9 Uplifting Books by My Favorite YouTubers

An unflinching and endearing memoir from LGBTQ+ advocate Jackson Bird about how, through a childhood of gender mishaps and an awkward adolescence, he finally sorted things out and came out as a transgender man in his mid-twenties.

When Jackson Bird was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone in the world with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and having been raised a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Jackson didn’t share this thought with anyone because he didn’t think he could share it with anyone. Growing up in Texas in the 1990s, he had no transgender role models. He barely remembers meeting anyone who was openly gay, let alone being taught that transgender people existed outside of punchlines.

Today, Jackson is a writer, YouTuber, and LGBTQ+ advocate living openly and happily as a transgender man. So how did he get here? In this remarkable, educational, and uplifting memoir, Jackson chronicles the ups and downs of growing up gender confused. Illuminated by journal entries spanning childhood to adolescence to today, he candidly recalls the challenges he faced while trying to sort out his gender and sexuality, and worrying about how to interact with the world. With warmth and wit, Jackson also recounts how he navigated the many obstacles and quirks of his transition––like figuring out how to have a chest binder delivered to his NYU dorm room and having an emotional breakdown at a Harry Potter fan convention. From his first shot of testosterone to his eventual top surgery, Jackson lets you in on every part of his journey—taking the time to explain trans terminology and little-known facts about gender and identity along the way. Through his captivating prose, Bird not only sheds light on the many facets of a transgender life, but also demonstrates the power and beauty in being yourself, even when you’re not sure who “yourself” is.

Part memoir, part educational guide, Sorted is a frank, humorous narrative of growing up with some unintended baggage.

From the internet phenomenon whose aesthetic has influenced millions of young people around the world comes an undated planner to help you keep your life in order your way.

Emma Chamberlain is a lot of things. The Atlantic calls her “The Most Important YouTuber Today.” W Magazine calls her “The Most Interesting Girl on YouTube.” But what does she call herself? A girl in desperate need of The Ideal Planner!

Until now, it seemed like every planner was for “that perfect girl.” But what if you’re just muddling through? What if you’re kind of weird, a little obsessed, definitely silly, love art and fashion, and sometimes accidentally skip days or weeks or months in your planner but don’t want those pages to go to waste? Emma looked everywhere but could not find such a planner. So she decided to make one herself and share it with the world.

With guided journal pages, custom mood boards, puzzles, games, lists, corny quotes, cool designs, and silly messages from Emma, it’s a diary, scrapbook, guided journal, coloring book, and planner all in one. And because you fill in the dates you want, it never becomes outdated.

Lindsay Ellis’s channel focuses on video essays on topics ranging from Disney movies to product placement, with her latest one covering the protest music of the Bush era. Also, her three-part docuseries The Hobbit Duology earned her a nomination in the 2019 Hugo Awards category of the Best Related Work. Axiom’s End is not the traditional “YouTuber book,” as it is a science fiction novel Lindsay began working on ten years ago before she rose to YouTube stardom. In the fall of 2007, protagonist Cora Sabino is attempting to stay out of the spotlight her whistleblower father created after he revealed that the U.S. government had made contact with an extraterrestrial presence. As Cora further gathers information about this alien existence, she realizes that the best way to uncover the truth is to not act as a whistleblower herself, but as an intermediary between mankind and the extraterrestrial.

At this point, Hank Green and his brother, John, are practically YouTube royalty. The two catapulted to fame in YouTube’s early days with their Vlogbrothers channel, and have since co-founded VidCon, a conference featuring YouTube’s most popular creators, as well as Crash Course, the educational channel now ubiquitous in classrooms. Until recently, John was the sole Green brother who wrote books, having penned YA classics such as The Fault in Our Stars. However, 2018 saw the release of Hank’s first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, a science fiction novel about a woman named April May who receives viral acclaim on social media after discovering an unknown alien robot presence. This year its highly anticipated sequel was published, out now! A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor sees friends Andy, Maya, and Miranda reeling from the disappearance of both the robots and April May, and expands upon its predecessor’s commentary of how we treat the unknown.

New York Times bestselling author Gabbie Hanna delivers everything from curious musings to gut-wrenching confessionals in her long-awaited sophomore collection of illustrated poetry.

