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Julia Beautx:
At the age of 14, the influencer started earning money with YouTube videos
manager magazin: You are one of the best paid influencers in Germany. How important is wealth to you?
Julia Beautx:
Completely unimportant.
I grew up in a down to earth family near Dortmund.
I often don't even know how much I'm earning at the moment.
Of course it's nice to earn money with my hobby.
Otherwise I would have gone to university and had a normal job.
So this isn't a normal job?
Influencer is not a classic job for me, but I see myself as an entrepreneur.
I tend to associate the term with someone in a smart pants suit walking around with a briefcase.
But in terms of my attitude and my actions, I probably am.
Even without a briefcase.
What is your attitude?
I put a lot of work on the back burner and have very little free time.
But it's worth it to me.
And I have
a thick skin.
You also have to be able to deal well with negative comments and other opinions.
You also work as an actress – how can that be combined?
It only works because I enjoy it so much.
I love being an influencer and living out and realizing myself.
But I also don't want to do without acting and embodying a role from a screenplay.
The areas are so similar and yet different.
It never gets boring.
What does your everyday work look like?
Every day is different.
Sometimes I get up at 6 a.m. and shoot all day, then I sit in the studio again until late at night and write songs.
Or I think of new lifestyle ideas that I can implement on my platforms.
There is no regular routine for me.
What is important to you? What role do you represent in your videos?
First and foremost, I was concerned early on with inspiring and motivating my viewers.
When I made my do-it-yourself (DIY) and beauty videos, I wanted to encourage my viewers to try new things.
While I'm posting more entertainment content now, I'm still trying to incorporate those aspects into my videos.
But you also present many products that have nothing to do with sustainability and environmentally friendly production. Things that would be high on Greta Thunberg's shit list. How do you see this tension between "being a role model" and "just having fun with quick consumption"?
There is simply too much criticism and people are happy to ignore what they are doing that makes sense.
I am committed to socially relevant issues, donate and motivate my viewers to do things themselves.
I love DIY.
For a hardware store chain, I moderate a DIY YouTube channel that has a sustainable approach.
I think I have a good balance of all of that.
"My little sister can order anything she wants from Amazon in 5 minutes" - such a statement is of course also quite relevant for our society. Most of your fans are teenagers. Are you aware of the responsibility?
I do think that children and teenagers learn a lot from their idols.
That's why I see it as my responsibility not to be a bad role model and not to live bad values.
I try to address important issues, but I also don't want to impose my opinion on any subject.
That's why I tend to see myself more in the role of entertaining people than educating them.
You often say on your shows, "Guys, that's hard, unnecessary, but funny." Do you ever worry that 13-14 year old viewers will actually order incredibly unnecessary things like mini plastic washing machines after you've introduced them?
The viewers already know that this is just entertainment.
The younger ones too.
You should trust the viewers a bit more, they can make up their own minds.
In the past eight years, I have never received feedback from anyone - not even from my parents - that someone set the wrong example.
You can have more confidence in the younger generation.
They don't do any nonsense.
Getting paid for "doing stupid things" is a dream for many. Is everyday influencer life really as fun as it looks?
It's mostly hard work.
I too have bad days and things go wrong.
I try not to make my everyday life look perfect, but also show many other facets.
I don't want to convey the perfect picture.
Do you sometimes doubt yourself?
Of course, everyone doubts themselves at times.
And then how do you deal with it?
If something doesn't work out, I'm not mad at myself, sad or disappointed for long.
I then try to learn from the mistakes and not dwell on them for long - so I can focus on new challenges.
What makes you different from other influencers?
Probably the biggest difference is that eight years later I'm still having as much fun with it as I was on the first day - and that it's not about the money.
Many of my colleagues are currently retiring.
I definitely don't want that.
I'll probably still be making YouTube videos when I'm 45 - if the platform still exists.
(
laughs
)
How many of your posts are paid?
That is different.
I have about four advertising collaborations a month.
Does most of the money now come from individual sponsorship deals or from acting? Or are YouTube royalties still the main source of income?
The term "important source of income" alone does not belong in my life at all.
There are jobs that I really enjoy, I even do them for free.
And then, of course, there are jobs for which I am properly paid.
Be it constant travel or moderating an award ceremony.
My management has a good hand in assessing what is worth how much.
The income I get from YouTube is independent of how much work I had.
Sometimes I need two weeks for a video, invest a lot of time and money.
And if the video is hardly clicked at the end, it's not worth it financially.
But I'm glad I can make any money with it at all.
are you saving the money
Oh yeah.
I've always been very frugal.
It rarely happens that I buy something expensive - like a handbag.
A major investment was a new bed.
It was with a heavy heart that I parted with my youth bed.
Sometimes friends and family encourage me to treat myself more.
But that mostly feels wrong to me.
Why wrong?
I'm a little scrounger and find it difficult to spend large sums of money on things, even if I can afford them and have wanted them for a very long time.
But when I do it, I'm all the happier about it.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I hope with a great husband and two children in a beautiful house.
I might post cooking tutorials on my YouTube channel.
I will certainly not draw my family too much into the public eye.
I hope I can continue acting.
