I first began viewing Youtube in 2007. I enjoyed some of the videos, but being a vlogger/videographer was the last career I had expected to take. One night watching a political satire video, I grew frustated. It was a young woman, prancing about in a super hero costume, singing her love for a politician. I was upset, she was supposed to be me.

My alter ego since age 5 had been Wonder Woman. And it was very difficult to get me out of my costume when I was in "Wonder Woman" mode. I had been corresponding with the Editor of St Louis magazine,but when I had sent in my submission, she deemed my writing as very harsh. I didn't understand then, but I do understand now. I lost a very close friend on my birthday, and in grieve I went to the local Walmart and bought a cheap Small Wonders camera. It cost about $100 dollars, and I kept the receipt, just in case I couldn't use it, and had to return it. I went home and started practicing taking videos of my cats, and myself. My neighbors and friends bowed out, they did not want to be featured in my amateur movie experiments. I had many years of yoga training and belly dance, so when my cats refused to participate in my videos anymore, I started to self record various belly dance, yoga and stretch techniques.

It turns out that there is a huge bellydance audience, so although my videos were choppy and amateur, people started subscribing because of my unique style and music. I would bellydance to Reggae, Dancehall, Pop, it didn't matter, and many in my audience loved the fact that I performed to modern and eclectic musical genres. With videos, also came criticism and detractors. I saw many other girls posting dance videos, who quickly withdrew them when criticized. When criticized, it did hurt my ego and feelings, but rather than become disappointed and dejected. I started to work on my perceived 'weaknesses' .. arm movement, natural flowing steps... I never gave up, and I even started getting very devoted fans who would encourage me, whether my video sucked or not. By the end of 2008, I had several million views and thousands of subscribers.

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimers in the Caribbean, so I returned to take care of her, believing that my days as a vlogger were over. When I got to St Maarten, it was Carnival season, and out of sheer boredom, I began to record the dancing girls. I got the local bands to allow me to use their original music, and practiced editing the videos to the music. 15 million views later, I'm still an amateur, but I'm now an amateur with almost 50 million Youtube views. I received millions of views, not because I'm a great dancer or videographer. I receive views, because I listen to constructive criticism, I know how to study my analytics so that I can target my audience, and it doesn't really matter how amateur your video is, if it's interesting, you get viewers, and eventually your own fanbase.

Another great thing that happened with my discovery of videography, is that when I returned to St Maarten, I was virtually the only local who had the skills to shoot, edit and process digital videos, everyone else was using analog cameras still. So without wanting to, I became St Maarten/Sint Martin's official blogger, vlogger and photographer. And sometimes I do get paid, and I love doing what I do, it was meant to be. And I would not change it for anything else