SCREAMING SUPERFANS
YouTube star Lilly Singh brings tears to the eyes of adoring fans at Brampton book signing,
Lilly Singh is the poster child for the millennial generation side hustle.
But instead of driving with Uber, she decided she would build a multimillion-dollar media empire from the comfort of her bedroom, which just happened to be in her parents’ Markham home.
With more than 11million subscribers on her YouTube channel, she is the biggest celebrity most PBS viewers have never heard of. Forbes estimates her earnings in 2016 at $7.5 million (U.S.), making her the thirdhighest earner on YouTube.
Along the way, her messages of positivity — earnest and without cynicism — have appealed to millions, making her the unlikely Oprah of the Tweenie set.
If one needed proof, you only had to be at Chapters bookstore in Brampton on the weekend, where hundreds of fans lined up, some overnight, to get one of the coveted 400 wristbands that would allow them to get a picture with Singh and an autographed copy of her new book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life.
“Lilly! Lilly! Lilly!” Fans, the majority of them teen girls, chanted Singh’s name. Some were crying. Many were rapturous.
Singh, 28, dressed in her signature black tuxedo jacket, this time paired with bright gold sneakers, screamed “Hello!” then made a face and did a quirky dance. Behind her were massive red letters that spelled: BAWSE. The audience erupted.
“She changed my life. I can’t tell you how much she changed my life,” 13year-old Sibiremi Selvaseharan said. “She really taught me a lot about loving yourself, about being true to who you are.”
Sibiremi lifted a cup she made. It said, “This Bawse is Against Girl Hate.”
Through tears, she talked eloquently about bullying. About being a female South Asian and trying to come to terms with gender and race. Lilly, she said, helped her through the toughest of patches.
“She is such an inspiration. I love her. She honestly got me through the hardest times,” said another fan, Emma Hill, pausing through tears.
Emma, 14, uses a wheelchair, and was momentarily speechless when Singh came down from the stage to take a picture with her.
She eventually told Singh that “You help me every day with everything and all of the hardships.”
Singh replied with a heartfelt hug and an “I love you.”
“I didn’t want to let go of her hugs. It was so awesome,” Emma said. “She tells you to be the best version of you that you can physically and emotionally be. Whenever I’m feeling down. And not as great as I could be. She’s there in my heart telling me it’s OK. You can do this. You will do this.”
On YouTube, Singh’s skits involve growing up, imitating her Punjabi parents, and reflecting on a myriad of issues that affect young women, including why people are annoying in airplanes, washrooms and at the movies. They can seem crudely made and full of platitudes, but this is not about making the next Breaking Bad: Singh is firmly targeting her audience of teenage fans, who devour every video.
She is also network television’s worst nightmare. Before Singh, YouTube used to be about fuzzy cat videos. Not destination programming.
When historians look back to see the decline of the traditional broadcaster, they will likely start with the ascendancy of Singh, who started her own one-woman network in Canada while literally still in pyjamas.
It also says much about Canada’s lauded diversity that stars such as Singh, or fellow South Asian Russell Peters, both from the Toronto area, have had global crossover appeal. Their particular world view comes from living in perhaps the most diverse city in the world.
“I feel like she’s talking to me. That I can see someone who looks like me and understands who I am. I really never felt that way before,” said Jana Gupta, 13, who had been waiting in line since 8 a.m.
Jana said what she likes about Singh is that she likes to play against stereotype.
One stereotype Singh can’t seem to shake though, is the belief that she lives in Brampton, where the Chapters is located and a large population of South Asians live. But she actually grew up in Scarborough.
“Attention! I don’t live in Brampton. I get a tweet/email/message about this once a day. I don’t . . . kay . . . thanks,” she has tweeted.
But for all intents and purposes, the social media superstar may as well adopt Brampton as her home, given her reception there. Although in truth, Singh is a world citizen. An adoptee of generation YouTube, she is as likely to be recognized there as she is in Dubai.
The book tour, meanwhile, is another notch in the burgeoning corporate blueprint of Lilly Singh Inc., which includes a world speaking tour and her videos.
The $32 book, at 300-plus pages has messages which, like her videos, are simplistic: “Be nice to people” and “Don’t talk crap” are two chapters that resonate. It doesn’t get more elementary than that. And her fans can’t get enough of it.