Between two creators: Sydney Morgan and Taty Cokley dishes on life as Gen Z creators
May 11, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
We love a good mashup here at YouTube — and there was no better time for a pairing than when we had Sydney Morgan and Taty Cokley in town for a project with Seventeen on all things prom. Together, the two represent a growing number of Gen Z creators who are bringing their fresh takes on YouTube content. Sydney, who started her channel in 2020 when the pandemic saw her unable to see friends or attend her last year of high school, decided to upend the beauty genre — instead focusing on special effects makeup and transformations over traditional makeup tutorials. Taty began her channel a few years earlier, when she saw a space to speak to young people about being empowered to love themselves through their success and flaws from her own unique perspective.
As the next wave of young content creators proliferate on YouTube, we got the two together to discuss life as Gen Z creators, the challenges and misconceptions and even video ideas they want to see from each other.
If it's anything we've learned about Gen Z creators from Sydney and Taty, it's that they truly know how to lean into their community and be completely open and vulnerable. "In the past I was focused on boundaries ... the fear of 'What would they think if I say this?'" Taty shares. But it's important for her to be as honest as possible with her audience, even if that means sharing the ugly sides of her experience with relationships, mental health or self-image.
People don't think that we could be struggling as much as everyone else if they look at us ... With any illnesses, invisible or not, people assume we're victims and we're not — we're victors.”
Taty Cokley"If you really want to build out that community, you have to be willing to let [viewers] get to know you as a person and not as a creator or a makeup artist or all these characters I turn myself into," Sydney says, although she herself has not been as vocal about her struggles with anxiety and depression on her channel. "That's something I'm trying to get more comfortable with this year."
And as creators who both have histories of personal health diagnoses — Sydney with ulcerative colitis and Taty with premature ovarian failure — they also believe it's important to be vocal about their illnesses as well as showing that these symptoms don't make them who they are or get in the way of them achieving their dreams. "People don't think that we could be struggling as much as everyone else if they look at us," Taty says. "With any illnesses, invisible or not, people assume we're victims and we're not — we're victors."
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Watch the full interview here to hear more about how both Sydney and Taty find inspiration for their channel and the tools the use to succeed and get motivated.