Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I kind of made the decision early on to be extremely open about everything and just pretend like all of these people watching were my close friends that I could tell stuff to and be honest with.
For me, it's always fun to have people that do the same thing as you or and have the same work ethic as you. A lot of my friends have YouTube channels, and I use them in my videos, and I'm in their videos.
I'd wanted to be a director since I was five and had been making videos since I was a kid. Then YouTube came around during high school. I was making videos, and it was just a place to put them, like storage.
I think it's cool that people kind of look at me as one of the originators of online video and one of the pioneers of YouTube because I've worked really hard to build an audience and make content that I'm proud of.
I would tell high school Shane to just start writing down everything that was happening. It was so hard to think back to all those terrible moments. They all started clustering together into one big terrible moment.
The word "YouTuber," even though - listen, I love YouTube, and I would never, ever abandon it, but I think when somebody says "Youtuber" it says "Oh, they talk about what they ate that day." That's not me - I do way more than that.
To me, YouTube isn't just, 'Watch my videos!' It's, 'Let's have a conversation and get involved in each other's lives.' I want to make [my fans] feel like they have a reason to have a YouTube account because they can comment and have a voice.
I'm not saying that I don't like the stuff I put out into the world, because I genuinely enjoy my videos and think they are funny. What I'm saying is that I embrace the fact that I have a punchable face, and that if I could punch myself without feeling it, I would.
Online, I'm this loud, outrageous, confident guy who acts like nothing bothers him, and he has the whole world at his fingertips. In reality, I'm a shy, quiet guy who would rather spend his nights lying in bed watching Netflix than being a valuable member of society.
I wanted people to know that I'm not just a guy who does weird videos on the Internet. I actually am a filmmaker, and I can tell stories, and I can create something that's 90 minutes long that feels just like any other movie you see in the theater, and hopefully enjoy.
I'm not really gay, and I can't sit here and say that I am, because that's not real and that's not genuine. But I also can't sit here and say that I'm straight. This is something I've come to the conclusion through therapy and from being honest with myself. I am bisexual.
Christina Grimie was one of my favorite people, not only because she was caring, she was humble, and she always felt like people mattered... but because the first thing she said when she met me was, 'Oh em gee - your videos are really gross, but for some reason, I love you.'
A lot of the things I was doing on YouTube nobody was doing at the time, and now everybody is doing them, and I think making movies - I know a few Youtubers have done it, and hopefully this movie does well and more YouTubers want to take a risk and make movies, and I'm excited about it.
I've been wanting to do some type of video about the idea that YouTubers have to have some kind of personality disorder, something right, to do what we do. Putting ourselves on camera all the time, being so open on camera all the time, having conventions with our name in it. There has to be something.
I was not really worried about what people thought of me or how offensive my jokes were. I was just kind of saying whatever I wanted, and that gave me the reputation of being this crazy, loose cannon, you know, psycho guy. It still kind haunts me to this day. Like, 'Oh, Shane Dawson - that guy's nuts.'
On YouTube, you know, if you say something, you know, that triggers somebody, it becomes a whole controversy, a whole thing - and all the comments and everybody's upset, whereas a book, there's no comment section. There's no - there's nowhere for the audience to, you know, get mad at you for saying something.
I always wished that I was gay, that I was just 100 percent gay - for so many reasons. No. 1, that means I would know who I was. No. 2, it would be a lot easier for me to be accepted by people because I wear wigs and dresses on the Internet, and I'm feminine and all these things. It'd be so much easier to be just like, 'Yeah, I'm gay.' But I'm not.
I think everybody's goal was to make something that was really broad for a big audience, which was my goal too. But my main goal was that I wanted my audience to love it, because they're the ones who are going to buy it, and they're the ones who are going to tell their friends. And I wanted to make sure that core audience was really happy, because if they all buy it we have a successful movie.