Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
LDShadowLady is picking up plenty of fans in the video game world. The 22-year-old Brit, whose real name is Lizzie, posts Let’s Play videos of games like Minecraft and The Sims for her subscribers, who now number more than one million. We caught up with Lizzie about her growing influence among her fans:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have 1 million subscribers? What do you want to say to your fans?
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LDShadowLady: It doesn’t feel much different from 999,999. It’s a whole load of support from even more lovely people.
TF: What inspired you to start a YouTube gaming channel?
LD: I wanted to make friends with some other gamers and it looked like a lot of fun.
TF: What’s your favorite part about making Minecraft videos specifically?
LD: Minecraft just has so many possibilities, I never get bored of it. I can do comedy skits, pranks, chilled-out single-player survival, creative building, and competitive PVP!
TF: How long does it take you to come up with a new video idea. Do you just wing it sometimes? What’s your creative process like?
LD: Sometimes I will spend days working on a project and putting mods together, like for Shadowcraft 2.0. I’ll spend lots of time off-camera building and planning. Other times, I will just jump on for a quick fun mini-game on a multiplayer server.
TF: We saw you on the Gender in Gaming panel at VidCon. Why do you feel conversations like that are important for the YouTube community?
LD: I’m so excited to see more young females becoming involved in the gaming community and I think it’s important to give them a friendly welcome. I believe it’s important to move past the old stereotypes of ‘boy games’ and ‘girl games’. People can play whatever they want and we should just be excited to share our passion for gaming with more people.
TF: Besides your welcome video, the one about your Minecraft Zoo is the most popular clip on your channel. How did you come up with the idea to make that one?
LD: Smallishbeans built the Minecraft Zoo on a series on his channel. When he was finished I thought it would make a cool video for him to give me a tour around what had over time become a ‘disaster zoo’ due to a series of unfortunate events. The idea for that was not thoroughly planned, we just thought it would be fun. I had no idea people would enjoy it that much!
TF: What would you tell someone who wants to start their own gaming channel?
LD: Make sure you have something original on your channel to make you stand out from all the other gaming channels. Also, if you’re having fun, your audience will have fun watching!
TF: If you could make a new channel about any topic other than gaming, what would it be and why?
LD: I love little nerdy DIY projects, unfortunately they always turn into little nerdy disasters. So I think I’ll just stick to gaming for now!
TF: What’s next for your channel? Anything fun?
LD: I’m hoping to introduce more vlogs to my channel soon such as challenges or follow me around vlogs when I go to conventions!
On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): FungBrosComedy, TVFilthyFrank, jvnq
