An influencer for open minds and open hearts
Junior Nick Giunto discusses his Youtube channel
A Canon EOS Rebel camera turns on, the battery icon colored lime green. It sits secured on a tripod in a brightly lit room as the settings are turned to video mode. One test shot is done for lighting and audio, a second follows, then a third. The rustle of movement stops as a voice begins ‘Hey guys, Nicky Giunto here…’ After beginning his channel five years ago, junior Nick Giunto made a conscious effort to revamp it a year and a half ago.
“I was really bored one day so I sat back and kind of made a life plan for myself,” Giunto said. “I asked myself ‘what do I want to do in life that makes me happy?’ I knew from that point it had to be something in entertainment and social media. From that point, I continued to make videos but I wasn’t gaining any traction but I didn’t have a problem with this because I know that currently I won’t be in famous or make money, but I still do it this early on because it is all about the experience and learning from my mistakes and seeing what people are interested in.”
When he was 12 years old, the recent transfer student from Pennsylvania to Tampa filmed and uploaded eight videos where he completed various viral challenges.
“It never really went anywhere, but I still loved doing it,” Giunto said. “I stopped for a couple years. I had probably 8 videos up and I was very into it. I just didn’t have any experience and I didn’t have my own computer yet or anything, so I had to wait until I was a little older. I deleted all of them later on. I made some videos again mainly to test out the waters. I restarted and I started to get a little bit of attention and continued from there.”
Currently, Giunto is focusing his coverage on makeup, beauty hacks, fashion and LGBT+ topics for his channel titled ‘Nicky Giunto,’ after previously filming hacks and tags.
“Lately, I’ve been practicing makeup because I’m super fascinated in it. I went to Walgreens and bought a bunch of makeup,” Giunto said. “At the time I had no makeup experience. I made a video of my attempting to do my make up for the first time and it was very funny and my eye liner was awful.”
Another [aspect] is I want to be an influencer for open minds and open hearts,” Giunto said. “I want to educate as many people as I can about the LGBTQ community and how everyone deserves equal treatment. — Nick Giunto
Giunto said he considered it important to include LGBT topics in his videos as an open member of the community.
Though Giunto intends to graduate from college with an undergraduate degree in a subspecialty in Chemistry, he explained that he considers a STEM-related job a backup plan.
“It’s always safe to have a backup plan,” Giunto said. “I really do enjoy chemistry and biology, so I plan on studying it, but I’d rather pursue [a career] in Youtube. Recently I’ve been contemplating a lot and I’ve decided that I really want to get serious about it. I just can’t see myself working a standard career. I know I will be my happiest in life if I pursue in the entertainment business and be able to be myself on the internet.”
Giunto has been positively impacted by the reactions from friends and family he’s received since telling them about his channel.
“I’ve gotten a lot of really good reactions from my family. They all laugh when we watch them and sometimes, they want to be in my videos,” Giunto said. “None of them are surprised when I tell them because they all say I belong in Youtube.”
According to Giunto, the Youtube figure he draws inspiration from the most is James Charles.
“Honestly, this may be very basic but I really am inspired [by him] because James Charles is so young and has gone through a lot of scandals and being able to withstand the situations and be responsible [while] being so young just makes me think that it is possible to do Youtube as a normal person,” Giunto said. “I really do [see myself in him], he is so outgoing and funny, and he is not afraid to be himself despite all the hate he gets. I am very similar because no matter how many people judge me or dislike me because of my sexuality, I’m still not scared to be myself.”
Giunto has future plans for the channel that involved Tik Tok and “putting his own twist on trendy challenges”.
“The reason I do Youtube is because I love entertainment and I thought what better way to tell my stories and act goofy,” Giunto said. “I want my channel to be very lighthearted and easy to watch and just make you smile or laugh.”
