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 creator has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments here.
When Kelsi Davies was a kid, her great-grandfather was around a lot.
That might sound comforting, but to Davies, it wasn’t. She didn’t know her great-grandfather. She’d never met him.
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“He would always peek around the corner and he would scare me,” she says. “I would just always see him briefly, and I would tell my mom.” Her mom was skeptical, and Davies couldn’t get herself to be more specific about what she thought she was experiencing.
“I wouldn’t be able to say the word ghost out loud,” she says. “I was so scared of them.”
As Davies got older, she had other experiences: times where she would feel strange sensations, have premonitions, or “just know things about people.” But it never occurred to her to explore why these experiences happened to her. After all, didn’t they happen to everybody?
“I always thought it was normal,” she says. “I thought everyone experienced these things, so I never really dug into it more, or thought it was different.”
By the time she’d hit her twenties, Davies had realized everyone did not, in fact, experience these things, and she’d begun actively pursing ways to explore her gifts (including finding haunted objects like her doll Lola, who’s become a central figure in her videos). At the same time, she’d started a YouTube channel with a friend–and after deciding to strike out with her own solo channel, she found it only natural to try documenting her paranormal life.
Check out our chat with her below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: For anybody who is reading this and doesn’t know you, can you give me a little introduction about you and where you’re from, and how you ended up on YouTube?
Kelsi Davies: Yes. My name is Kelsi Davies. I’m originally from Denver, Colorado. I moved to California when I was pretty young, so I grew up in Orange County, California. I’m 25 years old. I started YouTube when I was about 19 years old. I actually started on a joint channel with someone and then that didn’t work out, so I went off on my own when I was about 20, I believe. Ever since, I’ve just been doing YouTube, TikTok, all different types of social media, and going to the most haunted places in the world.
I guess I introduce myself as an actress, dancer, singer, and psychic medium.
Tubefilter: So a very broad range of talents.
Kelsi Davies: Yes. [laughs]
Tubefilter: What originally got you interested in doing YouTube?
Kelsi Davies: My old friend, I don’t know, she just was like, “Hey, let’s just start vlogging and doing challenges and stuff like that.” I always loved being in front of the camera. I loved entertaining people. I loved editing, like everything around it. It just allowed me to be creative and have this space where I can go and be myself because I had really, really bad social anxiety all growing up.
I was really shy, but on camera, it just allowed me to be me and I was able to share my life with everyone and I really loved that. I just continued really pushing further with it.
Tubefilter: It’s so funny to me, I’ve done probably, I don’t know, hundreds of these interviews by now. I’ve been interviewing creators for five years. It’s funny to me how many YouTubers specifically say, “I was painfully shy,” or, “I had the worst social anxiety.”
Kelsi Davies: It is crazy.
Tubefilter: And very cool! Making videos is a very interesting way for people to be able to find themselves and come out of their shells. It’s just interesting that a very large number of YouTubers I’ve talked to share that particular trait.
Kelsi Davies: A lot of my friends are just like me. They were super shy in high school, didn’t have a lot of friends, but they just came out online with everything and that’s where their personality was. They were able to be themselves in front of a camera.
Tubefilter: I feel like being uncool in high school is a creative requirement.
Kelsi Davies: It’s sort of a cool thing to be uncool, you know?
Tubefilter: How did you come to believe you’re a psychic medium? Can you talk a little bit about realizing that and how old you were? What kind of experiences did you have?
Kelsi Davies: My whole life, I always had paranormal experiences. I was always drawn to that world. I would always watch Beetlejuice and Spirited Away. Those were my favorite movies growing up, and I never understood really why I was so drawn to that world. I guess as I grew up, I would always have paranormal experiences, weird dreams, premonitions of things. I would just know things about people and I always thought it was normal. I thought everyone experienced these things, so I never really dug into it more, or thought it was different.
I would always see my great-grandfather. He would always peek around the corner and he would scare me. I had no idea who he was, never met this man, and I would just always see him briefly, and I would tell my mom. I wouldn’t be able to say the word ghost out loud. I was so scared of them. Later on, I started going to the most haunted places in the world because I was just so drawn to the paranormal and I didn’t know why.
In the videos, I would always say, “I feel this” or “I don’t know, I have this weird feeling that this person did this,” and it would be all true. It’s really cool because you can watch me progress in my mediumship through my YouTube channel.
Tubefilter: What’s been your favorite experience that you’ve had on camera for your channel? What’s your favorite place you’ve been to?
