Just a Girl, You Know

Thirteen-year-old Maria claims to be really good at talking baloney. So it's a good thing she's got her own YouTube channel, using the moniker Happynudge. Like many of her peers, she shares her vlogs, shoplogs and video clips. It's a world of its own, a network where users meet huge numbers of new people. Maria sees some of them as her friends, even though she's never met them. We get a picture of her online life through the videos of Maria and others. They aren't particularly original, as demonstrated by a shot of tens of videos on one screen featuring girls giving similar semi-professional makeup tips. As well as in her many YouTube videos, we see Maria at home while she's online, and we accompany her when she goes to meet her online friends in person for the first time at a YouTube gathering. In what appears to be a Skype conversation, she explains that she's aware of the danger of imitating other people, and she talks about the role YouTube plays in her life. Is Maria losing herself in the digital world or will she find her own voice?