The road to Lancaster’s best YouTuber of 2020 has been a long, sparkly road. Many of Lancs student YouTubers stepped up to have their content reviewed, and to be shortlisted into the running for the title of Lancs best YouTuber 2020.

We’ve sat through Minecraft videos, student vlogs and the “Simp Squad” buying drinks from Spar to whittle down a top six based on nothing but content. Whilst we whittled down exactly which Lancs YouTubers are worth your time, we turned it to you to decide who really is the best of 2020.

Lancaster’s best YouTuber of 2020 is none other than Furness second year student, Rachel Lord.

We asked Rachel to make an acceptance speech, which you can watch on our Insta story.

“Thank you so much! I just want to say how grateful I am that people voted for me and that they like my content. When I decided to make my YouTube channel about mental health two years ago I would never have imagined that so many people would watch the videos and like them.

“It’s a scary thing talking about mental health but it’s important to help break down the stigma! Thank you so much to everyone who voted!”

The Lancaster Tab asked Rachel some questions about her channel so you guys can get to know her better and why YouTube is a massive part of her life.

“My most viewed video is 9.9k views and is me unboxing Taylor Swift’s album.”

“I absolutely love Taylor Swift so I’ve done quite a few videos about her on my channel – including the story of how I met her in 2015! But that’s coming from 15 year old me so it’s proper cringe.”

“It’s really fun being a Lancaster student and being a YouTuber!”

“People are very critical when you do stuff like YouTube videos and you get all sorts of comments. I started my YouTube channel back up before I went to uni and I was really scared about people finding it because I talked about mental health and I was really scared that people were gonna treat me differently or mock me for it. Thankfully, my friends and flat mates were supportive!

“It’s also really fun being a Lancaster student and being a YouTuber! If anyone is on the fence then I’d recommend it because yeah, it’s scary but at the end of the day I always think, what’s worse? Talking about uni/mental health on a YouTube channel or sending hate/speaking badly of someone because they’re doing something they enjoy.”

“At uni everyone has been super nice and supportive”

“I started my channel after high school (thankfully!) so people weren’t too mean. When I first started my channel, people talked behind my back about it and I found out people called it ‘cringe’ and that because it focused on mental health that I was ‘lying and doing it for attention’ and it’s hard because I enjoy making my videos and it’s something I want to do but when you hear that people are saying these things you just want to stop and delete everything.

“Thankfully, at uni everyone has been super nice and supportive and I’ve even had people come up to me and say they recognise me from my YouTube channel! I’m really thankful that people have been so supportive because that inspires me to carry on.”

“I made a video about how to get help for your mental health at Lancaster Uni and a couple of weeks later someone from the counselling team said she recognised me”

“I’d say it’s important for everyone to be aware of your mental health and how much it can impact you or someone you love. I made a video about how to get help for your mental health at Lancaster Uni and a couple of weeks later I saw someone from the university counselling team who said she recognised me from my video and that she thought it was good and it just felt so good. A lot of people struggle with their mental health and I make these videos so people can feel less alone.

“Most of my channel focuses on OCD because I feel like it’s very misunderstood and I have had so many messages from people saying that they didn’t know what was going on and seeing my video make them feel less alone and encouraged them to seek help! I want to talk about mental health so much because my Instagram makes it look like I have this awesome life where I’m always happy but everything is so posed and I want people to know that even though someone looks happy on the internet, they can really be struggling.”

From opening up about her mental health to TikToks to vlogs to Q&As, Rachel’s channel has a diverse range of content. She is a worthy winner of this tittle. If you are not already, subscribe to her channel.

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