Speaker 1: Also Media.
Speaker 2: Time. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to sixteenth Minute, the podcast where we talk
Speaker 3: to the Internet's main characters and see how their moment
Speaker 3: affects did them and what that says about us and
Speaker 3: the Internet. My name is Jamie Loftus, and I genuinely,
Speaker 3: deeply love movies that take place entirely on a computer screen.
Speaker 3: I'm not interested in why you don't respect these films.
Speaker 3: They're the best ones. And if you think I'm wrong,
Speaker 3: maybe you haven't seen Unfriended. But I would like to
Speaker 3: see a romcom in the computer movie genre. We got
Speaker 3: to get away from the horror, we got to get
Speaker 3: away from the thrillers. Everyone loves computer and today it's
Speaker 3: part two of our look at the Overly Attached girlfriend
Speaker 3: saga that started in twenty twelve and continues into today.
Speaker 3: So if you haven't listened to the first part of
Speaker 3: this series, kindly do that now. I'm serious, Go listen
Speaker 3: to it. Okay, I think they're gone. To those who
Speaker 3: have listened to part one, here's a quick refresher from
Speaker 3: last week, because I know that two news cycles happen
Speaker 3: a day now and you might need it. Lena Morris
Speaker 3: was just a college student when The overly Attached girlfriend
Speaker 3: memes first came to prominence during the summer of twenty twelve,
Speaker 3: an Internet era where being a full time YouTuber was
Speaker 3: just starting to look possible, but was still kind of
Speaker 3: nebulous in what that would actually look like. Around the
Speaker 3: time Lena left school to pursue YouTube full time from
Speaker 3: her home base in Texas, she wasn't a part of
Speaker 3: that generation of YouTubers that flocked to LA. The platform
Speaker 3: itself was putting extreme emphasis on watch time, or how
Speaker 3: much time a user spent on YouTube, and tweaked its
Speaker 3: recommendation algorithm to keep people watching for as long as possible,
Speaker 3: and if you know anything about YouTube, you know that
Speaker 3: this super worked. But for Lena and creators on the
Speaker 3: platform then and now, that meant they were encouraged to
Speaker 3: produce a lot of content because the algorithm of this
Speaker 3: time would boost users who posted often, which inadvertently rewarded
Speaker 3: overwork and sometimes underthinking. Lena worked as a successful YouTuber
Speaker 3: for over half a decade, at first just as the
Speaker 3: overly attached girlfriend character, but later she wrote and performed
Speaker 3: sketches as herself. She did reaction videos, she did get
Speaker 3: to Know Me videos, and She became a familiar and
Speaker 3: popular presence on the platform for years, while never getting
Speaker 3: caught up in some of those influencer shit shows you
Speaker 3: might associate with this era of YouTube, and from the outside,
Speaker 3: she seemed pretty fulfilled doing it. But in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: Lena publicly admitted that this wasn't necessarily true. She had
Speaker 3: been struggling with depression for some time and found that
Speaker 3: the grind and self inflicted pressure of a YouTube career
Speaker 3: had exacerbated that depression further, and so she said at
Speaker 3: the time she was going to take a step back
Speaker 3: from YouTube to take care of herself and wasn't sure
Speaker 3: when she would be back. But just this past summer,
Speaker 3: five years after first leaving YouTube, Lena posted again, reflecting
Speaker 3: on the time away and wondering if, now that she'd
Speaker 3: had the time to work on herself, if it wasn't
Speaker 3: time to give YouTube another shot. I was lucky enough
Speaker 3: to talk with Lena shortly after this video was released,
Speaker 3: and she is, as you're about to hear, the coolest,
Speaker 3: most humble, kind person. We talk about that first viral
Speaker 3: moment back in twenty twelve, that era of the Internet
Speaker 3: and the concept of burnout, especially during a time where
Speaker 3: it wasn't a common talking point among creatives. So, without
Speaker 3: further ado, widen your eyes and throw on a high
Speaker 3: contrast T shirt because this is my interview with the
Speaker 3: Overly Attached Girlfriend Lena Morris, and we talked for some time,
Speaker 3: so this interview has been edited for time and clarity. Enjoy.
Speaker 4: My name is Lena. I kind of got my start
Speaker 4: on the internet about twelve years ago. I posted a
Speaker 4: video that became a meme called the Overly Attached Girlfriend.
Speaker 1: You are like an internet legend. I feel.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about, of course, like the moment
Speaker 3: where everything first happened, but like you built such a
Speaker 3: unique career. But first I wanted to talk about the
Speaker 3: fact that you posted a video for the first time
Speaker 3: in forever a couple of.
Speaker 1: Weeks ago on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Tell me about this, the decision to come back to
Speaker 3: YouTube after five years, right.
Speaker 4: Yes, five years. I wanted to post a video just
Speaker 4: like a five years later update type of video, which
Speaker 4: what I ended up posting wasn't even there. Weren't really
Speaker 4: even updates in that video, but I was thinking about
Speaker 4: it when I posted. I posted a video five years ago,
Speaker 4: kind of like quitting YouTube and talking about my mental
Speaker 4: health and why I needed to quit and all of
Speaker 4: those things, and the reaction to that was so like
Speaker 4: overwhelmingly positive in a way I didn't expect. And I
Speaker 4: got a lot of like comments and messages from people
Speaker 4: that I think I mentioned in my recent video like
Speaker 4: I saved them and I still read them now. They
Speaker 4: it's just like a very over wilmingly great reaction that
Speaker 4: I wanted to come back and sort of acknowledge that
Speaker 4: and talk about it a little bit. And when I
Speaker 4: started thinking about that and brainstorming like ideas for a
Speaker 4: video or like do I even want to post one?
Speaker 4: Do I not? Whatever, I just started getting this feeling
Speaker 4: of like, you know, like maybe I actually want to
Speaker 4: post multiple videos, or maybe I want to try and
Speaker 4: like go back, which is not a thing I ever
Speaker 4: thought it would happen. It wasn't in my head at all.
Speaker 4: I think if it was, I probably couldn't come back.
Speaker 4: So I decided to just like post a video five
Speaker 4: years later and see how that felt and then sort
Speaker 4: of take next steps based on how that felt. And
Speaker 4: it felt pretty good. I haven't posted a video since then.
