Author: Courtney Shek

My Bucket List and Random Thoughts | Pages 15 and 55 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
Today I am here with another Pointless Book blog post! This time we are making a bucket list and writing down whatever is on our minds. Interesting.
If you guys wanna see the video where I filled in these pages as always it is below:

So the first page that I filled in was my bucket list, and I’ve never made a bucket list before so this was interesting. And if I’m honest, it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to write here. I have no idea what kind of things I want to accomplish by the time I’m older…I guess just as long as I accomplish something I’ll be okay. But this is what I managed to come up with…

In case you can’t read it the bucket list reads:
  1. To travel the world
  2. To publish a book
  3. To code my own website from scratch
  4. To go on a huge shopping spree Blair Waldorf style
  5. To attend vidcon or any other YouTube convention
  6. To visit my favourite social media headquarters
  7. To play a part in the next big technology innovation
  8. To visit the “Friends” set in Hollywood
  9. To meet one of my favourite celebrities
  10. To earn enough money to be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle, not having to worry about bills etc.
I don’t think any of these goals are unreasonable…I mean I feel like these are honestly things I could do…well maybe not play a part in the next big technology innovation, but I do want to create a cool gadget or something. It’d be fun.
The next page I chose to do was something less serious and that was page 55 to write whatever was on your mind until you get to the bottom of the page and this is what my page ended up looking like:
So for those of you who don’t know I actually mainly write joint up…normally when I fill in the Pointless Book or am revising I don’t because it makes it easier to read but any other time it’s usually joint writing.
And in case you can’t read that here’s what it says:
So I am currently filming a video and decided this was the page I was going to fill in for it and I have no idea what I am going to write to fill this space. This is probably the most I have written since I went on summer holiday and it feels weird. At least my handwriting is okay. Don’t know how I’ll cope when I got university and have to write loads. I mean literally my hand hurts haha. Not used to holding a pen for so long. I definitely prefer to type things. Also currently listening to Taylor Swift which is nice. And of course, I can write her name really nicely compared to the rest of this which is a mess. Oh well. I guess I needed this I really should get back to handwriting things. At least sometimes. And omg here we are at the bottom of the page hallelujah! 🙂
Sometimes it is really hard to write down what is going on in your head because you think faster than you write so it ends up looking a mess like my page did haha but it’s fine I think my writing could have been a lot worse and that’s because I have seen it a lot worse.
And so that is it for this Pointless Book blog post, I hope that you guys liked it. I’m not sure if I’ll come to complete everything on my bucket list but if I do, I’ll be sure to tell you. 🙂
~ Courtney x

Results and The Future

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Well, guys…
I did it.
I passed my A-Levels and I am going to university.
Who would have thought?
Well actually everyone I know. Everyone had so much faith in me haha. I also had faith in myself. I mean I know I worked hard. My mock grades gave me a lot of hope and so I knew that I would at least pass.
I didn’t just pass, I exceeded what I thought I would do. I never know exactly what I’m going to get. I just knew I’d never get my mock grades they were too high.
For those of you who are wondering what my mock grades were they were 2 A*s and an A. I didn’t actually get that but if I had I’m sure you would have heard about it haha.
My actual results were more realistic. I just always feel weird sharing them with people. I don’t know why either, it’s not like they are bad by any means I just don’t feel like it’s other people’s place to know. Other than my friends and family.
So I don’t think I’ll share my real results.
Y’all just need to know I’m going in the right direction.
So, it is now 8 in the morning, I haven’t slept and I’m just…content.
I don’t know what else to say I mean I know I have to be down at the school in an hour to get my paper results – not the actual certificate but just the piece of paper that says what you got because, it’s tradition.
I’ll see my friends, we will go and celebrate. We can enjoy the rest of our summer without having to worry about the future. We have a plan. And it’s great.
I’m so nervous about university, though…It’s going to be so different from secondary school. I mean I have been doing the whole school system thing for 14 years of my life and so to do anything else seems strange…
I know I’ll adapt, but initially it just seems scary. It is also exciting, I mean it will be good to meet people who have the same interests as me and to begin focusing on learning about something I’m interested in.
It’ll be exciting to be in a new learning environment and to have that “university experience”.
I guess I just have mixed emotions about it now. I mean for the longest time I didn’t even know if this was something I really wanted. Being thrown into the process of applying to university and having to choose a course wasn’t exactly what I thought. It stressed me out a lot knowing that this one choice would determine my whole life.
Although as time went on I knew this was the right decision. I know what I want to achieve in the future and this will be something that will help me along the way. I know not everyone chooses university as their next option after school but for some, it is the right choice. But that’s a choice I needed to make on my own, I had to know it was right for me and not right because someone pushed me into it. And I think that’s the most important thing about this whole thing, your future has to be your choice, no one else’s.
So the future does indeed look bright.
I have no idea how university will actually go for me. If I’ll love it or hate it or just be okay with it. I just know it’s where I’m going for the next four years. So I better saddle up.
Wish me luck!
~ Courtney x

