Meet the YouTube star and Law student with 10,000 followers

Known by BeautyByKat08, Katherine Baker is a Law second year at John’s. She also happens to make YouTube videos for thousands of people. 

Katherine started making videos in October 2013 after meeting JacksGap at a meet up. She now boasts 10,000 subscribers from 202 territories – all watching her make beauty and lifestyle videos.

With an audience of 13 to 20-year-old girls, Katherine, from Chelmsford, Essex, has an ethical angle turning down money from products Katherine doesn’t want to promote.

She told The Tab: “I have never looked back. That sounds so corny, but making YouTube videos is the best thing I’ve ever done. It allows me to communicate with so many people, work with brands from around the world and influence younger people who are going through the same struggles I did at their age.”

Making YouTube videos watched by thousands doesn’t come easy – taking nine hours to film a video, Katherine keeps on top of work-intensive Law as well as rowing last year. Being a YouTuber means creating a brand.

She told The Tab: “You basically have to market yourself, you have to do the whole Instagram thing, you have to try and get subscribers. Over summer I was spending four hours a day tweeting people, commenting on YouTube videos, same on Instagram.

“If it isn’t something that’s appropriate for my Grandma to watch, such as drugs, alcohol or explicitness then it won’t go up on my channel, because I know the audience I’m speaking to. I guess when I think about it, when I’m a solicitor, this kind of stuff is in the public sphere, so that’s why every video I put up I would let my grandma watch. It’s something that I wouldn’t care if anyone in this world watched.”

Companies contact Kat about promoting teeth whitening products. But plucky Kat won’t have anything to do with it: “I don’t think 13 year olds should be given advice on how to use products they don’t need.”

This means sometimes turning down the opportunity to be paid £150 by companies seeking to sponsor her videos, but she says it’s important to maintain integrity.

“One fitness company gave me £200 to make a video, and I still wear the stuff they send me today. I won’t even do dedicated sponsored videos because I feel like it’s very fake, so I always integrate products.

“As I get bigger the sponsorship deals will be more worth it, so at the moment I’d rather not get paid as much and maintain my loyal audience.”

Facing normal teenage gripes, Kat’s viewers often contact her saying how much she’s helped them. She feels just like a role model – and knows she’s responsible for helping people.

Essena O’Neill recently quit social media to much media fanfare, but Kat took issue saying: “I don’t really agree with her comments because it makes YouTube seem like such a horrible, commercial thing.”

Katherine started making videos on bullying because “I never really had anyone to look up to. Obviously YouTube wasn’t around and none of my friends were going through the same things, so I didn’t have anyone. Nowadays people can go on YouTube and think that they aren’t the only one going through these things.”

Ultimately, Kat said: “I would love to be a YouTuber, but at the same time I do want to be a lawyer.”