Speaker 4: I wanted to after, to be honest, right after I
Speaker 4: posted it, things in my personal life got a little crazy,
Speaker 4: and I just like haven't gotten back to it, and
Speaker 4: I wish I did. I think I still will. I
Speaker 4: don't know, but I think that also seeing the reaction
Speaker 4: to that video as well, like and that feeling good
Speaker 4: sort of maybe having a grasp on my mental health
Speaker 4: and stuff like. I don't know. I think there's a
Speaker 4: lot of things that make it make sense to me
Speaker 4: five years later. Yeah, a little like unexpected for me too.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome back, maybe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 3: So I guess I want to go back back because
Speaker 3: I feel like most of the interviews that I've found
Speaker 3: that you've done over the years, I am curious just
Speaker 3: a little bit about how you grew up.
Speaker 1: Where did you grow up, What was life like?
Speaker 4: Ooh fun? Okay, So I was born and raised in Texas,
Speaker 4: North Texas, like that was Fort Worth area because I
Speaker 4: lived there until I was like twenty six. I'm the
Speaker 4: youngest of four kids. I went to college in Texas.
Speaker 4: I had been going to college for like a couple
Speaker 4: of years when the overly touch girlfriend stuff started and
Speaker 4: I decided to like take a break, and I haven't
Speaker 4: gone back to sort of pursue that but life right
Speaker 4: before the meme was ver very much just like, yeah,
Speaker 4: going to school, working part time, just kind of like
Speaker 4: a very normal I was going to school to be
Speaker 4: a teacher. I knew that, Like I didn't really want
Speaker 4: to do that. I was just sort of in this
Speaker 4: like what am I going to do? Stage when everything
Speaker 4: took off.
Speaker 3: So did you grow up performing? Were you interested in performing?
Speaker 4: No? I mean I was the youngest of four kids,
Speaker 4: so in a way, it's.
Speaker 1: Like jockey for attention.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like in that way, I performed every day of
Speaker 4: my life. Yeah, I was certainly interested in it. I
Speaker 4: think if I maybe had. I think if I had,
Speaker 4: maybe I would have been a kid that would have
Speaker 4: enjoyed probably like theater or something like that. I just like, never,
Speaker 4: it's never a thing that I did. I always really
Speaker 4: liked comedy. I do think that, like this is so
Speaker 4: embarrassing and obnoxious, But there was something about the attention
Speaker 4: of like being the class clown or like something in
Speaker 4: my face, Like there was something there that was like
Speaker 4: I want, I like the feeling of like making people laugh,
Speaker 4: getting that reaction. That was certainly there. But there was
Speaker 4: no performing in any way, And.
Speaker 3: That makes like your trajectory all the more interesting where
Speaker 3: it's like it truly is like an overnet.
Speaker 1: The video, the original video. I went back and watch it.
Speaker 1: It's still very funny.
Speaker 3: It still hits thank you and thanks and overnight that
Speaker 3: changes your life in this huge way. So I guess
Speaker 3: before we get to that, at the point that you
Speaker 3: made the original video, what was your relationship with the
Speaker 3: internet like around that time in college?
Speaker 4: Wow, I don't know. Let me think for us, Agad.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of, like what I guess I
Speaker 4: had a Facebook. I'm trying to think of what social
Speaker 4: media looked like back then. I feel like back then too,
Speaker 4: it was always like there was like one social media
Speaker 4: at a time, Like when I was younger, I had
Speaker 4: like a zanga than a mice face, then a Facebook,
Speaker 4: Like it was all just like one. It wasn't this
Speaker 4: like explosion of all of the you know, Instagram, Twitter,
Speaker 4: TikTok whatever it is now. Yeah, I mean I had
Speaker 4: a Facebook. There was no I didn't have like any
Speaker 4: public social media. Maybe I had a Twitter. Instagram wasn't
Speaker 4: a thing yet. I didn't even know what right it
Speaker 4: was until I posted the video. So honestly, remember I'm like,
Speaker 4: where did I get my news and information? I don't know.
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, I guess it was just mostly like Facebook.
Speaker 4: And I mean I watched a decent amount of YouTube.
Speaker 4: I knew that, like some people were doing it as
Speaker 4: a job. I knew that was like kind of a thing.
Speaker 4: I watched Jenna Marbles, I really liked Bo Burnham. I
Speaker 4: watched I think a little bit of like Jimmy Titrow
Speaker 4: stuff like that. But I all, my mind is going
Speaker 4: to his.
Speaker 3: Facebook as forever ago as the Internet in twenty twelve
Speaker 3: feels it's that you could still set your relationship status
Speaker 3: to It's complicated.
Speaker 1: It just like walk me.
Speaker 3: Through the moment you hear of this Justin Bieber contest.
Speaker 3: What are the parameters of the contest?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I heard about this contest. So maybe that's
Speaker 4: the thing I was doing on the internet because I
Speaker 4: found that somehow, I.
Speaker 1: Was like, I wonder where that even.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know, I somehow came across this contest.
Speaker 4: Justin Bieber was having so he had this new fragrance
Speaker 4: coming out called Girlfriend, and he had this song that
Speaker 4: had just been released called Boyfriend, and he asked his
Speaker 4: fans to write a parody of the song from a
Speaker 4: girlfriend's perspective and upload it to YouTube. Well, I remember
Speaker 4: immediately thinking like, I want to make this funny. How
Speaker 4: can I make it funny? I'll make it just like
Speaker 4: kind of creepy stocker girlfriend whatever. I remember just like
Speaker 4: being really excited to write this song. I had this
Speaker 4: piece of paper that I took I think I took
Speaker 4: it to work with me that day and I was
Speaker 4: like in between like working and I was like writing these.
Speaker 1: Lyrics and where were you waiting?
Speaker 4: I was working at a place called pack and Mail
Speaker 4: in Denton, Texas. It was just exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 4: I was in a rush to film the video because
Speaker 4: I thought it had to be submitted by a certain time.
Speaker 4: I changed out of my work shirt really quickly after
Speaker 4: work one day to record it. I just grabbed like
Speaker 4: this T shirt that was on the floor of my bedroom,
Speaker 4: recorded it on my webcam. I had done like a
Speaker 4: couple takes. Maybe I feel like, also, I'm so at
Speaker 4: this point in my life, I'm like, what am I remembering?
