 Before I begin this video I should address the white elephant in the room. I apologize. I want to give thanks to Nicholas Diorio, John Swan, Turkey Tom, or anyone else who promoted me, and if you're new to the channel, welcome. Fabricated characters and personas have been prevalent since the beginning of YouTube, whether it consists of blackface or fat-raging gamer. But fictional character representation is still something that's pretty young to YouTube. YouTube started with the premise of you yourself making videos on the platform for others, and almost everyone who made videos at the time included their face and identity. Wow, you're pretty fucking strong. Due to the nature of entertainment, YouTube started adapting and certain creators made personas to differentiate themselves. In the last four years, the faceless YouTuber has been a phenomenon that's still receiving success. Look at me, for example. But for real though, this has always interested me because no matter how small my channel is, I'm technically still a factor in this. Instead of using my real identity, I personified a burden to being my channel's representation. And while I myself know my reasons for this, I wonder if most people even know their reasons. The obvious assumption is branding. If you associate a voice with a character, it stands out. But then why do most channels with character branding still not stand out? If you're trying to brand your channel with copyrighted characters like Mordecai from Regular Show or Johnny Tess from Hit Show Johnny Tess, you're fighting an uphill battle. Not only do those characters already have voice actors that are recognized to the character but also because they're insanely saturated. Talking down earth for a second, let's quit the cap and keep it real. If you're associated with small creators, how many times have you seen somebody go through a crisis with their channel's representation? If you're Jake the Dog one day, then Peter from Family Guy the next day, then Alvin the Chipmunk the other. I assume you don't give that much of a shit about your branding since nobody's going to pair you with those voices. Except the Chipmunks maybe, depending on your age. Only way I see branding working for a YouTuber in their favor is if they're consistent with it. I know I haven't been here for long, but the largest factor about me that stands out is this bird. Without this bird, my videos would not be nearly as expressive as they are now. Is this bird branding intentional? Absolutely. I hate to be the killer of Christmas and the destroyer of religion, but folks, I'm not actually a bird. The shoe bill stork matches my voice and writing style and helps me to stand out from the rest. While branding isn't the main factor for everybody, it's still something that most people factor into their content. If you make bare minimum content but have a cool mascot, it gives you a better chance to be noticed due to your gimmick convincing others to click on your channel. It gives you enough to get by. This is the same work ethic I applied to my grades. Most of the people I idolize have great branding that contributes to their success. I wouldn't label myself a shammy clone due to our differences in content, but he definitely inspired me to make this bird persona, and that was due to his owl character. And now when I see this owl, I think of one of my favorite content creators, ZapTiesBear, PyrosTV, ClownsClown. These are obvious examples, but they're well known, so that's why I chose them. Even looking at newer YouTubers such as Dream and Corpse Husband, even though you might not like them, their characters definitely do stand out. Most content you watch probably has branding consistency, even if they're not faceless. If I made YouTube videos with no character stills and having a profile picture of a checkmark, I probably wouldn't have that many eyes on me. Everything I say is objective fact, because I have the key of knowledge when it comes to content success. Of course not. There's some people with no branding at all and they're doing okay. Look at Critical, for example. I'm just talking the case of the majority by what I've seen. Another reason for faceless creation is privacy, and where some have genuine concerns, I see most cases to be a blanket of excuse. Of course privacy is necessary, but seeing somebody's appearance is only one layer of security. So if that's the main reason to be anonymous, then that seems kind of disingenuous. I believe the main reason for being a faceless YouTuber is either immersion or insecurity. I know I have a blank monotone voice, so it sounds like I'm mocking this, but I completely understand. A lot of people have confident issues, and putting your face on the internet makes you a target no matter what. You can make the greatest video on earth, but if you're on the heavier side, Sam is going to deliberately point it out to be an asshole. Oh my god. It's peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time! And while it's down to the person to rather bend than break, I get why you just want to cut out that obstacle completely by not showing your face at all. But instead of claiming anonymity for privacy, just be truthful if it's for insecurity. If you have 500 subs complaining about the mafia wanting to break your kneecaps, I'm going to roll my eyes. But if you're somebody with confidence issues stating that you feel uncomfortable with your appearance, I completely understand. When I say the word immersion, there's a lot of things that come to mind. Reality can often be seen as pessimistic and unmotivating, so people use entertainment as an escape. On this video, I'm Skipper, a YouTuber making videos discussing things, but in real life, I'm an 18-year-old kid dealing with the pressures of reality. Escapism is present all the time because without it, there's nothing to live for. When discussing immersion in a character, the most successful example is Mickey Mouse. As a cynical adult, you might see Mickey Mouse as a corporate lawyer, but as a child, you might have seen him as imagination and joy. YouTube is a small part of the average person's life, so when watching a YouTube video, they only tend to care about the YouTuber on a service value. I don't watch a video essay on cyberpunk and ponder if the YouTube has family troubles, commitment problems, substance abuse, etc. I just judge the content for what it is. With the goal to either learn something new or to be entertained. People tend to have perspectives and interesting things to discuss, but a YouTuber usually has to balance the obstacles of being genuine while also being entertaining. While you could call me a liar, I'm not insecure to show my face, but I choose not to for the sake of immersion. It's not fun to learn the magic trick or see how the machine functions. I mentioned Shammy earlier, and even if he was to face reveal and be the most attractive man on earth, I would still dislike it. Once the cat is out of the back, you can't put it back in. I get it, it's exciting to question what if, but I personally find it more interesting to have somebody's perception of a YouTuber's appearance be left up to them. If I was to build up a huge fanbase and decided to show my face one day, it would be a 50-50 coin toss in terms of perception of each individual. Either I live up to your expectations or I don't. There's no middle ground. It's a situation of absolutes. But keeping in the dark of my appearance makes you move toward the only option you got, and that's to accept that I'm a fucking bird. If I show my face as character dies, even if you saw my face and attempted to forget it for the sake of immersion, it's gonna linger. Pyrocynical and Zaptide showed their face instead of trying to act like nothing happened, they adapted and quit the character. Worst case scenario, something like this was to happen. I still incorporate the bird in my branding and continue YouTube since I love making videos, but it won't act like nothing happened. But right now, at the moment, it's still fun to play pretend. I don't blame anybody who chooses not to reveal their identity in the name of imagination. I don't care about Shammy's face as long as I can associate him with Yao, and I hope the same could be applied to me. At the end of the day, if his face was a surface, I'd still support him if he makes good content. But most people do like theatrics. If you don't go by your real name on YouTube, you're participating in fiction. My real name isn't Skipper, but I like the alias because it creates a merge between my reality and my escapism. Overall, this video is just me discussing the premise of characters and personas when it comes to YouTube. I know this video isn't really mind-blowing, but I found it interesting and I wanted to talk about it. Now, to discuss the black elephant in the room. Trust me, I'm definitely not oblivious to the support recently, and it's definitely jarring. I'm no stranger to talking to the void, so when it comes to content creation, I've always felt inadequate. So even a little bit of acknowledgement recognition tends to go a long way. Content creation is definitely my passion in escapism. So to anybody who shares, likes, comments, and subscribes, I genuinely mean it when I say thank you. When it comes to my track record, I could be spontaneous with the subject, but no matter how experimental I get, I put effort. So I hope you kind of just stick with me and go for the journey. I'm hoping to hit 500 subs by the end of the year. Who knows if I will. I probably won't, but thanks for watching.