Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michel Janse. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I think sharing your life on the internet is a continuous experiment on the concept of being “misunderstood or mischaracterized” in one way or another. Nobody ever sees the full picture, and it is human nature to try and fill in the blanks (which may or may not be accurate about the people we watch online). I think I experienced a more extreme example of this when navigating a divorce while continuing to vlog everyday for youtube. I, perhaps in an effort to protect myself, only showed a hyper-positive side of myself and my life, not wanting to admit that things were actually very hard in my home life. Once I finally had to own up to the brokenness behind the scenes, people were shocked. That wasn’t characteristic of me – a young, bubbly, lighthearted Christian content creator. (Which, being categorized as a Christian content creator also created a different category of expectations from my audience, divorce not usually being one of them. But that is another conversation for another time.) Though finally deciding to open up online and show true hurt, sadness, betrayal, disappointment and stress was the furthest thing outside of my comfort zone, I think it helped me learn a lot about how people categorize me due to how I present myself. I wasn’t a perfectly happy girl; I was messy. I am beyond thankful that I could break down the false persona I didn’t even realize I was putting on for the internet. This year has helped me to enter into a season of vulnerability which better represents who I truly am as a person. And though I know some people might continue to misunderstand things about me from time to time, I feel like I am finally living up to my half of the deal by breaking down those walls.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I fell into YouTube at the age of 18, and I am so happy I found it. My channel has evolved endlessly over the years. First, it started with cooking content because I was in school studying nutrition. I had a dream of working for a network called Tastemade in LA, so I made these incredibly low-quality cooking videos in my garage apartment to pitch to them. Once I finally succeeded in working with Tastemade (somehow they gave me 3 seasons of my own show. I still don’t know who greenlit that, but teenage me is very thankful.) my channel shifted again. I began to do some home-focused content, shifted to wedding planning video, and then somehow fell into unboxing subscription boxes. This last year I began to produce vlogs sharing my experiences navigating divorce, moving cross-country, finding myself again, and learning how to finally act my age instead of being a hyper-achievement focused young 20’s girl trying to act 35. I have learned how to solo travel, learned how to live alone, and learned how to date again while filming it all. I am now embarking on a new little journey of putting my belongings into storage and living like a “digital nomad” before I hopefully start the home buying process in Austin. And all I have to say is, I am excited to take my online friends alongside all of these phases of life.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, it is connecting with people who have experienced similar difficulties. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the comments on a screen are coming from actual REAL humans. Recently, I have had the privilege of traveling around a bit and getting to meet some of these people in real life and talk to them about navigating heartbreak, finding themselves, traveling alone, or dealing with betrayal. Getting to quickly jump into the deep conversations that I have previously opened up about online fosters a new level of honesty and vulnerability when meeting people. I am honored that they feel safe and seen to share their stories with me. And selfishly, it makes me feel less alone in my experiences too.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I hope I can create a community that feels honest. I hope I can show other gals that it is okay, in fact NORMAL, to have feelings of insecurity, loneliness, etc. I lived so opposite of this for so long, that I have a deep desire to dive in full force and continue to live with walls down. Also, I hope I can continue to produce content (financially, emotionally, mentally) for quite awhile.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.youtube.com/c/micheljanse
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michel.c.janse/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/micheljanse

Image Credits
https://www.morganelise.photography/