Speaker 4: And what have I said so many times that I
Speaker 4: just believe it's true? Yeah, But I do have a
Speaker 4: very clear memory who knows where it came from, having
Speaker 4: this period of time of this just like instrumental at
Speaker 4: the beginning where I didn't know what to do. So
Speaker 4: I think on like the last take, I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm going to make this like creepy face and just
Speaker 4: stare right into the camera. So that's what I did.
Speaker 4: I uploaded the video. I posted it to my Facebook
Speaker 4: just for like my friends and family to see, and
Speaker 4: then someone on my Facebook or something posted it to Reddit.
Speaker 1: Was it just a screencap or like the whole video?
Speaker 4: I think posted the whole video, just like a link
Speaker 4: to the YouTube video. Then someone on Reddit took a
Speaker 4: screenshot from the beginning where I made that face looked
Speaker 4: into the camera, and then that became the meme. But
Speaker 4: before I went to bed that night, I knew like
Speaker 4: the video had taken off a little bit. When I
Speaker 4: woke up the next morning, that's when the meme was everywhere.
Speaker 4: That's when like the overly attached girlfriend was a thing,
Speaker 4: after someone had taken that screenshot and it blew up.
Speaker 4: That blew up like separately on Reddit. I guess someone
Speaker 4: I think commented on the video and said that they
Speaker 4: came from Reddit or something about the front page of
Speaker 4: Reddit something like that, and I looked it up because
Speaker 4: I was like one to Reddit. Then I started like
Speaker 4: reading comments on Reddit and sort of like seeped into
Speaker 4: other parts of the Internet. But yeah, I read it
Speaker 4: is where it first took off.
Speaker 3: And when we come back more with Lena Morris, Welcome
Speaker 3: back to sixteenth minute and let's jump right back into
Speaker 3: my interview with the overly Attached girlfriend Lena Morris. Take
Speaker 3: me through the day that you're realizing that this is
Speaker 3: a thing. Do you feel like the meme format like
Speaker 3: captured what you were going for originally?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, I think so. I think I'm also like,
Speaker 4: I feel very lucky that I'm like in on the
Speaker 4: joke of it too. I think amodi memes like don't
Speaker 4: have that, which I feel like it became this big
Speaker 4: joke online. I just feel like lucky that I'm in
Speaker 4: on that joke and it wasn't just like a regular
Speaker 4: picture of me smiling and everyone was like, oh look,
Speaker 4: this creepy.
Speaker 3: Girl having all the internet brain rat knowledge that I have,
Speaker 3: knowing like, oh, well, this person was in on the
Speaker 3: reason they became famous.
Speaker 1: This person had to meet the moment.
Speaker 3: And decide how do I want to cope with it,
Speaker 3: so I think, yeah, that's that's a great point.
Speaker 1: So was it ever uncomfortable in those early days to
Speaker 1: like see your image everywhere?
Speaker 3: Did it feel like you'd like lost any sort of
Speaker 3: like agency over your own image?
Speaker 1: Was it exciting?
Speaker 4: Yeah? It was. I think my memories of that time
Speaker 4: are mostly like it was just like really exciting. I
Speaker 4: think the Internet certainly took it and ran like I
Speaker 4: you know, I didn't call I didn't come up with
Speaker 4: overly attached girlfriend like a name for the meme. I
Speaker 4: didn't make it a meme. And so I feel like
Speaker 4: the Internet very much took this thing and like made
Speaker 4: it their own, and it sort of like fell out
Speaker 4: of my hands pretty quickly in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4: But I remember it just feeling like really cool. I
Speaker 4: can't believe this is happening, like it's supposed to here
Speaker 4: and now it's supposed to hear. I can't believe like
Speaker 4: this person has seen my face. There did come a
Speaker 4: point where I felt really disconnected from the meme, and
Speaker 4: I will, like even now sometimes obviously it doesn't happen
Speaker 4: as often, but I'll just like randomly stumble upon it
Speaker 4: every now and then and it feels much more like, oh,
Speaker 4: there's my meme rather than like there's me or like
Speaker 4: my face or I don't know, there's like some disconnect
Speaker 4: that happened at some point. Yeah, I think my overall,
Speaker 4: my memory of it is like very positive and like overwhelming,
Speaker 4: but in like a very fun, exciting way. I do
Speaker 4: think it was out of my hands a bit pretty quickly,
Speaker 4: but not in a way it felt negative. Back then,
Speaker 4: you could send people messages on YouTube direct messages, and
Speaker 4: so my inbox was a little flooded, but mostly with
Speaker 4: just like random people. There was like no other way
Speaker 4: to contact me at first. Also accept that then when
Speaker 4: I posted the second video and that kind of blew
Speaker 4: up a little bit as well. That's when I think
Speaker 4: I started getting a lot more like people reached. I
Speaker 4: had like some management reach out at that time, like
Speaker 4: wanting to work together and things like that, but I
Speaker 4: think that that was after I sort of kept it
Speaker 4: going with that second video.
Speaker 3: So there is like sort of this moment where you
Speaker 3: post the first video as a joke, you're basically assigned
Speaker 3: a character kind of you've written it yourself, but it's
Speaker 3: also sort of being co created by people making the meme.
Speaker 1: All right, cool, let's make another one.
Speaker 3: How do you go through this period of deciding, you
Speaker 3: know what, I want to keep this going and then
Speaker 3: what do I want this to look like?
Speaker 4: Well, before any of this happened, I really wanted to
Speaker 4: be in entertainment in some capacity and I just never
Speaker 4: pursued it because it felt like an impossible thing. I
Speaker 4: didn't know what to do. Like I remember talking to
Speaker 4: my dad once about like what if I just moved
Speaker 4: to LA And then I'm like, but what do I
Speaker 4: do when I get there? Or like I don't have money,
Speaker 4: Like I don't know. I just remember being like I
Speaker 4: want to be in this world, but I don't have
Speaker 4: So that was in me a little bit. And I
Speaker 4: had made videos with friends like in college and stuff,
Speaker 4: just like silly goofy videos that I think were posted
Speaker 4: and taken down at some point, and so like it
Speaker 4: was in me a little bit, like I remember posting
Speaker 4: silly videos with my friends and maybe it was like
Speaker 4: on their channel or something and like watching and seeing
Speaker 4: like oh I wonder if anyone else will see this whatever?
