YouTube Pioneer iJustine Discusses the Unexpected Massive Success of Her YouTube Channel (Exclusive)

iJustine, whose real name is Justine Ezarik, was one of the originals on YouTube to create a career off the platform before it became what it is today. Having joined over 15 years ago, Ezarik admitted she didn’t know it would be as big as it turned out to be in the long term, but wanted to give it a try. During an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Ezarik, 37, confessed she wasn’t “really expecting anything” to come of it, but little did she know she would amass almost 7 million followers.

“I don’t think so,” she responded when asked if she ever imagined YouTube growing to what it is today. “I think I was just kind of joining it because I was teaching myself to edit […] when I joined it I wasn’t really expecting anything. I mean, I was honestly just posting videos for the sake of learning to edit and just share them with my friends, and then when I started to see these comments pop up from people I didn’t know, I was like this is interesting, there’s something here. I didn’t know what was there, but I knew there was something and I just continued to pursue it.”

Ezarik said she spent a lot of her earlier years trying to “convince” people and her friends that YouTube was “a thing” as she was on to something. Now that she’s been a well-known face for 15 years on the streaming platform, she’s made it her full-time job, but admits that she has reeled it back in recent years. From vlogging every day to sharing so much of her life, she felt the need to step back a little at one point, while still giving her fans and followers what they want.

As a successful woman in the YouTube world, while she admits it feels good to be a sort of pioneer on that front, she couldn’t help but acknowledge the compliment while noting that she had the “early adopter advantage.” “It’s really exciting, and also I did have the early adopter advantage so I’ve been doing it for, like you said, 15 years, so I have had the opportunity to meet and see a lot of incredible female creators,” she gushed.

While the popular influencer has had the opportunity to talk to a lot of young female YouTubers, Ezarik is happy she could be somewhat of a role model for them, saying she didn’t have that when she first started. Instead, she revealed she was always made fun of for wanting to be on the computer or wanting to play video games. But when she made a career out of it, she most definitely turned heads. In fact, because she’s so up-to-date on new technology, she recently partnered with Verizon for their new Call Filter app that helps users block unwanted spam calls.