The other thing, which I haven’t mentioned, is that my internship this summer is in New York. And one of the biggest talking points in all my interviews is my YouTube channel. It’s always such a strength and something that people really want to hear about. I used to just put it in the “Additional” part of my resume and say it was a small little hobby. One time I was in an interview with someone at Google, and she said, “That’s really interesting. You should make that a bigger part of your resume.” That was sophomore year. Then this year when I recruited in the fall, it was the biggest talking point for everything. And that definitely makes me feel like everyone else really likes it and thinks it’s cool. That definitely keeps me motivated, and the fact that I’m helping younger kids.

How do you find balance between the business of school, extracurriculars, and vlogging? You’ve made some self-care videos too; do you find that that actually helps you?

I find that if I’m going to prioritize YouTube, something does have to give. For example, I couldn’t hang out with a friend because I had to edit a YouTube video that I really wanted to post. And that’s the thing: I think if I were a student who took 12 credits, then that’d be okay. But I’m taking 19 credits right now, and I’m president of my business fraternity, so I have other priorities too. But I’m trying to make YouTube more of a priority this semester. Freshman year I would vlog, and my editing wasn’t great or anything, but I’d post stuff anyway. Then sophomore year I definitely invested myself more in the social scene in school. Now that I’m a junior I have more time to focus on myself. After you push yourself to so many limits, now that I’m not as busy, it’s like, “Okay, what’s the next thing? What do I need to do?” So then that’s why I decided I should go back to YouTube. So that’s how I balance, I guess. I don’t know, it changes. 

First semester of junior year was definitely the most stressful time I think I’ve ever had in my life because of job recruiting at Ross and the pressure you feel through that. Also, like I said, I am getting another degree, and I was job recruiting through that too. I was running from recruiting events in Ross to Rackham Auditorium in heels. I’d be in a suit for Ross but then in casual clothes for that, because it’s tech. So balancing that was really hard. I couldn’t do YouTube, I wasn’t sleeping. I would cry every three days to my mom. I was so stressed.

I mean I think this kind of speaks to that: I got a few offers and when I ended up signing the offer I cried. It wasn’t from me being super happy about it, I was happy about it initially, but when I signed it was because I genuinely didn’t think I could recruit anymore. I was planning on recruiting in January through the School of Information, just to see what I got. But for my own sake, I just needed to accept this offer and not think about recruiting anymore. And I’m really glad I did that because it gave me a perspective: people put such pressure on that one internship for that next summer. I just want to focus next semester on YouTube, self-care, my business fraternity, and personal relationships, and not worry about a job right now because I’m not even graduating yet. 

That gave me a lot of perspective, I think. And that’s why this semester I’ve been a lot more introspective and able to focus on self-care. But I think when I make YouTube videos, that often correlates with when I am doing better about self-care because I’m doing something that I want to do.

What is the impact you’re hoping to have on others?

When I look at other people’s YouTube videos, when they get really big on YouTube, they become unrealistic, and all of that. Even other college YouTubers mainly just portray either the very social scenes or just studying. And the epitome of our school is “work hard, play hard.” And I feel like that’s my biggest thing about portraying both sides of it: my concern always is that I hope my video isn’t boring when I’m talking about how stressed out I am and that I still have fun bits in there. And I think that is also just a reflection of my week. Every week I have stressful parts and then I have fun the other few days!

I want to portray all the different real moments with people, and showing that kids can have both. I always get questions like, “I’m worried that I’m not going to make friends” and “What can I join?” And I think everyone’s always asking questions before they get to college about what things that they can do and what did I do? Everyone is individual, and I think just opening up people’s minds past what they see online is important. 

People said my vlogs made the school look like a fun, welcoming place that they can be. That’s hopefully the impact I could have.

Do you feel that there are any differences between your online persona and your interactions in person?

It’s all me. That’s the only reason why I think I’m able to do it and keep up with it. I don’t have to put makeup on and “show face.” I think the main difference between how I am with my friends and people who know me versus YouTube is that your friends are only seeing you outside all those super-intimate things like a morning routine, whereas people online are seeing the behind the scenes of everything. It’s almost weird because the people online are the ones getting to see what I do to unwind, what I do to get ready, whereas my friends at school aren’t seeing that. I think I am a little more introspective on YouTube, talking about how I’m feeling. I’m basically journaling through YouTube; it’s therapy in a way. 

It takes so much courage to share your story online. Why did you choose to share it through social media and why did you choose YouTube specifically as your platform?

I like video versus Instagram or something like that better because you’re able to connect with your audience a lot more and be real. Instagram you can edit the way you look like your body, all those different things. YouTube, you really can’t do that. You have to be real and raw. 

You mentioned earlier how you hope this vlog will become a source of reflection for you later in life. Have you been able to look back on some of your earlier vlogs through this lens? What have you learned about yourself in that process?

Oh yeah, for sure. It’s honestly some deeper things and some more surface-level stuff. The things that I do in my free time are very different, and the way that I study, and the places that I hang out on campus. And then also looking back, seeing friendships that I formed and even some that have fizzled.

I always have some extra clips that don’t make it into my vlogs, so I create a “year-in-a-minute” video each year. I post them on my YouTube and Instagram. The first was a “one down three to go” concept, and I did one last year for sophomore year. I’ll probably do one again this year. That’s the one thing that I keep consistent across both platforms.

Where do you feel that you’ve experienced the most personal growth since beginning your vlog? 

I just felt myself mature between sophomore year and junior year. And I think that translated to my YouTube videos. 

I feel like I’m growing up, and I’d say that on my videos. I’ll be eating lunch or talking to the camera or something, and take a break and just say, “Wow, that’s crazy. I only have less than a year and a half left here.” I’ll reflect like that on my channel, which happens a lot more now. 

My YouTube channel has been centered around college, but I think the content has become more serious since then. A few weeks ago I posted a video called “50 Ways to be Sustainable in 2020,” which is something I care a lot about. But I would’ve never posted that before. I just don’t care anymore about the number of views, I guess. I’m caring more about the types of content I’m producing now, which is a product of me maturing too.

What would your biggest takeaway from the experience so far be?

I’m glad that I’ve been very personal on my channel because my in-person interactions with people who have found my channel have been so much greater. I’ve made friends through that and friendly faces through that. 

I guess my biggest takeaway is just filtering through the content that you put online.  If, in 20 years, you saw the content you created today, would you be happy with it? I think that speaks to my giving advice to people on my channel. Looking back on my time  on campus, I’m happy with the things that I’ve done and the way I’ve portrayed them.

 

Post written by #UMSocial Intern Keara Kotten