Alivia D’Andrea: Inspiring Growth and Transformation on YouTube

Our interview of Alivia D’Andrea for “The Creative Influencer” podcast is available today for download on iTunes, Spotify, and premier platforms everywhere. Alivia has over 2.25 million YouTube subscribers and creates videos about food, self-improvement and the delightfully, chaotic adventures of a girl in progress.

Alivia shares her advice and thoughts on creating engaging content and how her YouTube channel has matured in tandem with her own personal growth.

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A transcript of the episode follows:

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Jon Pfeiffer:
I am joined today by Alivia D'Andrea. Welcome to the podcast.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Hello. Thank you for having me.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You bet. So now you have 2.25 million YouTube subscribers. The description on your YouTube [channel is that it is] about food, dating, self-improvement and [the] delightfully chaotic adventures of a girl in progress. That being you.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You're in season two of "The Glow up Diaries." And I want to ask you about those, but let me set the scene by finding a little bit about you before we get into the channel.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Okay.

Jon Pfeiffer:Where did you grow up?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I grew up in Glendora, California.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And I found that you joined YouTube far too early. In the sense of the age restriction, because I watched your 14th birthday video.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah. I started think when I was 14. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You were 13 actually, when you started.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Oh okay.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Because you had one of- you had a "here's three things people don't know about me" videos.

Alivia D’Andrea:
That's right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And one of your very early ones was that you speak Chinese, you dance and you play the piano. Do you still dance and play the piano?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah. Not so much dance anymore, but I do play the piano.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Here was one of your early videos also was about how to do the splits. So now what I want to know is, and you're showing, oh, you do this stretch and you do that stretch. And I'm watching this video thinking she's already pretty bendy already before you start to stretch, how long would it take somebody that is not as flexible as you to be able to do the splits?

Alivia D’Andrea:
It definitely depends on everybody's body because I think that genetics definitely plays a role. How consistent you are with the stretches, how much you're willing to push past your limits? I would say people- lots of people have messaged me- maybe an average between- it really depends on where you're starting. If you're- Can you give me an example of someone? Just an average girl like me?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Well, no, because you're not an average girl in the sense of you're very flexible to begin with.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Or just more because females are more flexible. Yeah. So for females maybe a month or two months. Yeah. Maybe three.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I did yoga for years and there was no way I was ever going to be as flexible as the women in class.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah. I think it's a little bit of belief and if you're willing to go through the pain.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So tell me about the moment you decided to start a YouTube channel.

Alivia D’Andrea:
I don't know if I have a specific moment. The moment I do remember is editing on my sister's laptop and like instantly falling in love and like, oh my gosh, this is so fun. And I love the idea of just kind of having my own space, where I could just make it my own and do whatever I want. And so that just sort of became my obsession in high school. That's all I ever did was make YouTube videos.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And then did you join Instagram at about the same time?

Alivia D’Andrea:
No, I joined probably when I was like 12 years old. And the thing is I was- so I think I always had a goal to like want to do social media because when I was 12 years old I would post these photos of myself doing these like flexible poses. And I didn't really know how to gain followers. So I would constantly be like direct messaging these big accounts that would feature people's flexibility photos saying like, "will you feature me?" And things like that. And I always got ignored. Like I got rejected so many times. So it's just interesting to see if you don't give up.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Yeah. So eventually it started to pay off? Point to one video or one post that was kind of a breakthrough.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yes, I know which one that was. It was my daily stretching routine. And I think the reason it did well was number one, it was the thumbnail. The thumbnail was catchy and it was just attractive. And then I think it was that people learn something from that video. They said, wow, this is your stretching routine actually made me more flexible. So I started to get requests below that video asking for more tutorials on how to become more flexible. And that's where I started to develop this niche. Because before that, I was sort of all over the spectrum. I was just making blogs about my life and people weren't really benefiting from my videos, but I was just sort of having fun, trying everything out. So-

Jon Pfeiffer:
You mean people can't benefit from getting a tour of your bedroom?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah. I mean there's so- I would say it's that there were so many people doing bedroom tours. So I tapped into like a niche that wasn't popular on YouTube. No one was really doing it.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. I can say that almost all of my clients started with bedroom doors when they were just starting out

Alivia D’Andrea:
Right, the go-to.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Who is your target audience?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I would say between- it really ranges because I have girls, definitely females. Girls who are like 12 to 15 years old, 16, and then also a lot older, 18 to like 30 years old. I think it's because when I did stretching tutorials, it was a lot of girls who were on dance teams in high school or middle school wanting to become more flexible. And then when I started "The Glow up Diaries," I think it attracted more of a mature audience and I moved into self-improvement content. So, that's probably one of my favorites.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which is a great transition.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Thank you.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Tell me about "The Glow up Diaries."

