Creating Change: One YouTube Video at a Time

What if your favorite YouTubers inspired you to become a content creator, only to face a wave of controversy and personal challenges along the way? 

In this compelling clip episode, Brennan Beckwith, who has been creating content for over a decade, shares his incredible journey from being an avid fan of early YouTube stars like Tyler Oakley to becoming a pioneer for non-binary visibility on the platform. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I've been doing YouTube for maybe like 10 years. I've been working in content creation for a very long time. I also just professionally work in social media production. So yeah, that's me.

Speaker 2: 0:13

It's amazing. You've got a lot of history, especially like on YouTube. Yeah, so where did you get started with YouTube? What made you say, upload the first video?

Speaker 1: 0:25

I was a big fan of YouTubers back in maybe 2010 to 2014, those early golden age of YouTube where people like Tyler Oakley I love Tyler.

Speaker 1: 0:39

People. You know I was really. I was a closeted trans boy in love with not closeted gay boys and I think I lived vicariously through them a little bit, but yeah, so I kind of just wanted to be like them and so I started making YouTube videos talking about my life sporadically, life um, sporadically, and uh, yeah, then I then I made my uh, my video that uh, calvin Gara reacted to, and then Calvin Gara reacted to it and uh, I left the internet for a few years and then came back with my uh, with my um video about him and uh, things kind of just progressed from there and yeah, yeah, so for context, who was this?

Speaker 2: 1:30

Calvin? Yeah, because I'm an old head and I'm like who the hell is? Calvin?

Speaker 1: 1:33

Garrett. Calvin Garrett is kind of like the trans mask Blair White, if you will or was like he doesn't make we need to go there, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:44

He doesn't. He doesn't make content anymore, but basically he made a lot of reaction content. He's a trans guy that, just, you know, fed into the transmedicalist narrative anti-nonbinary, anti-cringe culture, kind of reactionary YouTuber and I was the exact opposite. I was making uh, you know, I was making non-binary videos before. It was cool when it was cringy and when it was uh, I had my pink hair and I was uh you were really a pioneer.

Speaker 2: 2:18

I look back at a legend, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 2:22

No, seriously, there was a lot of people that I think were afraid to express themselves in the way that you did, especially early transition, yeah, and you caught a lot of flack for that.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Yeah, I think that I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. I think that I was, just like I said, a fan of YouTubers, so I was making YouTube videos about my experience. I was big, inspired by Ash Hardell and, um, milo Stewart, ash Hardell's great, love them so much. They're just now getting back into, uh, making YouTube videos again and, um, I'm really excited to see where they go with all of that. Um, and yeah, so I was inspired by queer content creators like that, and I was. And yeah, so I was inspired by queer content creators like that and I was. I didn't have a big following. I had a following from Tumblr, actually wait, I thought you were Gen Z.

Speaker 2: 3:12

What Tumblr? I think Tumblr.

Speaker 1: 3:15

I'm a Gen Zillennial, you know like I'm on the cusp of Gen Z, so you're like 94, 95, 98 yeah, you are so yeah, I. I was on Tumblr. I made videos about being queer and non-binary and gender queer. I came out as gender fluid on the internet and that brought me to an episode of MTV's True Life. Wow, you didn't find this out in your research?

Speaker 2: 3:46

No, I did, I'm just. You know I have to be wow for the audience. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Yes, I know, yeah, so I guess too, I can also owe uh some of my following and some of my history to uh true life. I'm genderqueer. Uh, that was a very interesting experience. I was 17 years old, um when, yeah, when how was that?

Speaker 2: 4:08

like he's. He's like a pioneer for non-binary folks. That's why I wanted him on. Yeah, but you know, at the age of 17,. Though what does that pressure look like? How was that experience for you, Especially back then? I?

Speaker 1: 4:20

didn't really again, like I didn't really know what I was doing. I kind of just, you know, took opportunities when they came to me and I just loved like being myself in that way, like I loved the idea of being non-binary. Um, I loved, uh, like gender fuckery. I I didn't I mean, I didn't know that word at the time it's okay, you can cuss, like cussing here but, um, I did some, but yeah, so I did some.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Uh, I was really into all that kind of stuff and, um, making content, and so I actually came out as gender fluid in a youtube video and then they found me through that and you know the reality tv game where they, you know they take people who don't necessarily like understand the whole gig and they sell you on this idea You're telling two people that run a Jubilee episode.

Speaker 2: 5:17

I have no idea what that's like. I've never been in that position in my life. Do you have any?

Speaker 1: 5:23

idea what that's like. No idea.

Speaker 2: 5:24

You know how it is.

Speaker 1: 5:25

You know how it is Like, but I loved it. I, you know, I was 17. They told me I could be a star. They told me that I was, you know, helping the community and stuff, and so I signed a bunch of contracts and they came to my place. But I don't know, I learned a lot. I, you know it was super fun to be on camera but yeah, it really did kind of push me into the spotlight at a pretty early age and early time in my identity as well. Right, like I had not fully, like I am not the person that I was when I was 17, you know, and so I was looking back on it as a little cringy to me Also, like anybody that looks back at 17,.

Speaker 2: 6:12

I look back at my 17 year old self like bro, but y'all can't call me cringy to me, um, also like anybody that looks back at 17, I look back at my 17 year old self like bro but y'all can't call me cringy, okay, that would be, that would be calvary territory.

Speaker 1: 6:23

You got to protect, uh, 17 year old Brennan. But I mean, I look back at you know, 17 year old Brennan, and you know, even though I'm, I'm so not that person anymore. And now there's this episode, you know, of me talking about identities and queerness and transness, before I even knew at all what I was talking about. But I also love that version of me. I love, I love past me, like I think that they were so fucking cool and so brave and like just really put it all out on the table for whoever wanted to see. And I was doing it, you know, to talk about my community and my identity. And I was really well positioned, like I was very privileged, my parents were supportive, you know I was really well positioned, like I was very privileged, my parents were supportive, you know I was okay, so I was able to talk about it and be open about it in ways that a lot of people can't, and so, yeah, I really admire that version of me and it brought me here. So you