 Hi friends! I hope everyone is doing well today. Today's video is a little bit different than what I normally do because what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna sit here and chat with you for a minute. The reason that I wanted to make this video so badly was because I feel very passionate about the fact that at this part of my life I'm living my best life and I think that people forget that and I think that we as women can be our hardest critic and I really think that that is kind of counterproductive to being the kind of woman that we want to really be and I want to just kind of give you a little pep talk and talk a little bit about being over a 50 the challenges that we meet and some of the things that maybe we can do to make ourselves feel a little bit better at this age. So if you're new to my channel a special welcome I'm so glad that you're here and I hope that you do decide to subscribe and click the bell too and also if everybody would just take just a second and hit the thumbs up button that really does help me out a lot so let's get into this topic of I'm over 50 now but I'm not invisible. Okay so just a little bit about me if you've never been here before and that is I am 52 years old and I am an absolute avid beauty lover. I have been my whole life but it was really when I found YouTube about seven years ago that things started clicking for me and I really started to explore makeup and beauty and skin care and all those things and that was my dog shaking in the background there. So I was about 45 somewhere in there when I started all of this you know it's taking care of my skin a little bit better exploring getting into makeup a little bit more now. I had in the past had a lot of makeup classes or makeup training. My older sister was actually somebody that was a consultant on a cosmetics line and she taught me so much about cosmetics and brushes and different things but she hadn't really taught me about skincare. Everything that I've learned from skincare has been taught to me through YouTube and the wonderful people that are here. I've learned a lot from Mr. Wayne Goss I think we all have as far as being a fantastic makeup artist and how to apply makeup and the rest of it really has just been me kind of leaning on the experience that I had in the past and experimenting with my mature skin and then about a year ago maybe a little bit more than a year ago I started into menopause and everything changed. It was just like wow oh my goodness I don't exactly know what to do with everything now. So kind of have adjusted a little bit to that but my channel is very much towards the mature community so that we can really take care of us and really be the best us we can be. We can still love makeup we can still wear makeup whatever we want to wear whatever we feel like we can do as a matter of fact I think with age comes the realization that oh my goodness I am my own person and I have my own mind and I don't have to follow the pact which I think is a beautiful beautiful thing. I have been on YouTube for four years going into my fifth year and becoming a YouTuber I do realize that contacting these brands and talking to some of these brands and seeing whether or not they would like me to be on their PR list they're not interested they just turn you away and they're just not interested at all. There are very few that I've ever contacted I've probably contacted 50 or more brands through my YouTube career and I've only had like a handful so maybe four companies that have really responded to me and put me on their PR list which I'm super grateful for I think it's fantastic but at the same time it is so hard to do this and be over 40 over 50. There are many women here that are over 40 over 50 that just have a panache for being on camera and they really have a great camera presence and they're really taking off but honestly you guys here's the factors that I think that really played into my channel not doing that well. I know that I have about 45,000 but that's after four years and let me tell you what I'm kind of kind of exploring and kind of looking at after five years on YouTube there has been a lot of YouTubers that have made it to a million and then there's some that have made it to 500,000 and when I very first started YouTube one of my very first favorite creators was Emily Noel and Emily after being here for five years had made it quite up quite a bit up there. I know that she was at least over 200,000 so being on it for this long and not getting very many subscribers can be really discouraging and don't get me wrong I love doing this this is what I have chosen to do and I love being able to interact with you guys my audience you guys has been my saving grace through all of this because if I didn't have you guys I would never have stayed on this platform and do what I do because the interaction that I get with you guys the feedback that I get from you guys is so positive and it's been such a great force in my life for actually giving me more confidence and making me feel better about myself that I can't say enough thank yous and I try really hard to make you guys understand but unless you're on this side of the camera I don't think that you can understand how that interaction with you really does mean so much that's why I try so hard to answer each of you to speak to each of you to kind of develop a little bit of a relationship and and kind of let you know that I know you're there and that I appreciate that you're there and I know that a YouTube channel would be nothing without its subscribers and the people that watch it so I always try to acknowledge that and let you guys know how much I do appreciate it and so in saying that I am over 50 not invisible I want to give you guys just a handful of tips that I have found in the past little while that have really helped me kind of come out of my shell and please don't take offense at any of these I am someone that has never had Botox I've never had fillers I have never had any sort of a clinical treatment in you know like an esthetician's office or anything like that I just haven't