In 2005, the video-sharing website YouTube launched. Since then, the company has gained over one billion users: about the same size as the entire population of China, according to CountryMeters. If the audience is the size of the largest country on the planet, why would someone put themselves out there in the hopes of anyone watching?

Naperville North juniors Jessica Sciabica and Abby Stevenson are YouTubers, each with their own personal reasons for creating videos. Sciabica performs covers while Stevenson makes video blogs–more popularly known as “vlogging.”

Sciabica has always had a passion for singing, which prompted her to start sharing her talent with the online community.

“My grandpa wanted me to sing and said I was really good so I said maybe I should start sharing it,” Sciabica said.

Conversely, junior Ellie Prorok said sharing her music on SoundCloud was easier than on YouTube.

“It was hard to do YouTube videos to see if the quality was good and matching up the sound on iMovie, so [SoundCloud] is easier to use,”  Prorok said.

Unlike Sciabica and Prorok, Stevenson makes vlogs. When she was younger, Stevenson said she enjoyed creating videos and posting them to Facebook. Friends liked the videos and encouraged her to upload them to YouTube.

“To be honest, I thought I would have five subscribers,” Stevenson said. “It’s weird, but it’s nice to see the numbers go up.”

Unlike singers and cover artists such as Sciabica, who is putting her music out there with a sense of purpose, Stevenson said that her YouTube career is more of a hobby.

Posting videos also comes with a reward. Sciabica said that receiving positive comments is very gratifying.

“I started seeing the reactions and it felt really good,” Sciabica said. “Someone said that my cover was inspiring and really beautiful, and it was really nice.”

Prorok said she also finds importance in putting her music out there. 

“Music is something that makes me happy,” Prorok said . “It’s a nice philosophy to have something to share with people”.