Interview: Social media sensation Amelia Gething talks about dealing with hate online and what truly inspires her
YouTuber and musical.ly star Amelia Gething opened up exclusively to Meaww about the inspiration behind her comedic videos and how she deals with her newfound fame as an Internet celebrity, saying that as a self-funded creator, her passion for her work drives her more than the fame and the money.
Amelia is a British social media influencer who first gained attention with her content on the lip-synching app musical.ly. She is also famous for her comedic videos that she released on YouTube and has a strong Instagram following. Having established herself across multiple platforms as a successful social media star, Amelia took on modeling gigs, signing a contract with The Sandra Reynolds agency and appearing in various brand campaigns.
Amelia has quite the dedicated fan following, with over 477,000 subscribers on YouTube and 438,000 followers on her Instagram account. Despite these enormous figures, Amelia says, "I wouldn’t consider myself a celebrity," but she does acknowledge that she is "well known," a characteristic she has measured in hate comments. But she deals with the haters pretty well, telling us, "I’m pretty pleased that I've never let hate get to me too much, I just ignore it."
Amelia emphasizes the importance of social media. "Social media is everywhere and every company or business is having to adapt to it. It’s great though because it gives so many people a voice to express themselves or help others," she says, adding, "or show off their extremely [aesthetic] Instagram feed full of puppies and pretty plants."
She has successfully used them to her advantage, posting viral clip after clip across multiple sharing platforms. Amelia shares that her desire to act and make videos was largely self-fueled. She says, "I don’t really have one person or thing that inspires me for acting, I just know that I’ve always enjoyed doing it, whether it be making short sketches at home, performing in a school play, or being on TV!"
"It’s something I’ve always loved so I guess my enjoyment of it is my inspiration to pursue it as a career and continue doing it!" She adds, "It’s great to have an inspiration but sometimes the best ideas can come out of nowhere. I get my ideas at the most random times, but often when I’m trying to sleep which can be very annoying!," revealing, "I don’t think there’s one place and time where I’m at my creative best."
Amelia doesn't seem to struggle with the usual work-life balance crises, saying of her professional and personal lives that "It kind of all mixes into one, because when I’m working it doesn't always feel like work. And I’m lucky to have enough time to be able to hang out with my friends on top of everything.
She takes things pretty lightly, adding, "I’m not in competition with anyone, I’m just doing what I enjoy … Unless someone wants to compete on Mario Kart then I’m down, and I’m really good so don’t be upset when you lose." Amelia also described what she did to relax, saying, "I love board games, I love the beach, I love my friends and I love pizza so an ideal day for me would be playing board games on the beach with my friends with a giant pizza."
Though the monetary benefits of Internet superstardom make a career in social media content extremely lucrative, Amelia claims that all that is secondary to passion. "I think if you’re truly in this industry because you have a real passion for what you do then it will never solely be about the money or the fame. Although money can play a big part as I’m independent and therefore I fund all of my own work, but I love what I do and that will never change."
Amelia has learned new things about her self from her time in the spotlight, and not all of them are good. She admits, "I can be quite slow at getting things done as I’m a perfectionist so I’ll spend ages correcting every detail of something, even simple things like tidying my room. I have to make sure that everything is in the right place and is neat and colour co-ordinated, I’m very pedant.
Despite her shortcomings, she is "pretty happy with how things have been," revealing that she doesn't "really have any serious regrets from my past." She is grateful for the people who have genuinely been there for her, adding, " Most of the people I meet are great and I’m lucky to be surrounded by friends and family that support me and what I do!"
Amelia's hopes for the future are quite simple. In ten years, she sees herself "hopefully still doing what I love … and I really hope I have a walk in wardrobe by this point because I want one so bad." In fact, her priorities for the present are quite simple, too, as she joked that the one thing she holds above anything else is "deep fried Mars bars."
We end our interview with Amelia with the best advice she ever received. She shares, "I know it’s cliche but the best advice I’ve ever received is to just be myself, it makes life a lot easier if you’re not pretending to be something you’re not," before adding jokingly, "except when you’re acting, then it’s okay."
Subscribe to Amelia Gething on YouTube here and follow her on Instagram here.