Game Over, Charles – My Pretty Little Liars Summer Finale Reaction

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Um…what?

So…last night I watched the episode and I filmed my reaction immediately, like didn’t even really check on social media didn’t really have time to let things sink in and I was kind of just…in a daze. Trying to process everything that happened. If you guys wanna check out the raw reaction to the episode check out the video below:


It is now the next day and I have had time to process everything, watch the episode again and go on social media to get the general thoughts on the episode.
Here’s the deal, PLL fans are not happy. And I can agree with a lot of them, I can see why people are angry, I have seen the lengths people have went to make their own theories and I can see how they’d be disappointed with the real thing.
I have to say I’m only like half disappointed with the episode. I mean I was definitely shocked when A turned around and it turned out to be CeCe. I was not expecting that. I was so sure A was a guy that I just…kind of shut down the idea that he could be a girl. 
In fact, to me the whole transgender thing was a surprise. I didn’t think Pretty Little Liars would take that route. Mainly just because I didn’t see that being the style of the show, I’m fine with the way they went with the story but I just wasn’t expecting it. I saw a lot of theories about Charles being transgender, but a lot of people thought that Charles was originally a girl wanting to be a boy and not the other way around.
One thing I am definitely not okay with was Sara being Red Coat/Black Widow. And I know I’m not the only one. I said in my last blog post I didn’t want Sara to be Red Coat. She was only introduced this season and there is literally no motive behind why Sara was doing this or why CeCe chose her at all. I just…I don’t get it. Why Sara. She’s so…annoying. I really don’t like her so the fact this happened was just not okay with me.
But can we please talk about when Emily punched Sara? Because that was one of my favourite things about this episode haha.
I am also not sure why everyone is okay with what CeCe did to them. Like, she almost killed them and tortured them for years and yet they seem to be pretty willing to let it go. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be. I can understand why Alison would, but I don’t with the other girls. CeCe may have said she loved all of them, but I just don’t see how she did.
One thing we were promised is that we would feel sorry for A. And I sort of do feel sorry for CeCe but at the same time that doesn’t make what she did okay. 
I also don’t understand the whole Mona and CeCe in Radley thing. I mean I understand CeCe agreed to play the game with Mona so that she could get out of Radley but why did she love hearing so much about the girls.
Did she really only punish the girls because they seemed happy Alison was gone?
And what are the odds of Bethany picking that yellow outfit to wear to escape Radley on the same night Alison was wearing it?
Because Bethany ends up stealing CeCe’s clothes and going after Mrs D for having an affair with her dad and so CeCe follows her and hits her with a rock. But that turns out to be Alison…so CeCe hit Alison.
Which leads us to…Mona killing Bethany. Um…what? I’m sorry, but there were just so many people in that general area that night Alison disappeared. I mean seriously can we just get a full episode with everything they said happened that one night. I need to know how everything played out. From the barn to Alison going to the kissing rock to Bethany getting murdered and Alison being buried alive. What really happened?
One thing I have to applaud Pretty Little Liars for is that they did give us a lot of answers. I know they may not have been the answers everyone wanted, but they definitely gave us more in that one episode than they ever did in the rest of this season. So yay for them finally following through on something haha.
Now moving onto the flash forward of five years…
Alison writing on a chalkboard…she is Mrs something…so is she married? If she is, every Emison shipper is gonna be heartbroken and we all know it. I kind of thought she just changed her name for safety reasons because at first I didn’t notice she wrote Mrs. Also she’s a teacher! Did we expect that to be Alison’s profession?
Also, he is coming for Alison so…you know someone new is after them. What else is new? Haha.
I’m excited about the time jump mainly because they are no longer going to be in high school. Which is good because they can’t pass for high school students for much longer, well maybe Sasha Pieterse can but that’s because she’s 19.
And of course, there are things that this episode never really answered…like who killed Mrs DiLaurentis, or if the mums ever made it out of the basement…these are things we all need to know. Hopefully, we find out in the upcoming episodes…
As for who I originally thought was A…well, I was kind of jumping on the Wren train with a lot of people but as we got clues revealed to us last night I made a spider diagram and CeCe’s name was on there!


