Justine has been making content on YouTube for almost as long as the platform has been around.
The video sharing platform first launched in 2005, and Ezarik posted her very first video on her iJustine channel on May 12, 2006. While many other popular YouTubers from that time have since stepped back from their channels, Ezarik is still dutifully uploading content for her seven million subscribers.
“Years before (YouTube), I ran a daily random photo site all through middle school, high school and into college. And then when video became a thing, I was like, ‘Oh, this is so cool.’ So I had been posting everywhere,” Erzarik recalls of her early video days to PEOPLE.
“When I found YouTube, it was interesting because it was the first place that I saw comments and a bunch of responses from people. And it was weird because I was just uploading to show my friends.”
A lover of tech, the moniker iJustine was inspired by her love of Apple products – which have been heavily featured on her channel throughout the years. Her early videos (all still available on her channel) are seldom more than a minute and a half long, initially short sketches meant to be shared among friends.
One of Ezarik’s earliest videos posted to her channel was of the original iPhoneuploaded within a week of Apple’s first smartphone being unveiled.
Fittingly, her first viral video was a minute-long flipthrough of her nearly 300-page AT&T bill following the smartphone’s release, detailing every text message, email and data transfer conducted during the billing cycle. The video, which currently sits at 3.5 million views on YouTube, ultimately altered the way the cell phone provider billed customers.
Ezarik says about two years into making YouTube content, she decided to quit her full-time job. Though she was still freelancing as a graphic designer on the side, around this time she says she started making an income from the site.
“I would say probably around like 2008, 2009 is when I started actually making real money and starting to get sponsors,” she recalls. “I think leading up to that it was sort of just taking meetings. I moved to LA in 2007 with no friends and no house – basically nothing.”
iJustine holding multiple iPhones in 2008.
Araya Doheny/WireImage
It wasn’t long before she was able to build a sustainable following and Ezarik found herself among other popular channels of the 2000s. She had a guest appearance on the Annoying Orange channel as Passion Fruit, met Justin Bieber as his career skyrocketed and even attended the first-ever VidCon.
“That was a time where we still didn’t know what was happening. We all kind of just hung out in the lobbies. I bought t-shirts for everyone there… and we’re just passing them out in the hotel lobby, and now a lot of times we can’t do these events without security,” she recalls. “They hide us, they keep us hidden away. There was something so pure and magical about that beginning era before it became all commercialized.”
Like most influencers, Ezarik has cycled through different phases when creating content. There was a period of time when she posted daily vlogs, taking her viewers through her everyday life. During another period, she regularly uploaded chaotic cooking videos, using her blender for a variety of recipes that don’t traditionally use a blender and disdainfully looking down on the concept of measuring.
“I kind of just shift my content to things that I love,” Ezarik says. “I think that has been the main reason that I’ve been able to do this for so long is because I just keep creating things that I like and that I want to see.”
As her content has shifted with her interests, her channel is littered with tech videos showcasing unboxings, reviews and first looks – and her love of tech is the only vein of her early content that has continued through her channel’s lifespan. As YouTube celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, Ezarik is close to celebrating 19 years of her channel.
Justine lacking in 2022.
Emma McIntyre/Getty
“(YouTube has) changed more now in that I think people take it seriously, like it is an actual viable platform. This is something that kids now are being born and they’re like, ‘I want to become a YouTuber,’ “ Ezarik says.
“Back then people were making fun of me. People were like, ‘Why are you filming and posting online?’” she continues, noting that she eventually got the last laugh in the end as she continued to prosper in her career. “Now it’s more like, ‘Hey, can we do a collab? We want to work with you.’ “
“I think it’s empowering because it’s given a voice to people who may otherwise not have had one,” she continues.
The influencer landscape has changed greatly since she first started uploading videos. Though Ezarik still considers YouTube her core audience, she’s joined just about every other social media platform (all under the same username). She’s filmed and produced both long-form and short-form content, adapting as many influencers have to the changing social media landscape.
Though YouTube may be where she’s most comfortable, she cautions those aspiring to create a platform of their own against getting too comfortable in one space.
“Try all of the apps and definitely diversify yourself,” Ezarik says, acknowledging that growing multiple platforms at once can be “overwhelming.”
“I still do a lot of my own creating and still edit a lot of my own content… If this is something that you really love, don’t quit and also do make content about stuff that you love or you’re gonna be stuck making content about something that just is popular at the time that you might not enjoy.”
“But YouTube still does feel like home, and it feels like that’s where the largest amount of my audience is,” she continues. “I feel like it’s the best place for me to monetize, but also connect.”
Ultimately, it’s the freedom YouTube has provided her that’s kept her loyal to the platform for her entire career as an influencer – and she has no plans to stop making content.
“I feel like we have this ability to do whatever we want because of YouTube. Like if I wanted to go out tomorrow and film a feature film, I have the gear and I have the content and the knowledge to go do that now,” she says. “Am I gonna do that tomorrow? Probably not. But just knowing that like that possibility is there for me and so many others is just, it’s so freeing.”
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