Almost a decade after getting her start on YouTube, and nearly 4 million followers later, beauty influencer Kandee Johnson reflects on how much the platform has changed. “When I first started, people were still going there to watch cats water skiing,” she told Cheddar. “It wasn’t what it is now.” Thirteen years since its inception, YouTube boasts more than 1 billion users and 1 billion hours of content watched daily. And the site has become a life-changing, but competitive, platform for those who can find the right mix of content to build a following. And it’s not as easy as it used to be to find what resonates. Johnson jokes that back in the day, viewers would watch “her turn into Edward Scissorhands or something.” But now, “you don’t know what is going to work. You don’t know what YouTube likes, what is working right now.” For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/youtube-beauty-superstar-judges-new-makeup-competition-show).