This edition includes a collection of uncomfortably honest personal essays about Gabbie’s childhood and relationships.

In this visually thrilling installment of the inner-workings of Gabbie’s mind, we’re taken on a journey of self-loathing, self-reflection, and ultimately, self-acceptance through deeply metaphorical imagery, chilling twists on child-like rhymes, and popular turns of phrase turned on their heads. Through raw, provocative tidbits, Dandelion explores what it means to struggle with a declining mental health in a world where mental health is both stigmatized and trivialized. The poems range from topics of rage and despair to downright silliness, so if you don’t know whether to laugh or cry, just laugh until you cry.

The “brilliantly wry” (Lena Dunham) and “lovably awkward” (Mindy Kaling) New York Times bestseller from the creator of HBO’s Insecure.

In this universally accessible New York Times bestseller named for her wildly popular web series, Issa Rae—“a singular voice with the verve and vivacity of uncorked champagne” (Kirkus Reviews)—waxes humorously on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits and black as cool.

I’m awkward—and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right. Where do I start?

Being an introvert (as well as “funny,” according to the Los Angeles Times) in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But when Issa Rae, the creator of the Shorty Award-winning hit series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, is that introvert—whether she’s navigating love, the workplace, friendships, or “rapping”—it sure is entertaining. Now, in this New York Times bestselling debut collection written in her witty and self-deprecating voice, Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is a book no one—awkward or cool, black, white, or other—will want to miss.

In her first-ever (sort of) memoir, the beloved actor and YouTube sensation gets personal about everything from mental health to drunken debaucheries.

As an only child raised in a town of less than 8,000 people and without a Starbucks in sight, Meghan Rienks has always been pretty good at entertaining herself. Then one day—cue the dramatic voiceover—her life changed forever.

On June 12th, 2010, Meghan was diagnosed with mononucleosis. Mono is basically just a really bad case of the flu, right? Wrong. To a party crazed sixteen-year-old, mono is social suicide. More than anything, it’s just plain boring. So, Meghan opened up her 2009 MacBook, used the webcam for something other than a bad Andy Warhol–style photobooth session, and recorded her first YouTube video. Since then, Meghan has shared the ups and downs of her life with the internet, documenting her teenage years for the whole world to see.

Now that she’s (mostly) through her awkward stage, Meghan’s here to tell you that it gets better. You’re not alone in the thoughts you think. Sometimes a bad hair day feels worse than a punch in the gut and asking a boy out seems about as difficult as achieving that perfect dewy glow. But despite what you’ve been told, your problems are not unique, your struggles have taken form in everybody else’s life too, and somebody else has felt the way you feel right at this very moment.

You’re not special. But you’re also not alone on the bumpy road to adulthood.

Never Have I Ever begins with Devi wanting to change her image and appear less nerdy and more cool among her high school friends. She devises a “rebrand” plan for herself and her friends to enhance their social status, by selecting “attainable yet status-enhancing people” for them to date. Devi is determined that by dating people above their social strata, they will become cooler by association. So we think she could learn a thing or two from Lilly Singh’s How to Be a Bawse. Like Devi, growing up, Lilly was an awkward South Asian girl trying to find her place in the world. Lilly was able to play on her strengths of humor, intellect, and dazzling personality to develop her online persona as a YouTuber. Lilly Singh is a true BAWSE, as she displays in her collection of inspirational essays, and Devi could be too if she could learn to embrace her true self instead of trying to morph into someone she thinks would make her more popular. Because as Devi tries to shift into this alternate persona, she burns some bridges and risks losing her friends. via GIPHY

Ever since I watched “Keith Eats Everything at Olive Garden,” I have been hooked on the Try Guys. Whether they’re photoshopping one another in crazy scenarios, or attempting to replicate a celebrity’s makeup, their exuberance and positivity make the Try Guys my favorite YouTube channel. What appeals to audiences about the Try Guys is their willingness to try anything; in fact, they are built on fearlessness, having left their jobs at BuzzFeed to start an independent company and channel. In The Hidden Power of F*cking Up, Keith, Ned, Zach, and Eugene talk about overcoming fears in their own lives and give practical advice to readers. From becoming (mostly) vegan to developing closer relationships with family, the Try Guys show that it is when we embrace embarrassment and overcome self-doubt that we gain the courage to try anything.