le stylo noir Interview with Kelsey of KelsTells

Dear Pennies & Pens, 

I am pleased to announce that this past week, I interviewed Kelsey Ashford, a YouTube Creator for the le stylo noir issue. I have been following Kelsey’s YouTube channel for almost 2 years now and it’s amazing. Her content is always positive and inspiring. 

Since she’s a fellow Black female creative, I wanted to get some insight on her creative process, how and why she started her YouTube channel as well as learn what it’s like to be a Black female YouTuber.

In the interview below, we explore all these topics and much more. I would like to publicly thank Kelsey for allowing me to interview her. With that being said, check out the interview below!

Please provide a brief description of yourself (name, title, short bio). Where are you from? And where are you based now?

My name is Kelsey Ashford. I was born in South Carolina and it’s where I currently reside. My background is in public relations and communications. 

I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina and my master’s from Boston University. I’m currently pursuing my doctorate in strategic media at Liberty University.

When did you start your YouTube channel and why?

I started YouTube in college; it started as a way for me to document my travels to Europe as it was my first time going abroad alone.

There wasn’t a lot of representation of Black students abroad in Europe doing the program that I chose so I wanted my content to educate others who’d never been abroad or never studied at the University of Kent.

That was in 2013, and since then I kept my channel because I liked creating content. I didn’t know that it would lead to the platform that I have now.

How has being black influenced you as a YouTube Content Creator?

It’s always been important to me to make sure that Black people are represented, it was the main reason why I blogged my experience at the University of Kent and created content around my experience while I was there. 

Since then, I transitioned my content to sorority interest and membership videos because I realized that wasn’t much representation of Sigma Gamma Rho or the membership on YouTube at the time when I started producing content in 2015.

My very first sorority-related video was the “Sorority Girl Hashtag” for Sigma Gamma Rho in 2016 and ever since then, I’ve enjoyed making content that educates people on Greek life.

What are some of the positives and the negatives of being a Black female content creator?

One of the positives about being a Black female content creator is that I see more representation of us on social media. And there are different types; we all have niches that we enjoy doing. I personally love watching Black women travel abroad. 

Traveling is one of my favorite hobbies, so I love watching other women travel. It inspires me to travel, and it inspires me to hone my skills in making my travel content. 

I personally don’t see any negatives about being a Black female content creator. I have a delete button (lol), so I remove negative comments, or I don’t see them due to the settings in my studio. I like positivity and I like maintaining a positive and safe space for discussion on my channel.

What inspires you to create YouTube videos? 

I think a lot of the questions that I receive inspire me to create content on sorority membership. Or sometimes I’ll think about questions that I think others are wondering about if there wasn’t a video created about it before, then I’d film it and publish it. 

My creative process is a little all over the place and it depends on what content I’m filming that week. I mainly sit down to film my videos since they’re mostly me talking to the camera. I like to write out the videos that I want to film and then film on weekends. I film using a Sony ZV1 camera. 

Sometimes I’ll use my Sony a5000 or my Nikon D3200. It depends on which battery is charged. I then film and shoot my thumbnail and try to edit within the same day. I edit using Adobe Premiere Pro. I try to film and edit at least four videos on film days to give myself options to upload.

Which of your videos is your favorite and why? 

My favorite videos are my vlogs. As much as I like shooting sorority content and as much attention as my sorority content gets, I feel like my audience would know me better if they watched my vlogs.

I love watching the memories I created with my family and friends and it’s great seeing how much I’ve grown since I started. Vlogs were my first videos on my channel they’re still my favorite to shoot.

Who would you love to collaborate with? (dead or alive)

I would love to collaborate with Raven Navera. She’s inspirational with the content she produces.

What advice would you give to emerging YouTube Content Creators? 

I would tell future YouTube content creators to be consistent. Don’t worry about the numbers; the views and subscribers will come. It’s the same advice that my sister gave me when I started, and I took it to heart. Just enjoy what you do and learn about SEO.

Tell me about upcoming projects that you are working on?

I don’t have any big projects coming up for February. It’s currently the off-peak season for undergraduate sorority membership so I’m going to take this time to relax. I thought about taking the month of March off to travel. If anything, my subscribers can expect more travel content.

Be sure to check out Kelsey’s YouTube Channel here: KelsTells

And there it is. de la Pen…All Pen Everything. With us, keeping it real never goes wrong.