Speaker 4: And that way I was there. So when that took off,
Speaker 4: it was like really exciting and I knew some people
Speaker 4: were like doing it full time. I started getting like followers.
Speaker 4: I made a Twitter, people started following me on Twitter.
Speaker 4: I decided to post that second video, and then I
Speaker 4: think after the second video, I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 4: think this could actually be like a job or like
Speaker 4: a thing I could really pursue. And I remember talking
Speaker 4: to my parents about it then. And then that's also
Speaker 4: when like management reached out. That's when I started thinking like, oh,
Speaker 4: this could be a thing I could really pursue and
Speaker 4: could be really good. I just thought at that time,
Speaker 4: like I'll just go with it for as long as
Speaker 4: it works and see what happens. I'm so glad you
Speaker 4: mentioned the thing about like my brain not being fully developed,
Speaker 4: because I feel like at the time, like being twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one, I felt so old. I felt like such
Speaker 4: an adult. And then now at thirty three, I can
Speaker 4: like look back and I have like you did not
Speaker 4: know what was happening to you and your world got
Speaker 4: so crazy so quickly. But there was so much of
Speaker 4: me at the time, in like my early twenties that
Speaker 4: when things got like challenging and there was a lot
Speaker 4: of like why can't I figure out how to do this,
Speaker 4: how to maintain this whatever I'll have to say. It's
Speaker 4: just like validating to hear you say that, because it's
Speaker 4: so different, like looking back at that time now versus
Speaker 4: being in the thick of it in the moment, and.
Speaker 3: That not only are you young and having to sort
Speaker 3: of make these decisions because of the nature of the Internet,
Speaker 3: I imagine you had to make them pretty quickly. I mean,
Speaker 3: I know that there were This was like the early
Speaker 3: days of YouTubers and internet personalities making a full time
Speaker 3: living work. So in twenty twelve, like, what was the
Speaker 3: kind of.
Speaker 1: Advice you were getting? Like, what was the past that.
Speaker 3: Was sort of laid before you at this time. I imagine
Speaker 3: it's changed a lot over the years, but maybe not.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's definitely changed. In fact, when I was thinking
Speaker 4: about making a second YouTube video recently, there was a
Speaker 4: part of me that's like, I really need to make
Speaker 4: something about like becoming a meme in twenty twelve versus
Speaker 4: like twenty twenty four. And for some reason, I'd been
Speaker 4: getting a lot of people asking me about the Hawktua girl,
Speaker 4: And like, I don't know why, because it's such a
Speaker 4: vastly different time. What advice would you give her. What
Speaker 4: did you ask me the advice I was getting at
Speaker 4: the time, So I remember, like I did the thing
Speaker 4: that immediately popped into my brain when you asked me
Speaker 4: that was I did this interview for a radio station,
Speaker 4: like pretty early on. It was one of my very
Speaker 4: first interviews I ever heard, and I remember the host
Speaker 4: of this radio show trying to like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: just like kind of like tell me what I should do,
Speaker 4: how I should handle it. And I remember him telling me,
Speaker 4: you need to make a Facebook, like a public Facebook.
Speaker 4: You need to upload photos of yourself that aren't in character,
Speaker 4: like you need to post as Lena. I remember I
Speaker 4: came up with a fake last name for that interview
Speaker 4: because he was like, you know, you might not want
Speaker 4: your last name out there, which I think that's a
Speaker 4: huge difference twenty twelve versus now. Everyone's like, oh, don't
Speaker 4: give your name out like, which is honestly like kind
Speaker 4: of stuck with me. I still don't have my last
Speaker 4: name on my socials. That fake last name I gave
Speaker 4: back then is still pops up as like people thinking
Speaker 4: it's my last name. So like funny advice like that,
Speaker 4: but I think would never be given now. Yeah. I
Speaker 4: think when I signed with like management, that was like
Speaker 4: all new and I was just like, yeah, tell me
Speaker 4: what to do.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I understand why people are asking you
Speaker 3: about how to a girl. There are enough similarities between
Speaker 3: the trajectories that I understand why people are asking where
Speaker 3: it's like a similar age.
Speaker 1: Someone who is in on the joke, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden there's management involved, and it seems like the
Speaker 1: question is like okay, what now, Like what do we do?
Speaker 3: I went back and sort of went through in like
Speaker 3: that first year a lot of mainstream appearances and like
Speaker 3: crossing over into mainstream media. But what was that period, Like,
Speaker 3: are there any appearances or things that stand out to you?
Speaker 4: I think the craziest you one that hands out to
Speaker 4: me and that was like the most fun was I
Speaker 4: got to be on Jimmy Fallon. That was so cool.
Speaker 4: I just I was that whole experience was awesome. My
Speaker 4: manager called me and said, there was like this writer
Speaker 4: at Fallon. They were wondering if I would happen to
Speaker 4: be in New York at this period time. If so,
Speaker 4: like they would want me to do this thing on
Speaker 4: the show. And I was like, I will happen to
Speaker 4: be in New York at whatever time, Like, yeah, so
Speaker 4: I got my own ticket, flew there with my I
Speaker 4: took like my best friend with me. It was just
Speaker 4: like a magical experience. We got this hotel, you got
Speaker 4: like the driver picked us up to take us to
Speaker 4: the studio. It was so much fun. That is like
Speaker 4: the memory that stands out to me the most.
Speaker 3: Once you're on YouTube full time and like adjusting to
Speaker 3: that grind, were you balancing it with auditioning for other
Speaker 3: stuff and like where where did you want things to
Speaker 3: head at that time or were you being pressured in
Speaker 3: any particular direction.
Speaker 4: I started posting regularly after that second one. It became
Speaker 4: my job pretty quickly, or it just I mean it
Speaker 4: became I started making money from it pretty quickly, even
Speaker 4: just from like the first video. So I stuck with
Speaker 4: YouTube mostly just doing YouTube, and then very quickly I
Speaker 4: think the conversation came up just with like friends that
Speaker 4: were also doing YouTube and like management and stuff of
Speaker 4: like what where do we want this to go? Do
Speaker 4: you want to act? Do you want to do a
Speaker 4: stand up? Do you want to write? Whatever? I felt
Speaker 4: really overwhelmed with like not knowing what to do or
Speaker 4: how to do it. I also at the time, I
Speaker 4: had a really really difficult time with feeling like I
Speaker 4: have to move to LA, like I just have to.
