Watching those videos, I didn’t actually retain much about building a beauty routine—though I did learn how to curl my hair with a straightening iron, a skill I utilize to this day. But the creators of the 2010s gave me something else. Something certainly more profound, and maybe more useful—but I had no way to know it at the time. They taught me how to speak English.
When I speak English, I don’t sound like a stereotypical French person. I know the difference between “beach” and “b****h.” I know how to pronounce my “r”s with the back of my throat. Sometimes, I “pass” as a native American speaker. Other times, people think I’m… Canadian, maybe? Sometimes, my French accent makes a small comeback, especially if I’m tired, sick, really nervous, or tipsy (I don’t think I’ve ever been all four at once, but there’s still time). If people know I’m French, the way I speak often prompts questions about where, when, and how I learned English.
At the time, I didn’t realize that watching these young women with their Christmas hauls, sparkly eyeshadow, and clattering collections of nail polish would help me become confident enough to moderate a conversation on stage with multiple native English speakers. All I knew was that they captivated me—Ingrid Nilsen (then known as Missglamorazzi) and her beauty hauls, Blair Fowler (juicystar07) and her room tours, her sister Elle (AllThatGlitters21)’s everyday makeup tutorials.
I didn’t even buy that many products—though I’m not sure I would have tried (and loved) Clinique’s three-step system if not for Blair’s video on the topic. I did splurge on the Naked eyeshadow palette and still use it to this day—yes, the same one I bought back in the 2010s, and which has endured long enough for that specific model to be discontinued, then relaunched. The eyeshadow in it has technically expired, but I’m French, and we don’t believe in expiration dates. If you’ve seen me at a book event, just know I was wearing eyeshadow dating back to Barack Obama’s presidency—the first one.
Beware the things—and the people—you don’t take seriously. Back in the 2010s, if you were not living in an English-speaking country, and if you weren’t friends with or related to a native speaker, then YouTube videos were pretty much your only source of spontaneous, contemporary, “normal” English speech, not written or edited for a given purpose.
