Posts Tagged: Heritage

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

This past Friday marked the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, which started nearly 50 years ago to celebrate the rich history of Hispanics in the U.S. and the tremendous impact they’ve had on American culture and society. This year, we want to celebrate everyone who identifies as part of the Hispanic and/or Latinx community by shining a light on the amazing content that they produce on YouTube. YouTube is overflowing with stories that are rich in Latinx and Hispanic culture and perspective – and it includes voices that span a vibrant spectrum of backgrounds and experiences.

Through humor, beauty, food, music and much more, Hispanic and Latinx creators make an impact every day. They set trends, define American culture, and connect with millions of fans all at the same time. For example, just last month, Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” became the most-watched video of all time on YouTube. But while Latin music is one of the fastest growing communities on the platform, music is only one small part of a rich catalog of stories Hispanic and Latinx creators are making and sharing. We’d like to take a moment to highlight a few of those creators here:

Lele Pons, a breakout star of 2017, showcases her pride for her heritage through humorous videos depicting what being Latinx means to her. Using humor to connect with people of all backgrounds, Lele has grown her audience to over 5 million subscribers with viral comedy videos and collabs that range from high school scenes to telenovela parodies and the hilarious Training to be a Latina. Similarly, Eric Ochoa (SUPEReeeGO), frequently parodies his experiences of growing up Mexican and was recently featured in the YouTube Red show, “Single by 30.” Like Lele, he’s taught us that exploring your background and viewpoint is a great way to build a global community of allies (and subscribers). The popularity of their content on YouTube indicates the community’s desire to see a world online that more authentically represents the world in which we live.

Many Hispanic and Latinx creators are also driving major trends on the platform. Slime videos, for example, were one of the biggest trends on YouTube this year, and DIY guru Karina Garcia was one of the key influencers driving the popularity of this category, with wildly popular videos like this one. Overall, her slime videos have amassed a whopping 225 million views. Beyond slime, she continues to connect with her community with life hack videos covering a huge range of subjects.

Beauty remains one of the top content categories on the platform and tastemaker Manny Mua has not only disrupted the beauty world, but he has also redefined the concept of “beauty guru.” Renowned for his gorgeous makeup tutorials, Manny was recently named Maybelline’s first ever male brand ambassador.

These creators represent just a few examples from a diverse community of Hispanic and Latinx voices on YouTube whose experiences, perspectives, stories and voices all drive a broader connected community. You can find videos from them and other Hispanic and Latinx influencers by visiting youtube.com/spotlight all month, with new playlists debuting every Monday through October 9. We also want to highlight fresh new content to include in this playlist, so tag your uploads #HHM or #HispanicHeritageMonth and you may see your video featured.

Danielle Tiedt, Chief Marketing Officer at YouTube, recently watched Let’s Talk: Being Hispanic & Latinx Books.


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