Speaker 4: I felt a lot of pressure to do that. I
Speaker 4: felt like if I pursue anything in this world, in
Speaker 4: this industry, I just have to be there. And I
Speaker 4: felt really conflicted with my life in Texas versus like
Speaker 4: do I go to LA. It's so like I can't
Speaker 4: have I like shouldn't have regrets. But when I look
Speaker 4: back and I'm like, I was like, oh, I don't
Speaker 4: I hope if I moved to LA, I might break
Speaker 4: up with my boyfriends, so I shouldn't do that, And
Speaker 4: like I just like little like twenty twenty one year
Speaker 4: old thoughts where I'm.
Speaker 1: Just totally like yeah, don La.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I feel like very quickly I got really stuck
Speaker 4: not knowing what to do. I felt a lot of
Speaker 4: pressure to figure out what to do. I would start
Speaker 4: to think like, Okay, maybe I want to act, and
Speaker 4: then I would go back on that and be like
Speaker 4: I don't know, Like who am I to like decidle
Speaker 4: of a sudden, I'm an actor just because I posted
Speaker 4: this like YouTube video. I want to write but I
Speaker 4: don't know how to pursue that I wasn't doing like
Speaker 4: auditions or anything. But there are things I look back
Speaker 4: on now, like there was certainly opportunities that I had
Speaker 4: been that I don't have now that I didn't take
Speaker 4: because I was just like so afraid or unsure of
Speaker 4: what to do. Yeah, and like, I can't really regret
Speaker 4: it because I look back at that version of me
Speaker 4: and I'm like, of course, like, of course you were overwhelmed.
Speaker 4: You had no idea what to do. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, it's like, oh my gosh, like the things
Speaker 4: I could have done had I just not been afraid
Speaker 4: to do them, But yeah, there was no There was
Speaker 4: certainly pressure to like do something outside of YouTube, but
Speaker 4: there was no I felt very frozen and stuck and
Speaker 4: not knowing what direction to go, and I just kind
Speaker 4: of didn't and stuck with YouTube.
Speaker 3: When we come back more with the overly Attached Girlfriend
Speaker 3: Lena Morris, Welcome back to sixteenth Minute. It's the most
Speaker 3: wonderful time of the year. And by that I mean
Speaker 3: that for some reason, Pee Wee's Big Adventures back in
Speaker 3: theaters and I just got tickets to a haunted hay
Speaker 3: Ride and here is the rest of my talk with
Speaker 3: Lena Morris. So, when you were making those early videos, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean were you making them completely alone? Like, how
Speaker 3: were those early videos coming together once it became your job.
Speaker 4: I was making them alone. I think that's pretty obvious.
Speaker 4: If you go back alone, there's no like there's so
Speaker 4: many people that I feel like, say, and this is true.
Speaker 4: This is true for a lot of people. They'll be like, well,
Speaker 4: like doing YouTube, you're like the writer and the director
Speaker 4: and you're the actor and you're the editor, and like
Speaker 4: anytime I see that, I'm like yeah. But like I
Speaker 4: felt like for a very long time like this when
Speaker 4: I'm hesitating because I don't want to, I think just
Speaker 4: me personally, not anyone else's experience. Like I think I
Speaker 4: wasn't putting as much work into it as like for
Speaker 4: a long time, I was like getting out of it,
Speaker 4: if that makes sense. Like I just felt like this
Speaker 4: isn't like that hard. But also I'm not really like
Speaker 4: doing anything big. There was no big like production in
Speaker 4: my videos. There were a lot of people that were
Speaker 4: doing that. I think one thing that I realized recently,
Speaker 4: especially with like thinking about coming back to YouTube, I
Speaker 4: immediately was sucked into this thing and then felt pressure
Speaker 4: to post every week, but with no plan and like
Speaker 4: no experience doing it. I was like learning how along
Speaker 4: the way, I was learning how to edit as I
Speaker 4: was going and thinking about it now, it's like, but
Speaker 4: I could be more in that mindset looking at it
Speaker 4: as a job in a different way than I think
Speaker 4: I did back then. Back then it was so like
Speaker 4: I just felt all the time like I don't know
Speaker 4: what I'm doing. I have no idea what I'm doing,
Speaker 4: and I guess I'll post like this. I look back
Speaker 4: at some videos and a lot of them are private
Speaker 4: and now for that reason. But I'll look back at
Speaker 4: a video, watch it, watch this version of me that
Speaker 4: talks for like two minutes, and it's like, Okay, well
Speaker 4: see you next week, and I'm like what if I
Speaker 4: what did I spend that whole week doing? That's like
Speaker 4: that's it. But I think I just like never had
Speaker 4: a chance to just like step back and think, like
Speaker 4: what do I want this to be? I was just
Speaker 4: in it and like I don't know. Very often this
Speaker 4: overwhelming feeling of like what am I doing? Like once
Speaker 4: or twice a year, I would get together with these
Speaker 4: friends at these YouTube conventions. It was the first time,
Speaker 4: the only time in the year that I got to
Speaker 4: be around people that did what I did and talk
Speaker 4: about it and like how are.
Speaker 1: You doing this?
Speaker 4: And what do you do for whatever? Like that's just
Speaker 4: it was a very like lonely thing that I didn't
Speaker 4: have a lot of yeah, like direction except for just
Speaker 4: looking at what are other people doing? There was a
Speaker 4: whole lot of direction from the outside.
Speaker 3: I don't think in the years you were doing YouTube
Speaker 3: consistently navigating parasocial relationships, navigating audience expectations, or even perceived
Speaker 3: audience expectations.
Speaker 1: I'm curious of how you use dealt with the relationship
Speaker 1: with your audience.
Speaker 4: That was hard because it was just like a lot
Speaker 4: of people all at once, all wanting to see different things,
Speaker 4: me not knowing where to take it, what to do.
Speaker 4: To be honest, it was like a decent amount of
Speaker 4: men on the internet, and that was like really hard
Speaker 4: to handle, like navigate how do I handle like these
Speaker 4: situations that would come up that sometimes would put me
Speaker 4: in a position to feel a little like uncomfortable or
Speaker 4: even at certain points like unsafe. It's not a normal
Speaker 4: experience for people to like have all these people that
Speaker 4: you don't know just like know you and want to
Speaker 4: like talk to you and want different things. And that
Speaker 4: being said, it's also like really cool. I had a
Speaker 4: lot of really good experiences. I think it just took
Speaker 4: some time to get used to. It took some time
Speaker 4: to figure out how to kind of like disconnect from
Speaker 4: this version of me that's online versus my personal life.
