Popular YouTube creators share tips on how to #CeateWithCare

For many of us, YouTube is woven into the fabric of everyday life serving various purposes, from education to entertainment. YouTube is a thriving platform with an ever growing ecosystem of creators across diverse languages, regions, genders and identities. To preserve and promote this diverse, inclusive community on YouTube, and inspire emerging creators, YouTube has launched #CreateWithCare – a campaign that encourages creators to develop content that is empathetic towards communities, mindful of inclusivity, respectful of diversity, and is welcoming to all audiences.

Here are some of the popular YouTube Content creators and their videos who have support the need to create content with care:

The Official Geet (812K Subscribers): Many times when creators show or have disabled characters in their videos, they’re either shown so that the audience pities them, or is inspired by them. But, actually, the important thing here is to break these stereotypes. Another thing creators can keep in mind is not to joke about it. There are many other ways in which you can make people laugh, then why do it based on disability.

Vishal Langthasa from ChugliTV (159K Subscribers): There are a lot of ways through which you can correctly represent a community. For instance: do not refer to the ‘North East’ as if it is a homogenous area which has a similar culture. Instead, mention the state, town or area that you’re talking about. It’s good to ensure that you’re not writing too much on a person’s physical characteristics. Also, while writing jokes, it is important to remember that we shouldn’t punch down on any community. As creators, we have a big responsibility to make everyone feel equal and included. And, the first step towards that is to be open to learning.

Madan Gowri (5.46M Subscribers): “As a creator it’s very important to keep yourself conscious about what kind of influence you have on your audience. The three most important steps for any creator is to learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Ankita Chaturvedi (748K Subscribers): It is important to give equal respect to everyone. For instance, avoid using songs that are disrespectful towards women, not perpetuating toxic and unrealistic beauty ideals. As creators, it is our responsibility to create more inclusive and real content as that not only impacts the creator community, but also our audience. Moreover, if you find someone discriminating, such as someone saying something disrespectful towards women in the comment section, then please raise your voice and address it immediately. Don’t ignore it because even silence is like a form of endorsement.

Rudrani Chettri, a transgender artist, activist and model who founded India’s first transgender modelling agency: We all have the right to live with respect and dignity together, and it’s important to showcase that respect, equality and trust in our content. As creators, you can do thorough research, try to learn more about people from the community, who are equipped to help you understand better because of the struggles they have been through. They can provide information. You can reach out to groups, organizations and collectives like these and ask them about the information you need. There’s never a shortage of information, you just have to reach out to them.

Mythpat (10M Subscribers): It is important to collaborate equally with everyone, without discriminating against female creators. We should also address our audience in a gender neutral way. For example, I always address my viewers by saying “Hello, friends…”. I believe everyone should follow this approach to make YouTube equal for all.

Lalit Kumar from Dashamlav (165K subscribers): Amongst India’s approximate 140 crore population, a large fraction is experiencing disability in some way or the other. Content creators should be very thoughtful and sensitive towards creating content not only towards the disabled community, but also towards all other disadvantaged communities, and use their language carefully. Using the official terminology based on the language of your video is always better. For example: The official terminology in Hindi uses both “divyangjan” or “viklaangjan” as words to refer to persons with disabilities. He Started his channel titled Dashamlav in 2018 and has 165K subscribers now.