Teens are discovering fame left and right on YouTube these days. Justin Bieber is a perfect example. When his family was not unable to attend a singing competition that he performed in, he posted videos for them to watch on YouTube. Not only did Justin’s family watch—millions of teens, including me, did too. We watched the dreams of this Canadian boy from Stratford, Ontario, unfold.

AJ Rafael, another major YouTube guilty pleasure of mine, attended the Berkley College of Music in Massachusetts for a year, ultimately deciding it was not for him. On his YouTube page, where you [ ...continue reading ]]]>

Teens are discovering fame left and right on YouTube these days. Justin Bieber is a perfect example. When his family was not unable to attend a singing competition that he performed in, he posted videos for them to watch on YouTube. Not only did Justin’s family watch—millions of teens, including me, did too. We watched the dreams of this Canadian boy from Stratford, Ontario, unfold.

AJ Rafael, another major YouTube guilty pleasure of mine, attended the Berkley College of Music in Massachusetts for a year, ultimately deciding it was not for him. On his YouTube page, where you can listen and be inspired by his music, he says, “Ever since my father, a great musician and composer, died in 1999, I knew my life was going to be about music.”

Now, this is not just a male thing (even though I am quite attracted to both of these guys) —the girls I have found are amazing too. Cathy Nguyen, 22, from West Covina, Calif., prefers to perform acoustically. She has a lisp, and her background is a combination of Vietnamese, French and Thai. Aside from their own individual YouTube accounts, Cathy, along with Kat Badar, Jenny Suk and Jasmine Rafael (AJ’s sister), form a girl group called Blyss. It’s hard to pick one favorite out of the four of them, but I think Kat Badar has a wide range of talents.

I love listening to  Jennette McCurdy from the Nickelodeon show “iCarly.” Her hit “So Close” is one of those songs you pick up the lyrics to right away. I also like Savannah Outen; she got her start on Radio Disney. This girl has a voice of an angel. When Michael Jackson passed, she did a beautiful cover of “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin.

In the end, I love music in every way, shape or form (except for “Screamo,” which is a genre that consists of pure screaming—I am just not that hard-core). YouTube allows me the opportunity to view many new artists my age, some who have made it big thanks to this massive social network. I love seeing artists progress and watching new ones appear.

The people, places and stories you are about to see are all real…at least the way I see it.

Love & Rockets,

Morgan

P.S. MTV made me do this.

Between keeping my grades up, my ski schedule, cheerleading and my family and friends, my life is insanely busy. Monday night at 10:30 p.m., though, is my guilty pleasure: “My Life as Liz” is on MTV. (You really should set your TiVo or DVR.)

The show asks, Do you feel alone? Do you think you’re an outcast? It inspires the girl who feels like a [ ...continue reading ]]]>

The people, places and stories you are about to see are all real…at least the way I see it.

Love & Rockets,

Morgan

P.S. MTV made me do this.

Between keeping my grades up, my ski schedule, cheerleading and my family and friends, my life is insanely busy. Monday night at 10:30 p.m., though, is my guilty pleasure: “My Life as Liz” is on MTV. (You really should set your TiVo or DVR.)

The show asks, Do you feel alone? Do you think you’re an outcast? It inspires the girl who feels like a loner to realize that other girls feel the same way.

Liz Lee is a girl from Burleson, Texas, who used to be part of the “in” crowd. That changed when she found people she actually clicked with. The show follows the journey that is her senior year. She’s doing anything she can to fight off the popular kids while hanging out with a shy kid from AP English named Bryson (shhh, don’t tell anyone, but she likes him).

For quite some time, I thought that if I put on a front that “I’m a cheerleader,” I’d be accepted. But I’m definitely not the snobby, skinny thing everyone makes cheerleaders out to be. It turns out I spend the littlest amount of time possible with the girls on my squad. They are very self-absorbed. All they seem to care about is how short the skirts are and how hot No. 21 on the basketball team is. I sit alone every other day in the lunchroom. I would be so glad to have Liz at my school, because I feel like she feels the same way I do. (But in a way, I am stuck in the character Taylor Terry’s world. She wants to be friends with Liz, but her friends threaten to kick her out of their group.)

Yeah, so, I have guy friends. But I don’t get asked out and, no, I do not have a boyfriend. No one even wants to be my lab partner in biology. I feel like they think they’re better than me because I’m nice to the kids who have issues of their own, and the “poplars” think that’s gross. I am really quiet during the school day. I think school is meant for learning and growing up and not deciding on who you will marry at 15.

I am willing to say hi to anyone, but sometimes the responses are not G-rated. For example, I’ll have a lot of books and the gym door will be shut and I’ll ask someone to hold it, and they’ll accuse me of being a b——. Still, I somehow ended up with over a thousand friends on Facebook. I don’t get out much because I am attached to my 1990s Dell computer that’s been temporarily slowed down thanks to my brother’s “Call of Duty” craze. (I guess you could say I’m like the peanut butter and the Dell is the jelly here.) I own a cell phone. I do not have an iPod, hence my obsession with YouTube. I listen to almost anything and also wear pretty much anything, from preppy all the way down to leopard-print pants and oversize T-shirts. I wear glasses; I just don’t like things near or in my eyes, so no contacts. (Not to mention how my glasses look like 1980s pop-out-type shades that are making their way on back.)

Liz reminds me that from someone else’s perspective I could appear perfectly happy, even if I feel otherwise. But I have no choice but to be me, so I’m going to be me, and you can be you. I tell myself to break free of that clique mold.

There will always be the girl with the cutest bag, highest heels and what have you, or the football player with the varsity jacket who you wish would someday hold your hand. That’s never going away.

Watching “Liz” shows me that I can be a cheerleader but still rock my bleached camp T with my nickname across the back. I’m going to live “My Life as Morgan.” Hey, that does have a ring to it…MTV?