Speaker 3: And so, at what point in making the regular YouTube
Speaker 3: content did you start to struggle with mental health? And
Speaker 3: it also seems like some burnout and pressure and yeah,
Speaker 3: when did that start?
Speaker 4: It started a year and a half in or so,
Speaker 4: or maybe a little sooner than that. I made a
Speaker 4: video and I can't actually remember when. This was the
Speaker 4: first time I cried on the internet talking about how
Speaker 4: like I didn't know what I was doing and I
Speaker 4: was unsure. But it was around that time when I
Speaker 4: started to just feel like like I didn't have any
Speaker 4: direction and I didn't know where to go from there.
Speaker 4: There was also like there is something about when you
Speaker 4: start way up at the top, which is a very
Speaker 4: lucky thing I got to experience having like my first
Speaker 4: video go viral, but also there's really like nowhere to
Speaker 4: go but down. After that, and so like for a
Speaker 4: long time, everything I posted, I'm like, if it doesn't
Speaker 4: go viral, I'm failing ridiculous, because especially back then, it's
Speaker 4: like you don't get viral videos very often, if at all. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I just started to feel like I don't know, I
Speaker 4: don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know what
Speaker 4: direction to go with this. It's also like I was
Speaker 4: at a point in my life where all my friends
Speaker 4: are graduating college, starting their careers, and I am like, here,
Speaker 4: I am alone in my apartment, film me a silly video.
Speaker 4: And there's also something to be said for like working
Speaker 4: from home, spending all of your time alone. I think
Speaker 4: when I look back now, I'm like a year and
Speaker 4: a half or so in that makes sense to me
Speaker 4: because that's kind of when the energy and craziness of
Speaker 4: like the viral moment sort of started to wear down.
Speaker 4: And now it's just like I'm stuck with Okay, now
Speaker 4: now what kind of feeling? And I did. I did
Speaker 4: drive out of school to pursue that, and that was
Speaker 4: some pressure. Like I also just like I struggled with
Speaker 4: my mental health for a lot of reasons. I think
Speaker 4: that just never having a moment to figure it out
Speaker 4: or take a break, or it just sort of spiraled
Speaker 4: from there.
Speaker 1: I guess how long were you in that holding pattern?
Speaker 4: A long time? When you are like I have to
Speaker 4: keep going or I lose this, then you're also creating
Speaker 4: content you're not happy with. Or that's my experience. I
Speaker 4: honestly think that there was a part of me not
Speaker 4: that was like doing it on purpose, but I certainly
Speaker 4: wasn't putting my own all into what I was creating,
Speaker 4: And I think that that was there was a part
Speaker 4: of me that was using it as like kind of
Speaker 4: a way to protect myself. Like if I'm not super
Speaker 4: happy with what I'm making, then the numbers being bad
Speaker 4: or the reaction being bad doesn't hurt as much because
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, yeah, I know, like I didn't try
Speaker 4: super hard on that, and that's easier than like putting
Speaker 4: my all into this and then failing. I feel like
Speaker 4: when you're when you're working your job and you're like
Speaker 4: not doing a great job at it, like it's not
Speaker 4: normal for like everyone in your life to be able
Speaker 4: to go look and see that that's happening. That was
Speaker 4: hard because I feel like it's so obvious there's like
Speaker 4: numbers right there in front of you that people are seeing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think I was burnt out without knowing what burnout
Speaker 4: was at that time, and feeling like I don't know
Speaker 4: what I'm doing, I feel pressure whatever. I remember other
Speaker 4: YouTubers reaching out to me after that and being like
Speaker 4: I feel that too, and like You're not alone in this,
Speaker 4: this is hard whatever. And then it got to a
Speaker 4: point where I don't know exactly when, but almost every
Speaker 4: YouTube convention I would go to, there would be a
Speaker 4: conversation just like a room full of YouTubers being like
Speaker 4: what are we doing? Like you know, like that was
Speaker 4: a pretty common conversation, or people would like talk about
Speaker 4: feeling burnt out, or a lot of people would move
Speaker 4: to other platforms because they felt better in certain ways.
Speaker 4: And I remember when the goal for all of us
Speaker 4: was like hitting a million subscribers, Like I remember, you
Speaker 4: knew when another creator like hit a million subscribers, and
Speaker 4: then you're counting down to when you hit a million subscribers.
Speaker 4: That was like a big goal we all had, and
Speaker 4: you know, like it's just so interesting to see now
Speaker 4: there are people with like millions and millions of subscribers
Speaker 4: it's almost like when everyone has it then. Anyway, I
Speaker 4: think that there was like this excitement about it in
Speaker 4: the beginning, this like thing we were all doing these
Speaker 4: goals or whatever, and then it became like flooded with
Speaker 4: so much more people. It started to become more mainstream,
Speaker 4: It started to become more of like a career for people.
Speaker 4: People were getting kind of launched into the mainstream space
Speaker 4: and wondering if they should leave you tube, what are
Speaker 4: we doing? It was always like what are you going
Speaker 4: to do next? Do you do outside of this? Whereas
Speaker 4: now like that is a conversation, but also a lot
Speaker 4: of people are just doing YouTube and that's it and
Speaker 4: that's great and like the end and like this is
Speaker 4: and I don't feel like that was as much as
Speaker 4: of the conversation ten years ago.
Speaker 1: And while you're navigating all of this, you also make
Speaker 1: the decision to go into therapy. What motivated you to
Speaker 1: finally go for it, and then further down the line,
Speaker 1: what motivated you to share sort of that journey with
Speaker 1: your viewers.
