Letter from the Editor: 13 Years & Never Been Luckier!

I've done these annual Letter from the Editor posts off and on since the site launched in 2012, and this felt like the right time to bring it back!

What a time we are living in, no?!

The world is on fire (and Republicunts are determined to keep throwing gasoline!) and queer and trans people are once again under attack. I live in North Dakota, so it's not like the bullying ever really went away, but it did feel like things were getting better for a stretch there. And now look at us.

Despite the struggles, or maybe because of them, I still think it's important to recognize the celebrations too. The annual to the editor usually would go up in August, to celebrate the anniversary of the first post on the first version of this website, but I decided to jump the gun a little bit and put it up to close out the month of Pride.

This site continues to be one of my greatest labors of love. We see a fair amount of traffic, and I love and appreciate everyone who takes a little time to check out the site, read a post, look at the galleries, etc. Some new readers have been coming over from YouTube, which is amazing! I celebrated 5 years on YouTube this May! When the pandemic hit, I didn't want to bake bread so instead I started up a channel that has just recently surpassed 600 subscribers! Still a tiny fish in the ocean, but I'm proud of the little community I'm building. It started pretty firmly in the makeup space, promoting old tags (some of my favorite videos to watch!) and GRWMs, and has expanded into horror movies, vintage toys, unboxings, and other random things - anything that fits into my new moniker: North Dakota's Trash Queen of Glam, Geek, & Gore. I decided to go with "trash queen" because when I started I was very excited to embrace "lazy drag" - still doing a full face, but wearing comfy tshirts. I still rock some tshirts, but I've been trying to put a bit more effort into the appearance.

And to exemplify the quirky community that is following me on this journey? My most viewed video is a comparison of two colorful foundation brands, where I turn myself into a Simpsons character! 1300 views and counting!

At the end of May, I took part in a fundraiser with the Empire Theater Company that brought in over $4000, and created two new characters for Hoboken High Reunion 1989. It was a lot of fun to put together and the cast was absolutely delightful to work with. I even worked with Kathy, the writer and director, to help shape the storyline for my characters, Darla and Theresa Kavanaugh.

And because I love any excuse to create tie-ins across platforms, I also filmed a GRWM for my channel getting into the look for the second night of the 2-night event.

There have been some challenges this past year. I've been really inconsistent with my YouTube uploads for a while now. It's a combination of things. I've been fighting off some pretty intense burnout, both with work stuff and personal stuff. I'm also in the process of switching editing laptops, and I'm running into software problems that are delaying a lot of my editing. I've been experimenting with a new way to film, and I love the way the quality is improving, but it's been somewhat limiting. That's why you've seen more GRWM videos - with more on the way! These are easiest to film with the new setup, though I am going to be experimenting with a couple of other video types to see how they go.

Ideally I want to get to a place where I'm filming with both setups so that I can get more done. Filming GRWM/makeup applications takes a lot longer than other videos, so if I can do those on my own, and focus on other videos when I film with Angie, then I'll be a lot more efficient with getting content ready to be edited. Then I just need to find a better way to structure my editing time so that I can get videos out on a more consistent basis. My goal is to get back to consistently having one video a week with the occasional bonus video.

This is also the year that I want to start doing livestreams. I'm hoping that I've built up a big enough subscriber base that I can at least get a few regular people to stop by and chat for a live! I really love being a part of DionLuvsMakeup's chat community, and I would love to build something similar!

If you want to watch our Pride dual-livestream where we created rainbow looks, you can see that here:

She asked me to make a thumbnail for the live, and I was happy to do so. I've really been enjoying making thumbnails for videos, and I think I'm getting better at it! They may not be exactly what YouTube is looking for, but that's part of the fun of having a channel - experimenting with intros, outros, thumbnails, and all of the other visuals that surround the videos themselves.