Alivia D’Andrea:
"The Glow up Diaries" is a raw documentation of my mental and physical transformation. So the story behind that is for a while, actually, when I was doing stretching tutorials, I always said to myself, I said, I'm not creatively satisfied. I don't just want to like teach people something. I want to inspire people. I just want to tell stories. And so in my own life, I just sort of started to have these negative things come up. I developed Cystic Acne senior year in high school. I injured my leg at the time, so I couldn't dance anymore. And also I was getting college admission results. So I was just going through a really tough time in my life, especially the acne. It really hurt my confidence and I felt really alone. So I was, you know what? I want to show people that I'm going to get through this. And because I think that other boys and girls are also struggling. So I just want to show them, I can- you can get through this and not make people feel so alone. So that's kind of why I started "The Glow up Diaries."

Jon Pfeiffer:
Season one started when you were 17?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And season two started when you were 19?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yes. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Plans for season three?

Alivia D’Andrea:
No season three. I thought about it. I was like the only way I would do a season three is if I go through a breakup or something and I'm in the glow up. So that's the only way I would do a season three.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which has another transition. How is it to be as public as you are and date?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I'm going to say, I haven't really dated in a while, but last time I did, I think that- I don't want to say that there are people who would like be more interested in me just because of my channel or something. But I have unfortunately had those encounters, which I don't really even- and so I guess it's just about meeting someone and authentically connecting with them. Yeah, I don't have a...

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you think it's harder to meet people because you do put your life out there?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I will. I actually thinking about it. I did have this one experience when I was living in Taiwan. I lived there for like a year when I was 19 years old and I met this guy and he- We went out together and he sort of like assumed things about me. And so, we would be talking about something and he would say something about me. I'm like, why do you think that he's like, "well, it's pretty obvious from your channel." And I'm like, oh gosh, why are you? Like, that's one side of me. That's not the whole version of me. I think we forget that. Right? We- and especially me being so open about my struggles with my own confidence and things like that. You don't know that when you meet someone. And so for people to know that I struggled, it definitely- it's hard, but I think when it's in the past, it doesn't really effect me. But if you're like going through it in that moment, it's more difficult.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So how- and I'm going to skip ahead a bit because it constituted perfect timing for it. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being, it affects you terribly and 1 being doesn't really bother me. How does criticism affect comments on the channel?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Probably if I were- so earlier this year, I got a lot of criticisms on a "Glow up Diaries" season two, which I was not expecting. And I've never received so much. I think criticism, I always shifted in a positive way. I tried it- for example, earlier this year, when I returned to YouTube, I wasn't so cautious about trigger warnings. And so the criticism I got from that helped me better be a better creator. Hate is a different thing. And that really affected me this year. So I would say earlier this year probably affected me an 8 or 7. Wait, 10 being a lot, right?

Jon Pfeiffer:
10 being a lot.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah, 8 or 7. I think now it's maybe like a 3 or 4 because I'm starting to learn something, which is that I can't keep reading what everybody has to say about me because that's just going to confuse my own beliefs and I have to live my life the way that's best for me. And so I've been learning to sort of channel it out and realize it doesn't hold as much impact as I let it. So maybe now it's like a 3 or a 4.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you read the comments still?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I do love reading comments because it motivates me. I do get a lot- I do have like a very positive Glow up community. So people are so sweet. That's what motivates and drives me. It's like connecting with people. I think I, I started a separate Instagram account that was purely for "The Glow up Diaries." So I sort of just read a lot of comments there. Because everyone is so empowering and supportive. And if they do have criticism, they say it in a way that's they want the best for me, because I've certainly got hate. That's not fun.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I understand all of my clients face that, but I just don't understand who has the time to go on and post negative comments on people's channels?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I know it's really sad.