Kelsi Davies: Oh my gosh. There’s so many amazing places. I think Thailand was my favorite. We went to this cave. It was actually a really dark situation that happened, but that’s something that I will always remember. It was like this old cave from, I don’t even know how long ago. There were human bones in there that were 43,000 years old, just sitting there. Like real human bones. I thought that was so interesting. They have these caveman sculptures in there and cave drawings that were there and there was so much old energy and old spirits there. I think that was the most intriguing place and somewhere that I want to go back to, but I definitely need to bring protection with me, because something there made our friend crash her motorbike really badly. I predicted it before it happened, in the cave. That was really crazy. Thailand was my favorite, I think, so far.
Tubefilter: I hope your friend was okay.
Kelsi Davies: Yes. It was pretty bad. In the cave, I said, “My right shoulder’s in pain, my right shoulder’s hurting.” All day I kept saying, “I’m going to crash this bike. I just keep seeing this bike crashing. I can’t drive it.” I kept telling my dad all day and talking about my right shoulder. Then that night, we were going, and our friend pulls up on his bike because she had ridden my bike. I wouldn’t ride it because I thought I was going to crash it. He goes, “She crashed. She crashed.”
We go up to her and she’s holding her arm and her shoulder is like an inch down from where it is supposed to be. It was her right shoulder. The bike crash, the right shoulder. It was just really, really bizarre and scary. She was okay. She had to get surgery and stuff. It was pretty bad.
Tubefilter: I’m glad she turned out to be okay. That’s rough.
Kelsi Davies: Yes, I was pretty bad.
Tubefilter: I’m sure you’ve encountered your fair share of skeptics. Do you have any reaction to these people? Do you ignore them? Do you indulge them?
Kelsi Davies: Yes, at first I would be insulted because I just would never go into someone’s beliefs and disrespect them and say, “They’re false, they’re fake, what you believe in isn’t real.” I would never do that to someone, no matter what they believe in. I was very adamant about defending myself, but now it’s just like if you don’t have an open mind and you’re not able to just keep it open for other people’s beliefs, I don’t respect you for that.
I feel like it’s just a waste of my time. I don’t want to prove myself anymore. I spent years just trying to prove my gifts to my family, to my friends. I have, but it’s like now I’m just established and it just doesn’t even bother me anymore, honestly.
Tubefilter: Got it. What is life like for you these days? Obviously you’re doing a bunch of traveling for videos. You may not have an average day or an average week, but what’s your production schedule like?
Kelsi Davies: When I wake up, I try to go work out, because I was a little bit bigger. I was trying to get more fit and just stay active and feel good about myself, because when you do content all day, people notice everything. It definitely added some insecurities in my life. Like I noticed things that I didn’t before because of comments and stuff like that. I just do things for myself to make sure that I feel healthy and I feel happy. I’ll go work out and then I’ll edit or I’ll film TikToks all day, or YouTube videos one day, and then I’ll sit and edit all day one day, or I’ll do graphic designing and make new merch. I’m always, always working. I’ve scheduled yoga for tonight. I’m trying to do little things here and there just to be more out with people, because social media is so camera and you. It’s hard because there’s so many people watching, but you’re not interacting with those people. You have to find habits or hobbies to do to keep your mind occupied.
Tubefilter: Do you have anybody working with you? I know you said you’re editing, do you have anybody working with you behind the scenes? Do you have an editor? Do you have anybody else who works with? Your cameraman?
Kelsi Davies: Yes, so for four years, I did everything myself. I also have a podcast, so I would edit everything, but within the last two months, I’ve come across two people who have helped me tremendously. I have Robin, who edits my InTALKxicated podcast now, so I just film. I’ll look over it after because I do like editing, but it was just getting a lot for me. Then I have Alexis, who is editing my vlogs now, but I still edit all my paranormal-based videos.
Tubefilter: Got it. Is there a specific reason for that or–? I’m just curious.
Kelsi Davies: Yes, I enjoy it. It’s like I’ll notice things that other people can’t. Like I’ll be able to interpret the spirit box because that’s something that you have to learn doing this all the time. If I have a vision, you see me stare away, but the editor doesn’t know that, so I’ll have to write like, “Guys, I was seeing this.” Try to add it in there. I just like the creative aspect of being able to make a super creepy movie, and being really proud of it and excited to release it.
Tubefilter: You do a lot of long-form videos. Do you have a set balance between long and short-form, or do you just put things out as you finish them?
Kelsi Davies: Yes, I just go. A lot of my videos are 30 minutes to an hour long, but every once in a while, I’ll do like a 15-minute video, something short. I just do it whenever I can, whatever just happens. I don’t really have a set schedule, but I do try to post one to two times a week if I can.