Speaker 4: I think in twenty thirteen, I started to struggle with
Speaker 4: my mental health, but I didn't really know that. I
Speaker 4: think my manager at the time actually told me that
Speaker 4: she felt like I should go to therapy, but I
Speaker 4: said something like, I feel like you could hand me
Speaker 4: everything I've ever wanted on a silver plata right now,
Speaker 4: and I would be like, do I have to like
Speaker 4: get up? I have to like like that was like
Speaker 4: the feeling like I could have everything and almost felt
Speaker 4: that way. I felt like it did kind of have
Speaker 4: everything I wanted, or at least the opportunity to, and
Speaker 4: I was like, I just like just so overwhelmed. And
Speaker 4: then there's all this guilt that comes with that, right,
Speaker 4: because then you're like living this life you really want
Speaker 4: to live, but then you're like not happy. And then
Speaker 4: several years later I moved. I moved to Arizona when
Speaker 4: I was twenty six. Pretty soon after that, maybe a
Speaker 4: year after moving, I remember like thinking I needed some
Speaker 4: help maybe with my mental health. And then one moment
Speaker 4: that really sticks out in my mind is my partner
Speaker 4: at the time and I were like in an argument
Speaker 4: something I was overreacting, which was a very like I
Speaker 4: feel like there was a lot of that when my
Speaker 4: mental health was that it's worse. It was a lot
Speaker 4: of overreacting to a lot of things, like if I
Speaker 4: didn't have a video that week. It would just be
Speaker 4: like it would like kill me and I would just
Speaker 4: like be like beating myself up over it. I couldn't
Speaker 4: do anything else. And we were having a fight and
Speaker 4: I was overreacting, not being great in that argument. And
Speaker 4: then I went to the room to be alone. He
Speaker 4: came in and he was like just very sweet and
Speaker 4: kind and giving me a lot of grace. He was like,
Speaker 4: do you think it's time for you to get some help?
Speaker 4: And like, I think that moment it sticks out in
Speaker 4: my mind, especially because I was just I don't know,
Speaker 4: I was being so obnoxious and then for the reaction
Speaker 4: to be like, hey, I like know you, and I
Speaker 4: think maybe it's time. And I think I started reaching
Speaker 4: out to therapists after that. Then I started therapy and
Speaker 4: it was amazing, but I think I really needed to
Speaker 4: go at a time where I came to terms without.
Speaker 3: Myself what sort of led to the decision to take
Speaker 3: a step back from YouTube.
Speaker 4: So when I moved from Texas to Arizona, I had
Speaker 4: already I think the move was overwhelming, just you know,
Speaker 4: my life changed quite a bit, not having my community there,
Speaker 4: just a lot of it was like very overwhelming and
Speaker 4: I took a step back from YouTube, and in my
Speaker 4: head I was like, oh, I'm just going to take
Speaker 4: like a week or two and get moved and whatever.
Speaker 4: And then I just like didn't really go back or
Speaker 4: like I made a video every now and then, but
Speaker 4: it was in my head. I think I just thought
Speaker 4: at first like I'm definitely going to go back, and
Speaker 4: I wasn't going back. Then I was like, well, I
Speaker 4: can't just leave without saying anything. For some reason, it
Speaker 4: was like really important to me to make a video.
Speaker 4: If I'm going to stop, I want to like say goodbye.
Speaker 4: In therapy, I started talking about YouTube and like what
Speaker 4: does that look like? From this point on? Do I
Speaker 4: want to do anything outside of YouTube? And then like
Speaker 4: very slowly I started to be like, well, do I
Speaker 4: even want to go back at all? Do I quit?
Speaker 4: If I quit? What does that look like? What does
Speaker 4: it feel like? There was a lot of like homework
Speaker 4: assignments for my therapist that was like right about how
Speaker 4: it would feel to walk away from this, you know,
Speaker 4: like what does it feel like? As soon as I
Speaker 4: started entertaining the idea of like walking away from YouTube,
Speaker 4: it was almost like, Oh, I can do this thing
Speaker 4: that I like very clearly need to do. The last
Speaker 4: video I made where I just like said goodbye to
Speaker 4: YouTube was actually my therapist told me like to film
Speaker 4: a goodbye video to kind of see how that felt,
Speaker 4: and that is the video that I ended up posting.
Speaker 4: And so I think with the film, it was like
Speaker 4: as soon as I started, my body knew like, oh here,
Speaker 4: this is it, Like we're quitting and right. So that's
Speaker 4: kind of how it got to that point. From the
Speaker 4: time I started thinking about quitting YouTube to the time
Speaker 4: I made the video telling everyone I was quitting YouTube
Speaker 4: was probably like a little over a year.
Speaker 3: So that's in twenty nineteen, and I know that the
Speaker 3: community reaction was universally supportive. How do you return to
Speaker 3: your life without this thing that's been a part of
Speaker 3: it for like your whole adulthood up to this point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was hard. I think I had to really
Speaker 4: grieve a loss. Like I said, I hadn't really been
Speaker 4: posting for a while, but I think something about just
Speaker 4: like making it official and like making a goodbye and
Speaker 4: stepping away was like really hard. Yeah, it truly felt
Speaker 4: like I had to like grieve a loss almost like
Speaker 4: a relationship, like I was like, Okay, this thing that
Speaker 4: I just like know and it has become like my
Speaker 4: identity almost to just like gone, which might be a
Speaker 4: little dramatic because I know I still online, still doing things,
Speaker 4: but I think the initial feeling felt very dramatic, felt
Speaker 4: like I also was really focusing on my mental health
Speaker 4: and my personal life and like relationships in my personal life.
Speaker 4: To be totally honest, like I don't talk about my
Speaker 4: personal life super publicly, but like a lot has changed
Speaker 4: in the years since quitting. I think, like quitting and
Speaker 4: then focusing on like my happiness and like, okay, what
Speaker 4: so burnt out and struggling so much of this and
Speaker 4: like now my energy is on like everything else, and
Speaker 4: like what do I need to do for like myself
Speaker 4: and my happiness? And it was difficult, it was hard,
Speaker 4: but also there was just this freedom that came with it,
Speaker 4: and like this weight off my shoulders and I had
Speaker 4: the gift of time to just focus on myself and
Speaker 4: that's what I did. By the time I quit, I
Speaker 4: had already like not posted for a while very regularly.
Speaker 4: It didn't feel like a crazy big switch in my life.
Speaker 3: And then I guess just to like bring us up
Speaker 3: to the present and in the last five years now
Speaker 3: that you're sort of talk into YouTube, what are things
Speaker 3: that positive, negative, indifferent?