I also made notes during the episode so I remembered what to talk about haha…it’s a little bit of a mess…



So what did you think of the Pretty Little Liars summer finale? Did you love it or hate it? Let me know in the comments below!
~ Courtney x

A Work in Progress Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,

Today we are reviewing A Work in Progress by Connor Franta.

Honestly, not my favourite YouTuber book. I feel like Connor’s was just…missing something for me. I feel like there is so much more we could learn about him.
However, his book was very…what I like to call “Tumblr” which means it’s very artsy and inspirational. These are not necessarily bad things, though.
His style of writing was more formal than most YouTuber books, it wasn’t as conversational as others yet he was still able to allow his personality to shine through in some parts of the book with his side comments. Very similar to the way he talks in his videos.

To me, Connor’s book makes him seem a lot older than he really is. The way he told his stories and the lessons he has learned through life really came across in an older and wiser way than most. I enjoyed learning about how he sees the world and what he takes from his experiences in life.
Throughout Connor’s book, there are lots of photos that he had taken and these were presented a lot differently than other photos in YouTuber books. They are sprinkled throughout the chapter and show off Connor’s photography skills and his creative style. I think that they help to illustrate his chapters in a very simple and beautiful way.

If anything, Connor’s book seriously made me think about life. Which, was kind of a shock to me. At the end of his book, he recites the words of his Life Doesn’t Wait video and it really just made me think about life. Am I doing what I want to be doing? It was kind of a wake-up call at 2 a.m. I remember watching the video before and thinking about it….but it really just…made me wonder if I am doing what I want to be doing in life.
At the end of the day, I think I’m doing what I want to be doing. I mean, it’s kind of hard to really decide right now because this time in my life is as stressful as it is but I know I’m headed in the right direction and that’s a good start.
To go back to Connor’s book, I think what I really would have loved were more stories. All of Connor’s stories he told were very short and he was more about making the point of what he learned from these experiences rather than the experience itself. Which, I think is fine, if that’s what you were looking for in a book. But for me, I mostly pick up a YouTuber book for the chance to know more about the YouTuber.
Plus, I am sad that Connor didn’t really talk about his time with his collaboration channel Our Second Life or really much about YouTube at all.
I think it’s interesting to see the different directions YouTubers take with their books though because even if I wasn’t fully happy with Connor’s book I do think that it was great that he stuck to his style of writing and creating. I think that’s one of the most important things.
It’s not as if this book was completely different from Connor’s style of videos or anything else he has created. So maybe I shouldn’t be that surprised with what the book contained. It’s just always interesting to see how much a person will share with you in their books or in their videos.
Overall I thought the book was good, and I definitely think there were things I could relate to in Connor’s book such as his fear of missing out and that there are a lot of things I can learn from Connor and his experiences.
I think Connor is one of the youngest YouTubers that has currently brought out a book and I think for a debut novel it was amazing. I am excited to see if Connor will write more books in the future, maybe with more stories, maybe with more lessons he has learned in life. Who knows? I’m just excited to see what he’ll come up with next.
~ Courtney x

Drawing on my Head? | Pages 82, 83, 96 & 97 | The Pointless Book 2

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I am here with another Pointless Book 2 blog post! Although I have to say that the YouTube video to go along with this blog post is probably more interesting than the actual blog post…

The first pages I decided to do in this video were pages 82 and 83 and those were the “book on your head challenge” basically I had to put the book on my head and draw some pictures…totally easy right? Haha nope. You actually have no idea where you are meant to be drawing and I know I was filming myself so I could have cheated but I tried not to and so…this is what I ended up with.

As you guys can see, I’m a really great artist haha.
The next two pages that I decided to do were pages 96 and 97, again another artsy thing however this time it was a lot easier because it was a paint by numbers! So there was no way I was gonna mess that one up, unless I read a number wrong and coloured something in the wrong colour but luckily that didn’t happen and we ended up with a really nice picture at the end.

