The YouTuber opens up about growing up online, brand deals and setting boundaries…
Anastasia Kingsnorth’s dream job growing up was to be a secret agent. With more than one million YouTube subscribers and 160 million video views, the chances of her becoming a spy are now somewhat unlikely – she can’t even go on a date without a picture of her ending up on Twitter. So, it’s a good job her social media career is going so well.
Anastasia, 19, first joined YouTube in 2012 with a channel called Anastasia Moshi; a toy channel where she unboxed Moshi Monsters, before starting her eponymous channel Anastasia Kingsnorth in 2013, where she creates more lifestyle content and challenge videos. So although she’s only 19, she’s actually part of the old guard of YouTube – those who started their channels before knowing that they could turn into a career.
“When I started, I had no idea that it could be a career. It wasn’t really a thing back then,” Anastasia says. “Obviously, there were YouTubers but nobody was ‘A YouTuber’. It’s not a career you train in; it’s more something you fall into.”
Anastasia’s channel grew steadily until August 2018 when she had a surge in new subscribers after she started to appear on YouTube’s trending page – something she attributed to her new broader lifestyle content. The growth of her channel brought with it both positivity and negativity.
“When you hit the trending page, you get a whole new audience that don’t necessarily understand what type of content you’re doing because they haven’t found you through wanting to find you, so that can breed a lot of hate on your videos. You also pick up people who love what you do, so it’s kind of 50/50.”
Anastasia has learnt not to let the negativity affect her, and usually has a policy of ignoring negative comments.
“I feel like because I’ve been doing it for so long, I’m almost numb to it. The people leaving hate comments don’t know me as a person, they literally see 10-15 minutes that I am choosing to show them – even though it’s the real me, they’re not living with me and they don’t know me personally. I don’t even tend to block; I’ll literally just ignore it.
“If it’s a really bad comment that’s breeding a load more bad comments, I’ll delete it. But other than that, I’ll just ignore it. I just think, well it doesn’t matter.”
In addition to learning how to handle negativity, Anastasia has had to work on dealing with comparison, too.
“When I was a little bit younger, I used to compare a lot on Instagram. But the further I’ve got into the industry I know that people only show their best side, or a lot of the time they show their best and they don’t show the really bad parts. Even if they look like they’re having an amazing time on holiday, I know that their life isn’t going to be 24/7 perfect.
“Now that I’m in the industry, I don’t really compare anymore. I definitely used to, but now that I’m in the industry I just take everything that I see on the chin.”
One of the best things about being in the industry, Anastasia says, is the friends that she has made.
“The majority of my friends are from YouTube because we can relate to each other. We all understand it [creating content], and it’s a lot easier because we all share the same love for what we do.”
In the US particularly, we have seen the rise in creator houses. Team 10, Hype House… would this be something Anastasia would consider?
“If all my friends were open to the idea of us all living together then I would definitely consider it because it would be a really fun experience. I mean, I feel like I would get annoyed with everyone really quickly because I like my own space and work area… but it would be a cool experience even if it was for six months – and it would make really good content!”
Although Anastasia has made some of her best friends online, sometimes having an online following can complicate new friendships and prospective relationships.
“A couple of years ago, I found it really hard to determine if people wanted to be your friend or were interested more social and number wise. I’ve never had a boyfriend and I think I’m going to find that hard with the trust side of things, because I’ll have that, ‘are you interested in me as a person, or are you interested in the lifestyle that I lead?’ – if that makes sense.”
Should she get into a relationship, Anastasia has mixed feelings about sharing it online.
“I show a lot of my life, so keeping it a secret would be ridiculously hard. I’ve been on dates before where people have taken photos and then put it on Twitter!
“Obviously if I had a boyfriend, he would be a big part of my life and I’d love to make videos together – but a breakup online is a whole other thing I wouldn’t want to go through.”
Anastasia does feel that she has a good balance between public and private life, and downtime and work. “Even though I upload every Wednesday and Sunday [and has done for the past 6 years without missing one], I still feel like I split my time between personal and YouTube really well. I’m 19, and I still go on lots of nights out.”
As her channel has grown, so too has the workload of brand campaigns and opportunities. Anastasia is represented by talent management M&C Saatchi Social (formerly Red Hare), who help her with the contracts and commercial aspects of these brand deals, in addition to developing her personal brand and strategy for the future. Red Hare scouted her when she was just 13 years old and had 30,000 subscribers.
“I feel like they have genuinely helped my career so much, I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I feel like I was really lucky to get scouted at a young age because I didn’t even realise it was a thing at the time. In terms of the time to get management, I feel like it’s different for everyone. Some people prefer to do it on their own and get to half a million subscribers and then think ‘okay, I need help now’.
“For me, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. They help with all the contracts and emails, and we’ll also have meetings about what brands I want to work with, what I want to do and where I want to be. You can see that they actually have your best interests at heart and that they want to build a career for you long term, not just short term.”
What does Anastasia want to do long-term?
“I would love to have my own clothing collaboration line, and I’d love to move into more mainstream media like TV or maybe even radio. I feel like social media is only going to grow, too. A lot of people say, ‘oh, but what if YouTube dies?’ or ‘It’s not going to be around in five years.’ I don’t think it will, but I’m just going to take every day as it comes… and if it doesn’t work out then I’ll just have to go back to my original plan and try and be a secret agent!”