I do do short-form. I also do TikTok and short-form and stuff. I don’t know, I get so into it and I feel like it’s not enough. I feel like it’s ended, but it’s like I want more. I’ll either do two parts or I’ll just make it a movie now. People just like the movies, so I’m like, “If you’re going to watch it, that’s awesome.”
Tubefilter: You mentioned you’re an actress, you’re a dancer, you’re all of these things. Are you aiming for any other creative pursuits right now outside of YouTube and content in general?
Kelsi Davies: Yes. I’m doing auditions for acting. I’m taking acting classes. I’ve always loved acting. I actually did it when I was 18. Before I started really doing YouTube and stuff, I was an actress and a professional dancer and choreographer, so I did that before I even started. That’s something I do want to keep up with. I did start social media to get my foot in the door with acting because they started asking for your following numbers and mine were pretty low and I was like, “I don’t have that. Maybe I should build that up.” Then that started that journey. I just went to a singing lesson today. I’ve been practicing singing because I just genuinely enjoy it, and the artistic process around it and directing the videos, and being able to just put things together in such a cool way.
Tubefilter: What’s been your favorite part of being a content creator in general?
Kelsi Davies: I think it’s just seeing that other people value you in a way, or you’re able to help other people. With such a large platform, you’re able to create a whole community and bring people together. I know a lot of my fans started dating each other and a lot of them are becoming really good friends. I have a Discord chat where they all just talk. It’s really, really cool to just be able to bring people together who are into something similar like spirituality and the paranormal. They’re not told that they’re crazy. It’s somewhere that they can escape. That’s something I always wanted, so it’s just really cool to be able to create that.
Tubefilter: I wanted to ask, have you had anybody comment and be like, “This helped me realize I’m a medium”?
Kelsi Davies: All the time. It’s really cool. It’s like…I brought a fan who was a young medium ghost hunting and I just watched her explore her gifts. It was just so cool because I was so confused at that age and so afraid of all of it, and it’s just cool to be able to impact people and help them in a way that I wasn’t able to be helped.
Tubefilter: Do you have any other plans or goals for this year, in general, for yourself?
Kelsi Davies: Yes, I really want to travel more for sure. I want to just go places and practice my spirituality and get more in tune. I definitely want to do more acting. I am releasing more songs this year, so I’m really, really excited about that.
Tubefilter: Are there bucket list haunted places you’d like to visit?
Kelsi Davies: So many. There’s places in Japan I still want to go to that I didn’t get to, like Nagoro. It’s this village of dolls. There’s another doll island I want to go to in Mexico, and it’s an island of all dolls that’s super haunted. It’s just very fitting. I just have to go to the haunted dolls, I guess. That place is definitely spooky. I want to go in Europe, the catacombs. I want to go to the pyramids. I want to go to just crazy places.
Tubefilter: Is there anything else you feel like you want readers to know about you?
Kelsi Davies: I don’t know. I am working on a new song that is coming out in the next couple of months. We are going to start filming the music video process this month. It involves being underwater, so I’m going to have to really practice holding my breath. We’re really going all out on this video, so stay tuned. I’m really excited to share it.
Tubefilter: Do you have the name of the song?
Kelsi Davies: Yes, it’s called “September 10th.” My birthday. It’s a traumatic song about something that happened on my birthday that I think a lot of people can relate to.
Tubefilter: Any other projects?
Kelsi Davies: I’m also working on a tarot card deck. I’m designing my own tarot card deck. I’ve been working on it for months. It’s taken a lot of time because it’s all graphic design and I’m doing everything. It’s really cool. To have my own tarot deck with Lola on it and stuff will be really cool.
Tubefilter: What’s that process been? Are you working with an artist? Are you working with a company? Is it just all you?
Kelsi Davies: It’s all me. I am designing every single card. I draw it with the paintbrush on Photoshop. I use a paintbrush tool. I’ve just been going to town.
I did want to add something, about the song–I feel like I was very brief about it.
Tubefilter: Yes, sure. Please.
Kelsi Davies: “September 10th” is about…On my birthday, I had someone I thought was a friend scream at me and belittle me. It just took me in a spin. I knew this person half of my life. It took me for a spin, and it affected me in a lot of ways. The way I do things for people or trust people because I did a lot for that person, and they just betrayed me in front of multiple people. It was something that I just felt like I was melting. I felt like I wasn’t even in my body as I was being screamed at.
A lot of people can relate to it. This person changed when alcohol was involved. Their true colors come out when alcohol’s involved. It wasn’t the first birthday this person had ruined because alcohol was involved. A lot of people can relate to it if anyone’s been through a traumatic experience like that. I just hope that it impacts people in a positive way and allows me to move forward past this toxicity that I’ve been trying to push myself out of.