What I found with doing the paint by numbers is that, it was actually really relaxing. It took me about half an hour to do the whole thing, and I know you wouldn’t think it would because it’s colouring in but it took a while and it was a really nice way to spend the night…I don’t know, maybe I just long for the days when I was 10 and colouring was an acceptable thing to do in your spare time. Although, I have seen these “adult colouring books” now and I think I’m going to have to buy one for myself sometime, we’ll see.
And so, that brings us to the end of another Pointless Book 2 blog post. I hope that you guys liked it, let me know in the comments below what you thought of my drawings, and be honest. It’s okay, I can handle it.
~ Courtney x

I, Justine An Analog Memoir Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
So I am back with another book review, this time iJustine’s, a.k.a Justine Ezarik’s, book I, Justine. Before we get into the actual review can we please talk about the title of this book? Genius. I know Justine was having trouble with naming her book at the time but I think this title is so smart and just so…Justine.

Another thing I wanted to talk about before I get into the actual review is that Justine’s book is a hardcover, and underneath the paper cover of the book it has iJustine’s signature, which is also on her limited edition So So Happy hoodies. When I saw this I freaked out because I thought it was a really great addition to the book.

My iJustine Limited Edition So So Happy Hoodie

Okay, so moving onto the actual review part…
I was really surprised when I started to read this, normally when you read a YouTuber book they are written in a very casual and conversational style, however, this one was not. But I’m not saying that as a bad thing, I think that as an older YouTuber (not throwing shade, I promise, she is older than other YouTubers I watch), Justine was smart to write her book in a more formal sort of way. I know that online, Justine comes across as silly, and energetic and pretty much crazy sometimes, and that doesn’t always translate over well when writing a book so I think it was better for her to write in a more formal tone. Besides, it was really nice to see another side of Justine, the side she doesn’t show to the internet.
Of course, it wouldn’t be iJustine without the occasional tweet thrown in there or emoji. I really liked that even though she didn’t choose a casual form of writing for her book, she was still able to let her personality shine through. I would also love to know how long it took them to dig up those tweets because I know you can download your Twitter archive now but still…it must’ve taken forever.

Something that I really enjoyed about this book was learning about how Justine became iJustine. I mean I discovered Justine back in 2011 when she had already pretty much established herself and her brand so I had no idea how she ever came to be. And I think it’s a really great story, as with most YouTubers, Justine didn’t know exactly what she was doing when it came to YouTube but she did know she wanted to be involved with the internet. This is something that I really related to, because I too, love the internet and social media so reading about Justine’s passion for technology and the internet I really enjoyed.
Again, with most YouTuber books this does help you understand a lot more about the person behind the camera. I know that Justine and many other content creators online often get accused of having it easy and that they don’t even really work and get paid. However, if you’ve ever tried to make videos yourself, or read any YouTuber book then you know that is not the case. These people have worked incredibly hard to get to where they are today and I have to say that Justine is one of those people who has probably worked the hardest to establish herself in the way that she has.
In her book, she talks of how she used to work for a lot of start-up technology companies and would essentially be working for nothing because these companies couldn’t afford to pay her. She also talks about how she took on lifecasting, which is the broadcasting of your life 24/7 with a camera on your head, I mean talk about commitment.
Another thing Justine talks about in her book is her love of Apple products and the time she almost met Steve Jobs. I really loved learning about how she actually came to love Apple and how it has inspired her to be the person she is today. As someone who has many obsessions, I can understand how she could come across a slightly crazed fan to Apple. I just think that it’s crazy Apple has never reached out to work with Justine before, I feel like she’d be there best spokesperson, even if she is a little overly obsessed.
One thing that I think Justine talks about more than other YouTubers have is the backlash she has received online over the years and it definitely makes you more wary of the things you share with people online. As someone who had been lifecasting her life for months, Justine has come into her fair share of haters online but to read how far people have actually gone as a “prank” is really scary. I couldn’t ever imagine being in that position. I think it really opens up your eyes to how terrible people can really be and that Internet hate should really be taken as a serious thing because even though people say it doesn’t mean anything…it really can lead to something worse.
Overall I really enjoyed reading Justine’s book because I got a sense of what the Internet used to be like, a time before YouTube was a major website and Twitter was only a start up company. It’s kind of crazy to see how far we’ve come in such a short time. I also enjoyed reading about Justine’s love of technology and how that has driven her and her career today.
I think the reason why I enjoyed Justine’s book more than a lot of other YouTuber books is because I feel like I could really relate to her. I mean no, I’ve never coded and created a whole website in one afternoon out of hatred for someone but I also love technology and social media and I can understand the want to share that with people, even so far as to pressure people into joining social media. If you’re passionate about something I feel like you just want to share it with people so that they too can also be passionate about it and maybe understand a little bit more about why you love it so much.
And if anything, I really see Justine as a huge inspiration. I think she’s one of the reasons why I feel so okay with loving social media and technology. She also really inspires me to keep doing what I love even if it doesn’t start to pay off immediately. I mean, this book just opened me up to a whole new understanding of how the internet used to be and where we are now, it’s crazy to think that Twitch.tv, a website for streaming games started out as a lifecasting website. I had no idea…
So I would definitely recommend this book because it’s so different from other YouTuber books, and it really does show you the reality of what it’s like to live almost your whole life on the internet, it isn’t as glamorous as most people would believe.
~ Courtney x

