 It's Monica and Jay and we are here to wish you a very healthy and happy new year. I didn't have to force Jay to do that little video intro with me. He's just always been so very very supportive. You know any of my social media endeavors he's been like right there so supportive. So when I said to him honey you want to you want to do a little New Year's message with me? He said sure. So the two of us got in front of the camera and just recorded that little New Year's clip. We also did one for my grandson Augie because Jay does a little FaceTime with him every morning and it's just like so cute so we did that. But reflections upon the year that it was I know I don't need to reflect or share those reflections because we've all lived 2020. Some of us have lived 2020 with tremendous loss. Some of us have lost our loved ones through to COVID-19. Many of us have never lived through a pandemic like this before and just 2020 was a huge struggle for so many of us. So when I think back on the year that it was I am so hopeful and so optimistic that 2021 will be better. It has to be as Jay says. You know it has to be. So anyways in 2020 I kind of did sort of a little I don't know whether you want it's informal survey of sorts. As a YouTube content creator often we get PR sent to us. Often we are given an opportunity to review hair or face or skincare or makeup. All of that. One thing that you may not be aware of is that many of us get emails. We get these emails from brands, from marketing companies, from PR companies. And throughout all of 2020 I got several of them and it was an invitation to join there as an influencer to to partner with them to do whatever. So the marketing companies of course want to know a little bit more about you and because of some of the questions they ask on the survey it makes me feel like they really just randomly send out this message and it isn't anything personal or custom to me at all. So one of the questions always on there is your age and when I would put because the categories were certain groups of ages and then it was 64 and above or 65 and above or something like that when I was truthful and I put my 65 and above category I noticed after a while I never heard anything back. I was like hmm so when I put a younger category like 30 to 40 I would hear back and it really kind of like stuck in my mind that the and we all know this you get to be a certain age and you are invisible. I know the Hollywood actresses all feel that way. The roles dry up or you know the roles you get are not going to be anything you really want and I noticed that in YouTube content creators as far as marketing companies I'm not talking necessarily brands per sale though there are some brands in there that have done it and then there are some that totally appreciate the older more mature woman our skin the issues we have but more often than not I noticed that when I was honest about my age I never heard a thing back so I took notice of that in 2020 and I said well you know what I am going to work really hard to make it so that I'm not invisible or that the mature woman is not invisible in 2021 we had so much value we have so much life experience we have so we actually have more disposable income you know we are a driving force behind skin care the baby boomers makeup and it is amazing to me that some of the larger brands ignore us totally ignore us so that's my little rant because in 2021 I'm gonna work extra hard as much as possible to be heard it may lose and you know what and maybe they're never getting back to me had nothing to do with the age maybe they just went and checked out my content and said she's not for us and that's okay I get that so I just kind of was starting to feel like all the things I've read about the mature woman being invisible is true you know and it was starting to hit home for me that it was true so 2021 my one of my goals is to change that I don't know yet if I'm gonna be successful I'm gonna try my best to break through a little bit of a barrier and if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen and I'm not talking about mega growth on my YouTube channel but in 2021 I I'm going to I'm gonna try hard to be better better at everything better at being me better a better version of Monica than 2020 2020 I let myself get dragged down into the drags yes I had some personal tragedies my father passing away I had a bunch of those issues and and I know that I need to still keep on living and I know that life out there even with the pandemic is worth living so I'm gonna be one of my goals is to be a better version of Monica that I can be and that is gonna go right back to the basics I'm gonna work on my health number one I've had some health challenges nothing nothing major minor health challenges I've gained a lot of weight I've struggled with a little bit of depression after my dad died and I'm not gonna say that I'm over that I'm still mourning my dad I think I'm mourning my dad every day but I'm getting to the point where I can put that in the place that it should be in I think 2021 my YouTube channel I'm gonna continue to review wigs some wigs I have this is a wig that was sent to me a long time ago actually from wigs.com in exchange for review this is Raquel Welch and I think this is really really nice this is flirt alert and this is in the color shaded wheat so this is one of my early wigs that was sent to me from wigs.com they never paid me they never required me to do anything but maybe wear it and share it and that's what I did I wear I wore it and I shared it think I got this about two three years ago I have since then received wigs from a couple of brands like Henry Magoo when Henry Magoo reached out to me they they sent me about four or five pieces now and no strings you know wear it share it if you enjoy it let everyone know and that I really love uni wigs is another one another brand that had sent me free products to try when it comes to wigs and partnering and when I say partnering that is like if I get a product and I share it with you it is in exchange for review I am not on salary I am not on staff I am I have no exclusive contracts with anyone with any expectations to do anything but now when I'm talking my wigs I love it wigs studio one wigs.com uni wigs Henry Magoo I have gotten some really beautiful pieces I've also bought a number of my own wigs and yeah I you know I love reviewing wigs I love having hair that looks nice with no fuss on my end skin care makeup I've gotten a lot of products from Octoly now I don't have an Octoly I don't have an opportunity to review as many brands as I would like I'm not always accepted by all the brands I select to review products but Octoly even though I don't get everything I want has been really fabulous it's been fabulous and that again you know they do expect something they expect a review they expect you to talk about it on your YouTube channel or your Instagram but there's no compensation they don't send you $500 to do a two minute video they don't sponsor my videos the compensation is in exchange for a free product and when you order a free product sometimes you don't have choice on colors so you kind of hope so Octoly's been fantastic I've had individual brands start to reach out to me just got some keto collagen I just got in I've had the the electronic toothbrushes reach out to me first I've had and I love love love my belt bar so I've had a whole lot of opportunity to review products and I want to hopefully continue to do that in 2021 and and also help support as much as possible people that I feel connected to other youtubers that I feel connected to that something they're doing resonates with me I will do that you know I'll talk about them I don't believe in giving a shout out for a shout out it has to be for me someone I really feel connected to YouTube's a funny place you build a community you have subscribers that really like you that enjoy you that watch your content some of them subscribe some of them don't some of them comment some of them don't some of them share your videos which is super super awesome but the one thing that I have discovered is that at the end of the day it's going to be my content that's going to keep you coming back so I want to really work in 2021 to give you the content that you want that you like that you expect so I'm not perfect you all know that I'm an overweight 66 year old grandmother I love talking about skincare I love talking about the things that I enjoy and I love sharing part of my lifestyle with you I am a camper I have an RV I like to travel and I'm just hoping that in 2021 I can get to share some of that with you again so before this video goes crazy crazy long the whole purpose of it is just to get back to sort of the basics in 2021 and work on me being a better me so I can give you better content I will continue to do videos maybe two to three times a week you know I have no no firm schedule that's how I am I don't want to have a firm schedule so I know it's kind of hard for you to know when I upload hit the subscribe button if you haven't heard from me come to my page my channel you'll see that I have something and and then watch whatever it is I truly truly appreciate all your support that you've given me over the course of the you know last few years here on YouTube even though I've been on YouTube since 2009 I haven't really started to create the the anti-aging the beauty content until 2016 so for the last four years you guys have been amazing and I hope as we go into 2021 that we all are healthy that we have a very happy and healthy new year and that we continue to engage as a community and you continue to hang out with me wake talk skincare talk lifestyle talk yeah that's what it's gonna be all about love you all thank you all so much for all your support and I will see you in my next video in 2021