Specializing in the dissection of pop culture and how it entwines with political media, Kayla Rosa, or kayla says has curated a distinct image for herself on YouTube. With over 127,000 subscribers, 2500 followers on Instagram, and almost 2500 followers on X, Kayla’s social presence has solidified her place in an ever-transforming discussion. Her humble start originated from analyzing various aspects of RuPaul’s Drag Race and slowly progressed into a diverging collective of content. With successful series such as “How The Internet Fell Out of Love With…” Kayla is committed to delivering content revolving first around entertainment but keeps its basis in the informative. Her primary focus perpetuates conversation while enlisting new perspectives and encouraging her expansive community to get involved as the political and entertainment world continues to shift.
@kayla_rosa on Instagram
Q. How did your passions for journalism and entertainment culture culminate in you starting YouTube?
A. So I went to school for journalism, I went to Emerson College where I got my broadcast journalism degree. My background is in traditional news producing that’s what I was trained to do in school and that’s what I did a lot in my early career. I graduated in 2020 into the pandemic which was not an ideal time to be doing anything, and so, around that time any opportunity for employment that I had in my field pre-pandemic had kind of just dried up.
So, I was like, “Ok I’m kind of sitting at home in my parents’ house with nothing to do” and I wanted a way to kind of utilize these skills just because I had spent so much money learning them. YouTube was something I always wanted to do just because I grew up in that era. I was watching people on YouTube, I’m older Gen Z but I think that was the first generation that really was like raised on YouTube and I was like “ok I’ve always wanted to try this if I don’t try it now, I’m, never gonna try it.”
So I started in 2020, I made a couple videos once a month, here or there, and it didn’t really pick up until a couple months later when I made a video about RuPaul’s Drag Race, and then from there things just kind of took off. It was not an immediate overnight success. It was a very steady process but that’s kind of how it all came together and through that, I never let go of my journalism skills. It kind of comes in handy with what I do every day.
Q. In addition to YouTube, you encourage your audience to connect with you on other social media platforms such as X or Instagram. How does a well-rounded social presence help expand your reach?
A. When I first started I was so scared of people knowing me publicly that I didn’t have any separate social media for my channel. I had a cartoon avatar and no one knew who I was cause I thought at the time people didn’t care who I was they just wanted to hear what I had to say about XYZ topic. Over time, I realized, “Oh a lot of these people are actually here for me, If I want to take this to the next level, I have to be able to connect with them in some other way.”
So, I made a separate Twitter for my channel and I got banned twice. Now I have kind of a big presence on there. Instagram I’ve always had and I’ve kind of opened it up to my followers as well and I’ve had people connect with me on there. I think it just gives people an opportunity to get to know you outside of the videos you curate for your algorithm every day.
Whether it’s intentional or not, that can lead to that being different than how you want to present yourself. I don’t post everything about my life but I post occasionally about what I’m watching or what I’m doing and I get to see what other people are talking about. That really helps me with my videos too, cause a lot of what I do is response content to what people are talking about.
Q. A lot of your videos center around pop culture as well as the intersectionality of contemporary politics and entertainment media. What is your process for balancing these topics so effectively?
A. When I first started, you know, I was a local news producer. I worked for CBS, I worked for NBC, and I was inundated with the politics of the day constantly. That’s not what I did on my channel at first and then it became like the more I talked about pop culture the more I was like, “Well pop culture informs so much of the politics of the day and vice versa.” There’s politics in everything. The more I kind of went down this road of taking this channel seriously, the more I felt that I couldn’t ignore that.
Now it’s easier for me because I don’t produce news anymore, so I kind of have less of a leash on me than I did. It used to be a conflict where I didn’t want to say something and have my employer be like- you know there’s a conflict there. Now that I don’t have that, I feel like it’s something I can lend my skills to in the sense that I used to be a news person and I can very much see where things tie together.
For example, the Blake Lively thing, that’s not just about an isolated incident of a Colleen Hoover book turned into a movie. It’s also about Amber Heard and it’s about defamation, and women in the public eye and there’s so much of a political context to that. I think there are some channels on Youtube that are more concerned with going to the drama, and the tea, and that’s what their capabilities move them to do. But because I have the skillset I try to employ that as much as possible.
Q. A lot of people know you from your “How The Internet Fell Out of Love With…” series. How was this series conceptualized?
A. So, I did that as a one-off title, I think my first one was [about] Mindy Kaling. I didn’t at first conceptualize it as a series that just felt like the right kind of title for the video I was going for there. Then a couple months later, it had to be like five months later, I did the one about how the internet fell out of love with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and that like absolutely blew up. That was one of the first times I ever had a true non-RuPaul’s Drag Race video get super popular and I was like “Ok maybe there is something here. Maybe there’s something about this title, there’s something about this format and this cadence that really resonates with people.”
The thing about that series is I do videos very quickly but those do take a lot of time because I’m not just talking about the discourse of the day. It’s very much like an entire period of time of a public figure and so that’s why I’ve sort of limited that to one a month. But it’s worked out because it’s something that I think people look forward to. It’s what people know me for. For example, I went back to my college with my boyfriend a couple weeks ago and somebody who was there who was working came up to me and was like, “Oh my god, how the internet fell out of love, I watch it with my girlfriend all the time!”
It’s just become a thing associated with me. Not many people on YouTube have that just because a lot of YouTube titles are like, “X situation is crazy.” I’m happy I don’t have to follow that format and that I’m recognized for another thing. So I’m glad that it works out as a monthly thing that people look forward to, people suggest videos for me all the time. It’s become like a meme. There’s a meme that circles on Instagram all the time that’s like, “I can’t wait for how the internet fell out of love with Taylor Swift.” It’s a weird thing that that’s the thing I’m associated with, but I’m proud of a lot of videos that I’ve made in that series and I’m happy that people like them.
Q. What has been your favorite video you’ve made to date?
A. I think it’s probably my Baby Reindeer video that I did in April of last year. It was a video where I used a personal narrative in the beginning where I talked about this one experience that I had when I worked in news, and I started to weave this whole kind of script that I wrote. From there, I was able to talk about the controversy with that show in a meaningful way and tie it back to my own experience and that’s not something I get to do often.
Just because I feel like sometimes and I’m trying to get away from this, where people come to me and they’re like, “Ok tell me everything there is to know in fifteen minutes, explain this to me.” But that was [a video] where I really got to get into my own personal feelings about a thing and I really love that one. It’s probably my favorite video I made last year and it’s probably my favorite video I’ve made ever.
Q. With the new year just starting, what are some topics you’re really excited to cover on your channel?
A. This year I’m trying to get away from the quick drama-explainer videos and get more into the politics of the day type of videos. My Mr. Beast video that I just did was a good example of trying to test that out and it’s doing really well. Also, a while ago, I did a livestream with my boyfriend after the election and it was very well received. Clearly, people want more of a harder edge from me for certain things. Obviously, I’ll still do entertainment and pop culture controversies and things like that.
What I’m really interested in right now is I want to tackle Facebook and the Mark Zuckerberg AI-slop world. I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there. I would love to do a video of the internet’s perception of Luigi Mangione I was planning on doing that and then YouTube was like, “We’re gonna demonetize anyone who talks about that.” Hopefully, it calms down soon so I can do something about that. Like I said in my Mr. Beast video, inequality is the defining story of America right now and I’m excited to dive into a lot of the topics surrounding that.