Happy August!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
Pinch, punch, first of the month. Welcome to August.
It feels so weird that it’s August now. I mean to me, July lasted forever. Which I know isn’t the case for a lot of people but because I spent a lot of time at home during July the days sort of just went on forever.
One thing I will say though is, I’m glad my months don’t feel like they are going by too fast. I mean…I like when life goes slowly. I am so not ready for everything coming up in the next few months. So maybe time going slow isn’t such a bad thing.
Anyway, I just wanted to make a blog post welcoming the new month and talking about the things I am looking forward to in this month…
The first thing is VEDA – a.k.a vlogging every day in August. Now this only applies to some vloggers out there, but I enjoy when YouTubers take on the challenge of vlogging every day, because it’s not easy. I mean…I’ve tried and even though my life wasn’t that exciting to vlog, it was still a lot of work. I guess people don’t realise but to film your day and then upload it to the computer and edit it and then upload it to YouTube is a long process. So I definitely applaud those that do it on a regular basis and I, of course, enjoy watching their adventures.
Another thing I love about August YouTube-wise is Auguest which is Tyler Oakley’s month of collaborations. I always enjoy these because they are always so much fun and always look like a good time. I love when any YouTubers collab, especially my favourites because it just always looks so fun and enjoyable. I mean, that’s why I would love to have YouTube friends to collab with. Because, they understand what it’s like to be a YouTuber and also they’re always up for being weird on camera.
Other things to look forward to this month are…results day. Which probably doesn’t sound like anything to look forward to but I only look forward to it because that’s the day we find out if we passed our exams. It’s also the day we find out if we’re going to university so there’s a lot riding on it. I’m nervous but excited at the same time. It’s just something we’ve all gotta do.
Of course, what comes after results day is usually some celebration/party type thing with your friends which is always nice. I mean especially when you get to catch up with those friends you actually haven’t seen all summer…
Something else I look forward to in August that isn’t exactly to do with real life, are the fireworks shows in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Every Sunday in August they have fireworks shows and I really enjoy playing the game during that time. Back in 2013, I used to always play during the fireworks shows with my friends and it was really nice to just sit and catch up with them. And by friends, I mean my internet Animal Crossing friends. That summer I made a lot of them and I thought it was really fun, finally I had met a group of people who loved Animal Crossing just as much as I did!
And as always, I hope to spend some more time with my friends, mainly because we’re all headed to university in September so it’ll be a while before I see any of them again after this summer. I don’t know what we plan to do though, but I’m still hoping we get some good days out and things like that.
I don’t know what else August holds for me since I don’t really ever have proper summer plans, but these are just some things I know for sure are happening this month. Hopefully, some more exciting things happen too but I guess we’ll see.
~ Courtney x

Pretty Little Liars Summer of Answers So Far…

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Oh my God.

What.
New characters.
I’m done.
So last night I sat down to film a video talking about Pretty Little Liars so far this season, and it turned into a 40-minute video. Turns out I have a lot of feelings about this season of PLL. Now I’m not going to sit and write about everything I talked about in the video because that would be a waste of time, but I just wanted to highlight some things I talked about in the video here. And of course if you guys wanna check out the video it is below:

