TYLER OAKLEY

I initially thought I was going to be a teacher. Maybe like an elementary teacher or something like that, which would be fun. Maybe someday.

In 2016, one of the things I really hope to do is discover new talent and help develop it. Take what I've learned and what I can do and help amplify those voices.

On YouTube, if anything, coming out as gay or bi or trans explodes someone's popularity.

People just want to watch people live their authentic lives and share the good and the bad. You can have fun and be a positive influence and have a good impact. And it can still be entertaining.

A lot of YouTubers get that mainstream celebrity, they get these big deals, maybe a book deal or a TV deal or whatever it is they aspired to do, and they kind of abandon ship on what got them to that point.

In my new book, 'Binge,' I share essays about everything I've never told my viewers - touching on the best and worst days of my life, some hilarious, some embarrassing, but all extremely personal.

For any YouTuber, if you're too nervous to have somebody else document, it may be that what you're putting out there isn't authentic.

When I was first offered the book deal, I was like, 'I am not a writer. I haven't practiced this.' My approach has been completely stream-of-consciousness, and then edit down, because that's been YouTube for me forever.

You don't go to your 9 to 5 and share every story with your coworkers, and in the same way, not every YouTuber shares every story with their audience.

The moment I realised anyone could be watching - and this is going to sound so name-droppy - was when Ricky Martin reached out to me on Coming Out Day 2012. The Internet has this massive potential, and you can never know the effect you might have on others by just being yourself.

In middle school, I was really into the 'Redwall' series, about anthropomorphic rodents in medieval times. I had a bowl cut, too, if you need the full imagery.

I really like Nick Jonas. I think he is super-cute, handsome and talented.

I was recording my audiobook, and it's so weird. You write things, but then to have to say them out loud in front of people feels so different. So when I was recording my audiobook, I was telling an embarrassing story in front of, like, a room full of audio-tech people that I don't know, and I was like 'Oh my God, this is so cringe.'

I'm essentially working from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. It's my biggest hobby but also my favorite career that I could ever have. Every single platform is important.

With everything that I've done with YouTube and podcasts for so many years, it's been: you can record it, edit, and then upload that day. With the book and documentary, it's been such a longer process.

I want people to get a better sense of who I am, whether they've seen every video or zero videos.

Writing is something I want to explore. If I were to do it, I would want it to be not a book made by a YouTuber; I would really want to respect that craft of literature and just be an author.

I always think about the fact that PewDiePie, who has tens of millions of followers, started with zero. All of my favorite creators started with zero. And all it takes is one video to dive deep, and you are officially a YouTuber. So you've got to make that first video. It's not going to be your best, but you will learn as you go.

All the money that's donated to the Trevor Project provides resources that directly affect the youth that actually watch my videos. It's a cool thing to see them basically provide resources for each other.

I definitely have aspirations outside of YouTube, but I think there's a lot of people on YouTube who want to leave YouTube. I don't want to leave; I love it.

I spend all day replying to tweets and reblogging posts and sharing fan art. I think it's the most important thing I can possibly do, to stay involved in the community as a part of the community, not ahead of the community. I'm very much the same level of them in it.

To me, what's really an important difference between traditional entertainment and digital - on YouTube specifically - is that people thrive when they're authentic about themselves.

Being misunderstood - that's the thing that scares me. Because my life is about oversharing.

Every video I make, I want to make sure that it's doing something entertaining or hopefully inspiring or maybe teaching somebody something or sharing my mistakes so that they can learn from them or anything that will make a positive impact in the world.

I think that it's really important to step back and to take breaks as a digital creator because every other kind of platform is kind of set up to have seasons or time off or at least a barrier between creator and consumer. You have these set-up boundaries.