been able to afford it so I want to tell you what I do at home for myself that are some really good things I had I did invest a little while ago in a microcurrent device called the Claire blend mini and I am on about my third month or fourth month I don't know if that's really changed a lot in my skin I do feel like it's brought a lot of circulation up to my skin and has helped my skin that way had to adjust my camera sorry you guys okay the other thing is that when I got on YouTube I almost immediately started retinae and I started a really good skincare regimen which I think is so very important especially your retinae and your sunscreen I feel like those are really really important key factors if I hadn't been a sun worshiper when I was a kid maybe I wouldn't have so many wrinkles and some such dark spots that I have to cover with a lot of foundation and all that stuff maybe I would who knows but anyway the other thing is I feel like in the past year you guys know that I went through weight loss surgery and I lost over 120 pounds 125 pounds and I just feel so much better about myself and that is one thing that I want to hit on here is also the need to make sure that you take care of yourself as much as you can our nutrition does mean a lot to us that's not to say that I'm not still a sugar addict because I am and it's horrible it's so hard to get away from that I don't care what you have done it is just a really hard thing to do also making sure you stay as active as you possibly can helps out so much it really truly does make sure you get some exercise in make sure that you're moving that body that will help keep your joints and your muscles and everything in top shape that also really does help slow the aging process and then taking care of yourself with your hair your makeup you know your personal high dream hygiene maybe going out and buying some new a new outfit maybe once a month or as you can afford it because I know everybody can't do that all the time but making yourself a priority I think is so very important so being in this industry and all the crap that's happened very recently has made me realize a couple of things number one being that you have to value people I mean we are going through this pandemic in the world and is there one of us that really can say that we wouldn't want the other person to thrive and really just be the best that they can be and be on top of their game and really why aren't we cheering each other on you know instead of having this separation of ages or classes or race or anything why aren't we holding each other up why aren't we cheering each other on why aren't we making a difference and how people feel about themselves we really need to do that and then also not forgetting that we need to build ourselves up we can look around at what's going on today in the world and be so afraid and so scared but at the same time we need to nourish ourselves we need to remember that every day is a gift and we need to take care of ourselves so that we can help take care of others and I think sometimes we as women forget that if we get to be caretakers then we can forget that we really do have to take care of ourselves first before we can ever help another person or make a change in another person I have two elderly parents and they're in their 80s mid to late 80s and it is a challenge to continue to take care of yourself while you are taking care of others I have three grown children that are type 1 diabetics and I have a diabetic husband and you know life is really tough at times it is a real roller coaster ride and then any of you that have chronic illness you also know that that plays a huge part in it too is trying to take care of yourself and make sure that your your priority in your health and sometimes you can't take care of other people sometimes all you can do is stand still and make sure you're okay and I think that message is important to say it's all right to do that because there was a period in my life where there was like three or four years when all I could do was breathe in and out and take care of myself I also think that we need to reiterate that mental health is every bit as important as our physical health and what we're going through can be something that is just overwhelming mentally emotionally and we can just really feel it all over in our bodies physically so honestly you guys take some time take some time to reflect on what's good in your life what you're grateful for what you have and also take some time to possibly meditate and just slow down a little bit turn the TV off turn the social media off and just really be introspective about where your life's been what you want to continue to do on in your life and the things that can really make you happy going forward and so I hope that this video does kind of help I just wanted to just sit down and chat I don't know why I just had all these thoughts running around in my mind about getting older and being older I think it's because of menopause it's changing so much in me and those changes are so unexpected it's like okay well you didn't have enough as a woman you had babies you had periods your whole life you took care of people will hear you can have this to take care of two and I'll give you a menopause and it's just like oh my goodness what else and so honestly you guys this has been a huge challenge for me this past year and a half comment down below whatever challenges you're having whatever is facing you I would love to hear all of that from you guys thank you so much for being a part of my family you guys are where it's at for me honestly you really truly are the best part of being on YouTube and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and well wishes and all the things that you guys have given me through these past four years so thank you I love you very much I care about each and every one of you very much please believe that from the bottom of my heart I say that so thank you again for tuning in today and I hope you have a great week or weekend wherever this video does hit you I'll see you all in my next video love you bye bye