I feel the need to adopt Tyler Oakley’s, “Well hello,everyone!” to kickstart this post.

The Fifth Parlour was given the opportunity to attend the press meet and greet at *Scape last Friday to meet the YouTubers in the flesh and for a quick session of Q and A. This year’s YouTube FanFest brought in some really well-loved international YouTube stars such as Tyler Oakley, Troye Sivan, Bethany Mota, Lilly Singh (IISuperwomanII), David Choi, Jenna Marbles and Ryan Higa (the last three were unfortunately not at the press conference).

Not forgetting, we also had an impressive line-up of local personalities such as Tosh Rock, Shigga Shay, TreePotatoes and Xiaxue (who admittedly is more of a blogger rather than a vlogger, but she does videos with theclicknetwork. Her baby boy, Dash, is cute as all heck so we can overlook that teeny weeny fact.)

The room was filled with palpable tension the moment the organisers were about to open up the door for the YouTubers. There was the usual introduction of the organisers and sponsors by host, Dominic Lau before the Q and A session began. Beforehand, we were told that only 2-3 questions allowed per YouTuber.

We started with Lilly Singh whose energy was so infectious as well as impressive considering she must have been jet lagged. When asked about what advise would she give an aspiring vlogger, her wise words were not to do it for money nor fame, but to do it simply because you love what you are doing. Oh, and don’t be mean. She also mentioned how YouTube is fast becoming the medium of choice to reach out to the mass and it is important to know that YouTubers may be weirdos who like to talk to the camera, but they are weirdos with a purpose.

Bethany Mota shared with us the reason she started her YouTube channel was because she was going through a particularly bad patch in her life. She found that YouTube provides her with that outlet to express her creativity. Bethany also shares that travelling to different places is mainly where she gets her fashion inspiration.

Wendy (Xiaxue) embraces her new role as a mother both personally as well as on her social media as she shared that Dashiel’s pictures and videos, get twice as many likes on Instagram as compared to her own selfie.

Clutching his cup of tea dearly, Tyler Oakley was clearly jet lagged, but that did not stop him from being his usual feisty self. When greeted with wolf whistles from the ladies in the room, Tyler deadpanned and said, “I’m gay.” He shares that he loves high street fashion brands such as Topshop and River Island and his biggest fashion influences are his viewers as well as his fellow YouTubers. If given a chance, Tyler would tell his 18 year old self to not to worry about what everyone else think about him as at the end of the day, what matters is that he is happy.

Formerly wahbanana, not only does TreePotatoes have a different name, the quartet now have full control over their content and the freedom to choose what they want to do and the direction they are heading to. Even though they may be endorsing a few brands or products, they strongly believed that the companies that they work with need to be able to resonate with their fans and target audience.

Troye Sivan shares his hidden, albeit a little freaky, talent of him being able to bend his fingers backwards. When asked how does he reconcile his YouTube career and movie career, Troye shares that acting is his passion and he can play different roles and make-believe characters, while Youtube allows him to be himself 100%.

Shigga Shay brought the whole room to a standstill when he was asked to do a rap on the spot about the press conference. Colour me impressed!

To round up the whole session, the media were given the chance to mingle for a short while with the YouTubers that were present. The whole session was fruitful as attention was given to each and every YouTuber who were present and ample time were also given for us to say hi.

Now I can’t wait for next year’s YouTube FanFest. Just a little request to the organisers, please bring in the British crew! That is all. 😉

The Fifth Parlour would like to thank the YouTube Fanfest team for the invitation.