Speaker 1: There's a whole pandemic somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 4: Somewhere in there. Yeah. Well, I mean I did have
Speaker 4: this like very big, sort of life changing experience in
Speaker 4: therapy where I really shifted my focus on myself and
Speaker 4: like what do I want or need and my happiness,
Speaker 4: which is just a thing I never did before, which
Speaker 4: has changed my life in a lot of ways. And
Speaker 4: now I'm in a place where I can look back
Speaker 4: on this time, like the last like ten twelve years
Speaker 4: and see it very differently and look at it through
Speaker 4: a lens of just like like I don't know, I
Speaker 4: think I was just so hard on myself for so long,
Speaker 4: so much pressure for so long. I can look back
Speaker 4: now and be like, of course you felt these things.
Speaker 4: Like it's I feel like I'm in a place where
Speaker 4: it's kind of like healing to look back and think
Speaker 4: about more than like frustrating and like what was I
Speaker 4: doing and why didn't I take these opportunities and having
Speaker 4: all these regrets and whatever. Now it's just like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: that makes sense. This was a crazy thing that I
Speaker 4: went through. If that makes sense, Yeah, my life looks
Speaker 4: pretty different. I don't know. I mean, I haven't talked
Speaker 4: about this publicly. I did go through a breakup with
Speaker 4: someone I was with for ten years, so a big shift,
Speaker 4: and like just like learning life alone kind of getting
Speaker 4: to know myself in a different way the last few years. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's hard because I feel like life feels so different,
Speaker 4: but there's not a whole lot of like concrete things
Speaker 4: I can point to, figuring out my mental health, my medication,
Speaker 4: getting my mind right. I feel like I've grown up
Speaker 4: a lot in the last five years, but also I
Speaker 4: feel like that it flew by so quickly, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: nothing's happened. So I don't know. I somehow feel both
Speaker 4: at the same time.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't want to be the person I was four
Speaker 3: years ago, because then you know what was all the
Speaker 3: pain and frustration of going through whatever you go through
Speaker 3: it four years for it's a weird two hander.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're coming back. It seems like on
Speaker 1: your own terms and at your own pace.
Speaker 4: I would love to go back to YouTube. I'm very
Speaker 4: cautious and want to do it in like a way
Speaker 4: that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I think we're
Speaker 4: just kind of like I'm going to take it slowly
Speaker 4: and see how it feels. But it certainly feels like
Speaker 4: I'm approaching it from a very different place. And there
Speaker 4: was a time when I felt like I really disappointed
Speaker 4: that for a long time, just that man, I had
Speaker 4: this like dream I really wanted like I had the
Speaker 4: time to create the creative outlet an audience, and like,
Speaker 4: it's it's too bad that I had to give that up.
Speaker 4: It's too bad that just like didn't work. And then
Speaker 4: for the first time recently, I've been thinking like, well,
Speaker 4: like do I have to like maybe I go back now,
Speaker 4: and maybe that just looks drastically different. So yeah, I
Speaker 4: don't know what's going to happen, but I do feel
Speaker 4: I have a little more control over it than I
Speaker 4: felt like I had for a really long time. I
Speaker 4: think that I think it's just like a crazy like
Speaker 4: and I've been thinking about this when people ask me
Speaker 4: about the Hawk Tour Girls specifically, I saw an interview
Speaker 4: with her where she talked about like she was talking
Speaker 4: about her experience since that video and like it was
Speaker 4: a couple of days after and she's like, oh, I
Speaker 4: didn't have management yet, said it so casually, like, of course,
Speaker 4: that's what you do when you go viral. And I
Speaker 4: feel like now it's a different experience. And honestly, I
Speaker 4: think going viral in twenty twenty four is not something
Speaker 4: I would be able to handle. It was hard enough
Speaker 4: ten years ago, but now, I don't know, I feel
Speaker 4: like it's so many more eyes, it's so many more
Speaker 4: like expectations. But when she said that, I was just like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is just a given, Like you go viral and
Speaker 4: boom at your job, and like this is your life,
Speaker 4: and like now you have management. It's just it's I mean,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think it's a lot to handle
Speaker 4: at any time. But all that to say, I just
Speaker 4: think it's a really different experience now versus then, And
Speaker 4: it just seems like a lot now.
Speaker 1: Alinda, thank you so much for joining us and being
Speaker 1: so candid. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Of course, thank you, thank you so much. This is
Speaker 4: a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much to Lena for her time and
Speaker 3: her vulnerability. And you can follow her at the links
Speaker 3: in the description. Whatever she decides to do. I so
Speaker 3: admire that she's doing it on her own terms. I
Speaker 3: did this interview about a month ago, and it really
Speaker 3: has stuck with me and had me thinking again about
Speaker 3: what pressure there is on creators, and that even when
Speaker 3: one is really lucky to be in the position to
Speaker 3: work on something that they care about and enjoy full time,
Speaker 3: that the pressure to continue creating at an increasingly fast
Speaker 3: rate is unrelenting and painful, no matter how much you
Speaker 3: love what you do or appreciate the people that you
Speaker 3: make it for. I've only talked to her this once,
Speaker 3: but I'm genuinely proud of Lena for extracting herself from
Speaker 3: that rat race when she realized how it was affecting
Speaker 3: her health. I think creative burnout and how this kind
Speaker 3: of pressure affects one's mental health should be discussed among
Speaker 3: people across industries. And while it's a privilege to be
Speaker 3: able to afford to step back, I think more people
Speaker 3: should do it, take the time to work on themselves
Speaker 3: and come back when they're ready. So I thank Lena
Speaker 3: for imparting that lesson, and with that, Lena Morris, the
Speaker 3: overly attached girlfriend, your sixteenth minute ends now, unless thank
Speaker 3: you so much for everyone being here genuinely, it means
Speaker 3: a lot to me. Please like, subscribe, leave a review
Speaker 3: for the show. There's a Reddit board that I'm afraid
Speaker 3: to check. I'm glad you're here. This is very much
Speaker 3: a labor of love, and here's your moment of fun.
Speaker 3: Sixteenth Minute is a production of fool Zone Media and
Speaker 3: iHeart Labia. It is written, posted, and produced by me
Speaker 3: Jamie Loftus. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert
Speaker 3: Evans be Amazing. Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and
Speaker 3: our editor. Our theme song is by Sad thirteen and Pet.
Speaker 3: Shout outs to our dog producer Anderson, my cat's fleeing Casper,
Speaker 3: and my pet rock Bird, who will outlive us all Bye.