Evelyn Ngugi isn't shy about sharing her biggest fears. In fact, she made a video in March describing her fear of being harassed on Black Twitter in great detail, and it was watched more than 68,000 times.
She used to just put whatever she felt like on Twitter. Now, Ngugi says jokingly, she has seen how quickly Black Twitter can shame someone for saying something stupid.
"Black Twitter got the vocabulary, the deepest pop culture frame of reference that I've seen on the planet," she said in the YouTube post. "Black Twitter got the spirit of improvisation and ingenuity and inventiveness just in their genetic makeup. Every member of Black Twitter types 275 words per minute and has the strongest WiFi and or unlimited data plan and my hairline cannot withstand the damage. I don't think I could take it. I wouldn't make it. I used to participate frequently in public draggings. It's a sport. It keeps the mind sharp... it creates a warm sense of community. You know that feeling when we band together and rally around something idiotic or violently offensive that someone tweeted... and just destroy and shame someone into apologizing... or they put their profile on private, or, even better, they delete their Twitter."
Just because she tries not to participate in these public draggings, she said, "don't mean I don't like to watch. I'm not perfect. I never said I was perfect."
It's fun, rambling cultural riffs like this that helped Ngugi attract 80,000-plus subscribers on her YoutTube channel, "Evelyn From The Internets." She's a self-described #MagicalBlackGirl in Austin who loves to use comedy in her cultural commentaries about "Black stuff, African stuff and first-generation African stuff."
Now, Ngugi has been named a YouTube Creators for Change Fellow along with 26 other YouTube stars from around the globe. The fellows will get equipment and production grants to help them churn out new projects. They'll also be invited to an exclusively designed social impact camp at YouTube Spaces in New York and Mumbai where they will have support from YouTube experts and attend specialized workshops.
“I'm honored and hype to participate in Creators for Change!," Ngugi said via email. "My goal isn't to make an appeal for our humanity, but rather, I hope through my humor, I can give those with similar experiences the freedom and space to share their stories and recognize that they're not alone. YouTube has connected me to Internet Cousins around the world and helped me understand that sometimes being an advocate can be making folks laugh through painful times. And that's enough.”
Here's another one of Ngugi's cultural commentaries -- this time on her mom's favorite TV shows, including a hilarious "dramatization."
