Maxine Wabosha – Content Creator, International Youth Day 2020

Wabosha is without a doubt the most relatable influencer in Kenya. I got to interact with her back in the day at Spellcast Media before she joined the YouTube space and her kindness and humility is renown. She has always been there to open doors for so may upcoming creators and makes a perfect fit to celebrate International Youth Day on its 20th anniversary. I shared a couple of questions from here and there and this is how it unfolded:

1. What did you least expect when you started your YouTube channel?

How many people would recognize me from watching my YouTube videos. First of all, I didn’t expect the channel to grow as big as it has. Now, just walking around the street and having people you don’t know personally just coming to say hi and calling you by your name while knowing random facts about you is crazy.

2. You previously shared that you won’t pursue engineering though you think the degree will come in handy in future. Do you think YouTube and influencer marketing is enough to create generational wealth over a lifetime?

If you are smart with it, you can make money out of YouTube and influencer marketing. In Kenya however, now is when the influencer market scene is growing.

Currently, we are not earning as much money compared to influencers in South Africa for instance. Therefore, personally, I don’t think, you can become wealthy. You can earn your money and pay rent but not be as rich as people usually make it out to be, solely on influencer marketing, unless you couple it with something else.

3. You have always shared people’s work on your platform and collaborated with upcoming influencers. Why is this important to you?

I have never seen it as a competition. I feel there’s enough space for everyone to shine and personally I have subscribed to so many youtubers and I watch each one of them. You’ll find that even if two youtubers upload the same thing on the same day they’ll both be so different and I’ll want to watch both of them. Even if we are all doing make up or travel videos to the same destination, people would still want to watch your video because it is special in a unique way.

4. How has YouTube changed your lifestyle? Do you feel obliged to live large and adopt a lifestyle you didn’t have before?

I wouldn’t say I feel obligated to live large, what I feel obligated to do is maybe behave myself more (giggles) on social media or out on these streets. I do realize that I have a lot of young followers and viewers who really look up to me, so I feel some sense of responsibility especially when people are watching because I wouldn’t want young girls to start doing some things just because they’ve seen me doing it. Other than that, no I don’t feel pressure to live large, actually I still drink the same drinks, go to the same clubs (laughs) and eat the same pasua on the street.

5. You have said being you is key. Being in the limelight, have you struggled with any insecurities being highlighted by the public? If yes how have you dealt with this?

I do have insecurities but I personally haven’t gone through situations where people in the public have highlighted them and made me feel terrible. I have seen it happening before to other people. There are those who, once in a while, will try and take jabs at you and think that you might be insecure about it but I have learnt that everyone is insecure about something. Most times its usually not as big or as bad as you think it is. Insecurities are bigger in your head than they really are.

6. What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had with a fan?

Some time last year I hugged a fan and my lipstick got on his shirt. I met him again this year and he told me that he still has the shirt with the same lipstick stain. (laughs)

7. Have brands ever refused to partner with you because you decided you would give an honest review if you didn’t like the product?

The closest to this is, a brand tried to get me to review a product that I hadn’t received, the shipment was late or something went wrong and they asked me to post a picture of it and say that I liked it. I said I couldn’t do that because I had not actually seen the product and I can’t confirm that it’s great. I just opted out of that deal.

8. What’s the most shocking experience you’ve had online?

It must be the time I had a bunch of accounts pretending to be me. It was two guys, who even shared their phone number on groups and were literally talking to people as if it was me doing it. I was just like, my God… what lengths will people go to! One was even selling products pretending to be me, but he would never deliver them and I’d look like a scam cheating people out of their money. 

9. In a previous interview you shared, ‘Beauty is being the best possible version of yourself. Both inside and out.’ How does makeup enhance instead being a tool of hiding features we don’t like?

I personally do my makeup in a very natural way; the aim is always to enhance what is already there and not hiding or making yourself a whole new person. I believe that at the end of the day, makeup does help to add some confidence in women and if you feel good, then you do good and you can go out there and conquer the world.

10. Of all your travel adventures, from hiking Mt. Kenya to going to Bali, Indonesia which are your top 3 favorites?

One definitely has to be somewhere right here at home, I will go with Mt. Kenya, I actually, literary cried. When I got out there it was so white, so beautiful and even with all the fatigue you can’t help but just appreciate how beautiful Kenya is.

Two is a really small Island called Gili Trawangan (One of the Gili Islands, an Archipelago in Indonesia) where you can cycle the entire island in two hours, I have never seen water as clear as I did on that Island.

Three, has to be Langkawi (an Archipelago in Malaysia and the jewel of Kedah)

11. You broke South African Twitter in 2019, with some calling you African Royalty. What about African culture do you love and adore?

Oh my God! There is so much to love about the African culture but two of my most favorite things are:

One, the food, in Africa we do have really good flavorful food. Two is the dancing, I really can’t say I know how to dance but I love dancing and I feel we do have some of the best dances out there in the world.

12. You have done a bit of charity work with Children’s Homes, why is this cause so close to your heart? And would you adopt it long term?

I really love children they are so pure and innocent, how can you just not love children? It really pains my heart when I see that a child might be suffering so I try to help whenever I can.

Would it become something long-term? Yeah, I definitely would consider it. Currently, I am trying to do my research and look for ways that I can use my platform to help, once I figure this out I will definitely reach out and let people know how they can be able to help if they’d like to.

13. Do you think you’ve found a balance between creating content for your audience and what makes you happy and sane?

I honestly can’t say I have found a balance; I can say I have found a compromise between what my audience likes to watch and what I like to create. So we’re at compromise and I am happy with it.

14. Today is International Youth Day, what role do you think the young Kenyans play in Building a Better Country?

There’s a friend of mine called Esther Kazungu and on her Instagram page she always encourages the youth to be in the know with what is happening in the country. You find that a lot the youth are in the know when it comes to celebrities but they don’t really know much about what is happening their own country. As the youth, to be able to build a better country we need to start being involved and care about what is happening. That way we can make better and informed decisions when it comes to things like voting.

Also, we can give our input to the government, for example, I remember recently they were asking about taxation of online businesses. Therefore, if you don’t know that your input is required for such things then you can’t give it, that way bad laws end up being passed when you really had no idea about them. To build a better country we just need to start learning more about what is happening.

I loved getting up close and personal with Wabosha and throwing around a wide range of questions capturing as many cardinal points as possible. Let me know how you liked this ‘your story’ feature in the comment section below.

Get up close and personal by checking out Wabosha’s Instagram here if you haven’t and YouTube Channel here.

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