Jon Pfeiffer:
There are a lot.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Shifting again. What is your biggest challenge when you're creating content ?Take me through your creative process.

Alivia D’Andrea:
I would say I'm still trying to work on it is when you're storytelling there's like so much freedom. With creativity, there is no instruction manual of ABCD. When I was creating tutorials on YouTube, very easy to do those because it's just the same thing. But when you're telling stories, you can start anywhere. And so I would say my biggest challenge is how do I present the story in an engaging and creative way? How do I get certain shots and certain scenes? And it's the way I edit it. So probably editing.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you have somebody helping take the videos?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Help me what?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Take the videos.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Take the videos. Sometimes. Maybe my younger sister. Oh, I have worked with a filmer before, but lately I've just been kind of doing it on my own. If it's in my apartment is probably all me, even out on the street, I'll just take my tripod out there. It's more if- only sometimes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How long does it take you start to finish by the time you conceive of the idea to shoot it, to edit, to edit it and to get it ready to go?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Honestly, I've only focused on "The Glow up Diaries." So that's kind of difficult to answer because "The Glow up Diaries," the way I did it was that I just filmed myself for a very long time. And at the very end I went back and edited it and told the story. So I'm not really sure. It's like so dependent. Maybe I could say- because every video is so different. Some videos requires such deep research that takes me- or like one of my videos. I just remember. Let's see, I did it last year and I had to do a lot of research. I think it took me- it took me a week and I worked on it like from 8:00 AM, till 9:00 PM. I would take little breaks here and there.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Right. Do you ever feel burnt out?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah, I think it comes down. I think burnout comes down to purpose and work habits. I burned out this year because I didn't have a good work ethic and I didn't really instill balance into my life.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When you talk work ethic, you're talking work-life balance.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah. Well, because earlier this year when I started editing "Glow up Diaries" season 2, I basically locked myself in my apartment and just worked on it like 18 hours a day. It was- it got so weird to the point where I would get up just to use the restroom. It would feel weird. I'm like, what am I doing? That's not healthy. So yeah. I think that's why I burned out earlier this year.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Is there a question you wish people would stop asking?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Not really. I don't think I have anything. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When was the first time somebody recognized you?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I was at the airport and I was going- so I had just entered this film festival and my film got chosen. So I was going to San Francisco for the little...What do you call it? Awards. And so this girl came up to me and, and said, hello. So I was like, oh my gosh, it's my- I think at the time I had like 200,000 subscribers.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Have you had an "I've made it" moment?

Alivia D’Andrea:
No, I definitely need to work on celebrating milestones. Even when I hit a million subscribers, it was anti-climatic. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I was just sitting in my room. I was like, oh, okay. A million. Okay. Whatever.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How did you find out?

Alivia D’Andrea:
How did I find out? I was- how did I find out? I was just editing like, oh, well, no. Because I saw, I was at 999,000. So I think I literally, I was just in my college dorm room alone editing my video and then it showed up a million. I was like, oh my gosh. Yay. But yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you consider yourself to be an influencer?

Alivia D’Andrea:
An influencer?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Influencer? Yes.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Okay. And the name has such a negative connotation that I don't really like to associate myself with the negative vibes of it, but I sometimes I feel like influencer could be such like a positive way of seeing it too. It's just depending on how you look at it. I mean, based off of what people have messaged me on Instagram, they said that I inspired them to live a healthy lifestyle. I could say that I have influenced some people. And I think I feel this way because I've been influenced by others. There's certain people that I really look up to and how they influence my behaviors. So yeah. I mean, I want to say yes without all the negative stuff.

Jon Pfeiffer:
The negative baggage. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to start a YouTube channel?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I would say a lot of us- usually it's harder to grow your channel if you're just like starting off sharing your life because people don't really care because they don't know who you are. You have to give them a reason to care. So if you don't really have that personality to sell. You have to have like good ideas or teach people something. Basically don't focus so much focus on adding value to other people's lives. How does your content move people in some way? Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. We're going to go to my version of 73 questions a la Vogue.