Onto the things I want to highlight:
Sara Harvey – is she Red Coat? I don’t know…people on Tumblr and some of my friends think she might be. But I don’t want her to be. I mean I understand where everyone is coming from because it would finally explain why she was being so weird all the time around the girls but…I don’t think she is. I feel like it’s the easy way out for them to make Sara Red Coat and so…I hope it’s someone else. Even though I already thought we knew who Red Coat was…but according to the last episode we do not.
Mona – I want more Mona on the show. I just love her. Also can we please talk about Mona and Mike? I ship it. #M&M
Leslie – What even was her deal? I bet we never see her again.
Emily’s Habitat for Humanity friend – Potential new love interest for Ezra? I hope not… #Ezria forever.
Alison – Her feelings towards Charles, I kind of understand but at the same time I don’t. Charles tried to kill you, why do you feel bad for him? I mean…I know by the time we know Charles’s whole story I’ll be feeling sorry for him too but until then can we just focus on catching him…then we can decide what we want to happen to him.
Charles – Remember when we went through that episode where we thought he might be dead, but then he turned around and was like lol jk I’m alive and coming home for a birthday party. Yeah…hated that. Also, Charles is not Jason’s twin but rather his older brother…and Alison and Jason have met him before because Mrs D took them to his birthday party one year…random…I wonder what other events they have been to of Charles’s that they didn’t know of?
Rhys – He’s so not Charles. I’m sorry, but the show can’t do that to me…nope. He’s good looking, though, I’ll give him that. People on Tumblr seem to think he’s there to frame Jason….hmm…I guess we’ll see.
Clark – Why are him and Rhys working together? What is their deal? I imagine that Clark had something to do with sneaking Rhys into the gallery to swap out the pictures in the last episode, but who knows?
Lorenzo and Alison – Do we ship it? I liked them together, thought it was nice. However it seems it’s very over between them so…it was nice while it lasted.
Ella and Ashley – Yes! Mum power! It’s very rare we get to see the parents on this show interact with each other, but I kind of love it. Someone on Twitter suggested the mums get their own spin-off show and I would totally watch it. I mean…they’re pretty great.
The last thing I wanted to mention in this blog post is this Facebook post in which Pretty Little Liars promised us we’d get the answers we’ve been waiting for all summer:

If we get all those answers in one episode I think I might die. I mean I’ve waited about five years for this (I started watching PLL about two seasons in) they better finally give us some REAL ANSWERS.
But at the same time, I don’t want to get my hopes up too much because chances are, we will only get one of those answers, and that is the reveal of Charles, because that’s what they have been promoting the most. The other things I consider a bonus…
I guess we’ll just have to see. In the meantime, I’ll be on Tumblr looking up some theories, and if any of you have your own theories please feel free to leave them in the comments below because I love reading them.
~ Courtney x

Collab with TommFearn! | Pages 82, 108, 111 & 179 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I have another Pointless Book blog post but this time with a twist! I have collaborated with TommFearn in this video and it’s my first ever YouTuber collab and so I am very excited about it. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work, mainly because Tom and I live nowhere near each other and so what we decided to do was send each other clips of us filling in pages of our Pointless Book and then we’d edit them together. And honestly, they turned out to be really good, I thought this was a really fun idea because instead of it just being me filling in my Pointless Book there was someone else there too.
So if you guys want to see both videos they will be below:

Okay so onto a closer look of the pages that I did in the videos, as well as Tom’s too!
The first one that I decided to do was page 82 and that was to write down what I do before I go to sleep at night and why, this page is nothing special, because I just wrote down what I do before I go to bed haha.

The next page that I did was page 179 which was to fill the page with things I love, and I decided to do this page by sticking photos in rather than just writing in it because I wanted to be a bit more creative. If I was super creative I would have drawn the things I love but I’m not the best artist in the world. Still, I really love the way this page turned out, and it definitely highlights a lot of things that I really love right now.
The next two pages I did in Tom’s video and the first one was to spray the page with my favourite scent, and obviously that page doesn’t look very exciting. But the scent that I chose for my page was Zoella’s Blissful Mistful  Body Mist and that’s because it’s the body mist that I have been using a lot and I really love the smell of it.
The last page that I decided to do was page to pick a song and write the lyrics on that page. The song I chose was Heartbreak Therapy by Tanner Patrick and that’s because I’ve been obsessed with that song for a long time now. Out of all the songs on Tanner’s album that’s the one I love the most. I wish I was able to get the whole song on the page but I think I got pretty close!
The first page that Tom did in my video was the music maker page where you played the lyrics of a random song to make up a new song.

The next page Tom did was the Pointless Anagram page which is actually something that I haven’t done in my book yet so I guess I know what the answers are now haha

The first page Tom did on his channel was the page where you had to create a face using a magazine, however he didn’t have a magazine so he used a newspaper instead. The proportions are off by a little bit but other than that I think it was pretty good haha.

