As a homeschooler, you quite likely have felt at some point–if not frequently–that homeschooling gets a rather bad rap. Emma Hayes, a MODG highschooler, hopes to share with people what homeschooling is really like through her YouTube channel.

“I had a unique school experience that I could share with people and hopefully help remove the negative stigma around homeschooling by showing them that it is a valid form of school that requires the same amount and often times more hard work and self-discipline than traditional school. Let’s be honest. All of us have experienced that less-than-impressed look of judgment from people when we tell them we are homeschooled. Hopefully, my future videos can shed some light on the reality of the situation and inspire people to respect homeschooling as an education method,” Emma said. 

Emma had wanted to start her own channel since eighth grade, but she wasn’t able to get it going for a long time after that. “My parents were understandably hesitant about the whole YouTube/social media thing and it actually wasn’t until the end of junior year and almost four years of intermittently asking their permission that they finally agreed. It actually turned out to be for the best that I waited those years because I was able to figure out what I really wanted to use my channel for,” she says.

She adds, “While I will always love creating those basic videos like makeup routines and hair tutorials, I want to eventually branch out into religion-related videos as well. Because so many children are on the internet watching YouTube and scrolling through social media at such a young age, their minds and opinions are being heavily influenced by the one-sided views that are constantly spread by the most popular and influential individuals on the platforms. Almost everything I believe and know to be true as a Catholic is pronounced as wrong or hateful on the internet and young, ignorant minds are feeding into these lies every day.”

As well as helping others learn more about homeschooling, Emma feels that her channel has helped her personally as a MODG student in an interesting way: “In the most ironic way of not actually posting YouTube videos, my YouTube channel has taught me responsibility and prioritization. I’ve actually only posted four videos, the most recent being uploaded last October, because I never felt comfortable putting my school work and my other obligations aside for something that was just for fun. I want to be able to put as much (guilt-free) effort as I can into my videos but I can only accomplish that successfully after all my work is turned in and if you go to MODG you know that’s basically never or sometime in May or June,” Emma says.

Emma says to other MODG students who are considering making a YouTube channel, “My advice to you would be to figure out the main goal or purpose of your channel, whether that be something specific like makeup or automobile related videos or something more general like lifestyle videos which basically includes anything from vlogging to challenges. Also, make sure that whatever you choose as your channel’s purpose is something you would enjoy making and enjoy watching as a viewer. And my final advice would be to make sure schoolwork and other more important duties comes before making videos because work should always come before play.”

You can find and subscribe to Emma’s channel by searching for Emma Hayes on YouTube.