Alivia D’Andrea:
All right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What question would you like to know the answer to?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Okay. What comes to mind, but I don't even really care for this as why is the sky blue? I've actually never looked that up, but I'm sure there's something way better, but yeah. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When it is safe to go out COVID-19 is completely a thing of the past. What are the three first things you'd like to do?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I'd like to go to an art museum. I'd like to travel somewhere and probably go to a hot yoga class.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. That would be- it's going to have to be a long time before I go into another hot yoga class. Do you collect anything?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Books, physical books.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What kind of books?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Self and over the place, but mostly self-improvement books. Little bit of literature. Just any books that I like.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you have a favorite?

Alivia D’Andrea:
The last book that sort of changed my life drastically was "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. So yeah. I really love "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson. That was really good as well.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What TV channel?- TV channel doesn't exist that should?

Alivia D’Andrea:
What? TV channel?

Jon Pfeiffer:
That doesn't exist but you wish it did.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Like a TV channel for what? Like?-

Jon Pfeiffer:
Any topic that you would want to watch that's not there. Let me back up. Do you even watch television?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Honestly. No, a little bit, but not really.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How much, how do you consume your media?

Alivia D’Andrea:
How do I consume my media? I do watch quite a bit of YouTube. I do a lot of reading and also what's the other thing? Oh, I love Pinterest. And let's see other thing that oh, I take just like online classes. Like that takes up my day. There's this thing. There's this platform called Masterclass. So you can-

Jon Pfeiffer:
I still have it. It's great.

Alivia D’Andrea:
I love it. So yeah. I just, every time I watch something, I always want to be benefiting in some way. So yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's your favorite movie?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Favorite Movie? Probably "Black Swan."

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's the last movie that made you cry?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Oh gosh. I haven't watched the movie in so long. I can't think, but one that comes to mind that did make me cry was "Hachi: A Dog's Tale." Animal movies always make me cry.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's your guilty pleasure?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Pleasure. Honestly, I don't really know. I feel like-

Jon Pfeiffer:
You need to find one. Yeah. Favorite food?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Probably. I just love basic Chinese food. I think that's just my go-to every time.

Jon Pfeiffer:
If you had a sash- you know a sash? What would it say?

Alivia D’Andrea:
It would say "girl in progress."

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which is the theme from your YouTube description as well.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's ahead for you? What's the next chapter?

Alivia D’Andrea:
After "Glow up Diaries" season 2, it's the Dating Diaries. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So how many dates have you gone on for that so far?

Alivia D’Andrea:
I actually haven't really started. I did go on a date recently, but it wasn't- I'm not really focused on it. I'm trying to finish "Glow up Diaries" season 2 and I'm trying to just like take it one thing at a time.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I saw, I think, it was an Instagram post talking about the Dating Diaries.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Oh yeah. That wasn't a good idea actually. I- because originally I was like, how am I? Because the Glow up is filming my journeys. I'm like, oh, how am I going to fill myself on these dates? And I realized, I'm thinking of a creative way to do it without filming the dates. So, I'm just running through a lot of creative ways to show this without- while making it as authentic as possible. Because I kind of realize if I have the camera, there's no way it's going to be authentic. That's hard.

Jon Pfeiffer:
To get our listeners up to date. What was the general concept that you put out there?

Alivia D’Andrea:
For the dating diaries?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Dating Diaries, yeah.

Alivia D’Andrea:
So originally it was the bachelor vibes kind of thing, where it's if you want to come on a date with me, but I would vlog it—like vlog style. So it's more like a diary form. I think it's just- I ended up going on a date with one guy and he was like, see, this is the interesting thing: he was looking forward to being on it. And I think that there's this weird thing of like, okay, wait, do you actually like me? Or do you just want to be on the series?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Do you have any secret projects you want to tell us about?

Alivia D’Andrea:
Secret projects?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Here's your time to tell us your secret project.

Alivia D’Andrea:
Honestly, I'm just trying to finish season 2. So I don't really have anything at the moment.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So where can people find you on the internet?

Alivia D’Andrea:
You can find me on YouTube, Alivia D'Andrea and on Instagram also, Alivia D'Andrea Twitter and TikTok.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Perfect. Thank you.