I've also been trying to be more active on the Posts tab, which used to be called the Community tab. I'm not sure why they changed it - I liked Community better, because that's what I'm trying to build! I've been posting pretty regularly there. It used to be that the Community tab was locked until you hit a certain subscriber count (I think 1000? Maybe 500?) and I'm so glad that they've opened it up for all channels. We're all out here trying to grow and attract viewers, but they always seem to be gatekeeping the tools that help you do that. But we soldier on!

As of this writing, I'm getting ready for another roadtrip to see Brooklyn and shoot some amazing new images with Dirt Candy Productions. To make the trip more exciting, Brooklyn and her fella Jerry have decided to get married - and they've asked me to officiate! I love both of these humans so much and I can't wait to help them celebrate their big day in wild and wacky style - I would expect nothing less from them!

I'm also planning to shoot some content with Miranda Roen this year, so be on the lookout for those galleries to hit the site later this year. No plans yet to see Ryanne from Studio 208, but you never know when I might get a wild hair to travel down to Bismarck and make some gorgeous content with her! She did the green image above, and I absolutely adored this shoot. A little bit of behind the scenes: these photos were shot at Oscar's in Bismarck, and we were able to go in before they were even open to the public! It was a bit of a construction site! All of the photos look glamorous, but just outside of frame on every shot were piles of construction garbage, stacked up chairs, tarps, cans of paint. But even in it's not quite finished state, we could see how amazing and beautiful it was going to be, and we were so lucky that Stacy and Michael let us come in and capture the elegance before they shared it with the world!

I've floated the idea of resurrecting my limited series podcast, Miss Jaye: The Renovation, and mental health and self help are still very much on my mind. Although I would want to stick as close as possible to the original plan, so much has happened since I recorded the last episode - the pandemic, changing job roles, my father's death - that it would definitely look much different than I thought I would. But that was kind of true of the whole series so far, so it's definitely worth thinking about! Keep your eyes peeled for updates!

In other podcast news, Angie and I have talked about the possibility of doing some sort of podcast together. Part of why I burned out on podcasting is that I am such a fastidious editor. I didn't want something to go out with any "umms" or "ahhs" - I was even editing out every single one of my breaths! I know that I didn't have to do that, but I just couldn't break away from that. If Angie and I did a podcast, it would be video-based, unedited, and much more about just having fun and being in the moment! As I inch closer to monetization on YouTube, I have percolated the idea of launching a Patreon. I've had an account there for a long time, but I was always doing "a little bit of this, and little bit of that" so I wasn't sure what I could offer that would be of value. This potential podcast might be something that we would host as part of this Patreon.

I already have the perfect accessory to wear when we film!

I think we have a fun concept: it would be called "Dumb Blonde with Janessa and Angie" and, of course, I would be the dumb blonde in question! Basically we would do a "Dear Abby" sort of thing where people could write to us about problems we have, and we would give advice...probably badly, because I am known for making terrible decisions! We would also go over Am I The Asshole posts from Reddit, or just share our petty, stupid rants about things that bother us. Whenever Angie and I get together, we usually end up bickering about something dumb (the most recent was Bismarck's "Ugly Box" store!), so we thought it might be fun to share the stupidity with all of you!

My live show schedule is still pretty small, but I've been making it to more of the Grand Forks shows, and I made my way back to Fargo at the beginning of the month - always love seeing those performers when I can make it to town! I also went back to Minot earlier this year, and would have been there for Pride if it hadn't conflicted with Hoboken High. As I get older and my bones get wearier, I find myself doing fewer live performances, but I also find that when I do them, I enjoy them more! So keep an eye out for when I might be stomping a stage near you, and remember that I am chronically online so you can always see my face somewhere!

December of this year will mark 24 years that I have been dancing around as a chaotic crossy, and I feel lucky that I'm still here and kicking after all of these years! Thanks for being here and being a part of it. I love and appreciate all of you, and until I see you again...byyyyyeeeeeee!

XOXO

Miss Jaye