And the final page that Tom decided to do in his book was to write down the people you would want at your dream dinner party.
And so that is it for this Pointless Book blog post! I hope that you guys liked it. Like I said earlier I had a lot of fun doing a collab video because I don’t really have anyone around me to collab with so it was a great idea to be able to do something like this with Tom.
If you guys would like us to do more collabs in the future then please leave comments below giving us ideas of what we could do next, like I said we don’t exactly live near each other so we couldn’t really film together but if you had any other ideas similar to this then I’d love to know. 🙂
~ Courtney x

In Real Life my Journey to a Pixelated World Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
Another YouTuber, another book review. This time we have Joey Graceffa’s book, In Real Life.

As always, I enjoy reading a good YouTuber book. I never usually have anything bad to say about them and I do think it’s because I really love the YouTubers that write the books. So maybe these aren’t the most unbiased reviews in the world…
Anyway, what I loved about Joey Graceffa’s book is that he was so open with us about things that he’s gone through in life. More open than other YouTubers in their books. He really went into detail about what his life was like before YouTube and I really enjoyed learning more about his life before he was on YouTube.
Again, it is one of those books where you learn more about the person behind the camera and I always enjoy this because it helps you understand them so much more. I had no idea that Joey used to be in special education or just how many problems he had with his mum growing up. Learning about the struggles that he’s been through in life really allowed me to see how strong he really is.
I mean it just goes to show that these people who seem to have the perfect life online don’t always have it so easy. I think it’s so important to remember that when you watch people online because it’s so easy to tear people down when you don’t know them. Like to me, the fact that people like Joey can daily vlog their life and be so open with us is so brave. Like I know I couldn’t do it, mainly because my life is not very entertaining haha.
My favourite thing about all YouTuber books is that they are written in a very casual style and so when you read the books it just sounds like the YouTuber is having a conversation with you. I really like this because it makes them easy to read, I would really hate to read a YouTuber book that didn’t sound like it was written by them. I like that they don’t put on a voice and are themselves and let their personalities shine through in their writing, it makes it more personal and Joey’s is no exception.
One thing I was really surprised about in Joey’s book was how open he was about his sexuality. I know for the longest time on his YouTube channel he never talked about it, and a few months ago he decided to come out to us before the launch of his book, in a YouTube music video that he had made. It was an amazing music video and I loved the message and the way he decided to come out. It was so creative and I was so happy he was able to do it the way that he wanted to.
In Joey’s book, he dedicates a special chapter to coming out. It’s literally just a page in the book where he says that he is gay.

I really wasn’t expecting that at all. I also wasn’t expecting him to go into more detail about when he was first dating and coming out to his friends. I really enjoyed learning more about that, mainly because it’s not like any YouTuber to dish all of the details about their relationships.
I was really glad that Joey felt comfortable sharing these things with us, I know that it must have been really hard to write about all of the things he went through with his mum from a young age and how he used to be bullied but I am so glad he did because I know he’ll be a huge help to people who are going through similar situations and a great inspiration.
Another thing that I enjoyed reading about was Joey’s experience on the Amazing Race. I kind of wished that he had talked more about the things he experienced while travelling that we didn’t see on the show. Before I read that chapter, I decided to actually watch season 22 of the Amazing Race, which is the season that Joey was on and I really enjoyed watching him and Meghan go through the challenges together. I was sad they didn’t make it to the final four but they put up a really good fight and I thought they did an amazing job.
I also really enjoyed that in Joey’s book he had advice at the end of each of his chapters, they were all relevant to things he had talked about in that chapter and I found some of the advice really helpful. I also enjoyed some of the photos that Joey added into the book because who doesn’t love cringey childhood photos of your favourite YouTubers?
Overall I thought that Joey’s book was a really good read. I think that it’s definitely something to pick up if you are a fan of Joey and want to know more about his life before YouTube and to learn about things he’s never talked about in videos before.
If I had to say anything about the book it’s that I do wish it talked a little bit more about life now and when he lived with Meghan and David or even when he used to live with Sawyer. But I’m sure that Joey is saving that for his next book.
And so, that brings us to the end of another YouTube book review! I still have some YouTuber books left to read, I have four more on my bookshelf to get through but I’m sure by then there will be about five more new books that I’ll have to check out, but until then I guess I better get back to reading.
~ Courtney x