Article • Transcript • Gallery
Draw My Life is an animated subscriber milestone special created by Rebecca Parham.
Synopsis[]
Rebecca celebrates her 500000 subscriber milestone, in which she hit at October. She draws/animates a summary of her entire life.
Rebecca's Life[]
She was born in Texas on December 4, 1987, to Mama Parham and Mike Parham. She has an older sister named Rachel and a few years later, her little brother David was born.
Childhood[]
In her childhood, she was creative and loved doing some plays. She loved cartoons, and at one time, Nickelodeon represented the behind the scenes in one of their cartoons, giving her the initial idea to become an animator.
She went into a private preparatory school, which consisted of 200 students in total. The kids in her class didn't really like her, demotivating Rebecca and making her more introverted.
Middle & High School[]
Later, when she reached middle school where she developed major self-esteem and anxiety problems, she was bullied a lot. Moreover, she was bullied because of her body.
She decided to change from a private middle school to a public high school in 2002 to expect less bullying problems. She entered the forementioned high school with a total number of two thousand students, who had a different behavior and hobbies from Rebecca.
Her public school's curriculum required art credits and Rebecca chose theater and choir. As much as she felt like she discovered her passion, she did socially have a hard time in her high school theater club because that is where she met her theater teacher. Moreover, didn't get along with the theater kids either. At one point, she decided to drop out from Medusa's classes because she wasn't casted in the comedic play Noises Off (according to her My Crazy Theatre Teacher video).
After dropping out of her classes, she felt relieved and happier. She also had more time to herself and spent a lot of it on the Internet, mainly for fanart. She created her YouTube channel in April 2006 under the name "grizabella626", now called "Rebecca Parham's Second Channel".
College[]
She got accepted into her local private university. Initially, she chose to major in theater and choir. However, a year later, she discussed changing majors with her parents from theater to animation. Rebecca showed her drawing skills to her parents, making her father convinced to send Her to Ringling College of Art and Design.
She visited the campus, and initially, her portfolio got rejected by the Ringling advisor, so she decided to recreate her entire portfolio, then send it to Ringling. A few months later, she got accepted into the university.
She moved to Sarasota, Florida in 2008 and started her first year of computer animation school. Despite the competition in her class, she passed the first year. Her grandmother died in her sophomore year and she was struggling to learn the animation software, Maya, because of it. She passed the first semester of her sophomore year but failed her computer animation class in the second semester, where she had to wait 6 months to get back in. In the meantime, she took her business minor classes and was confident enough to get back in the computer animation major.
She rediscovered YouTube and the creators on the platform, including Dane Boe, who eventually became friends with her. She kept to an idea herself of becoming a YouTube animator or a YouTuber herself, despite the fact that people choosing the computer animation major are supposed to be applying to big studios like Pixar and DreamWorks. When she finished her thesis film, Bottled Opera, she graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design with a BFA in computer animation and a minor in business of Art and Design in 2013.
Adulthood[]
After graduating, she planned to return home to Texas, rework her portfolio and apply to major animation studios. Though, she was encouraged by her family to make a business herself, under the name "Let Me Explain Studios". Her new YouTube channel was created on February 17, 2014, and uploaded her first video on that channel (entitled "BeeFwee! (A Pokemon Parody)") on June 21, 2014.
Despite creating her own business, she felt very anxious about her near future and very indecisive about what she should do, whether it's for applying to an animation studio or creating her own business.
Moreover, in the same year, her father died on November 18, 2014, due to a heart attack. Losing him taught her was that when somebody lives through something that they previously thought they couldn't survive and they make it out okay, the world to their perspective doesn't seem to be terrifying anymore, and they could always be a lot stronger than they think.
Despite her dark times, she continued to run her company by continuously freelancing YouTube videos. She received twenty thousand subscribers 2 and a half years later and became friends with other YouTube creators, including TimTom, Jaiden Animations and more. Moreover, she worked on "How to Creep Out Your Favorite YouTubers at Conventions", which was published on May 5, 2017, and ever since the video was published, her subscriber count increased drastically, making her reaching 100 thousand subscribers, the night before flying to VidCon. In July 2017, she officially became a full-time YouTuber, and since then, she continued uploading videos for her fans and continued gaining subscribers.
Characters[]
- Rebecca Parham
- Mike Parham
- Mama Parham
- Rachel Parham
- Kids
- David Parham
- Nickelodeon employee
- Classmates/bullies
- Evil actors
- Steve Irwin
- Theater Teacher
- Theater kids
- Female Ringling advisor
- Female freshman animation major
- Rebecca's grandmother
- Minor business students
- DaneBoe
- TomSka
- Jaiden Animations
- Rebecca's fans
Reception[]
The reception for this video was positive in general. People loved knowing about her life, and some people actually found it emotional. Others were just celebrating her 500000 subscriber milestone.
Trivia[]
- This is the second longest video she has ever done. However, she intentionally wanted to make it a bit longer to 20 minutes. In addition, the longest video is Ruining Your Favorite YouTubers.
- Originally, she wasn't so sure if she wanted to split the video into two. She posted a poll in the twitter, and at least 65% of the people voted for the entire product to be in one video.
- Her life was actually pretty hard. It is possible that nowadays are her best days in her life.
- This is her first subscriber milestone special. Her second is the 1000000 Subscribers Extravaganza, where she celebrates her 1000000 subscriber milestone.
- This video contains all of the members of Rebecca's family.
Animated stories
Almost Run Over by a Car • Backyard Stories • Bitten While Defending A Friend • Blood On My Windshield • Crazy Wrong Number Caller • Crotchety Storage Lady • Daycare Stories • Daycare Stories 2 • Disney Street Performers Pick on Me • Getting Recognized Stories • I Got Stuck on a Roof • Lost My Pants in Wonderland • My Crazy Theatre Teacher • My Real Ghost Encounters • My School Dress Codes • My Teacher Murdered Someone • My Terrible Mouth Accident • Running Away From Home • Stole Mom's Credit Card to Buy N64 • Street Performers Pick on Me Again! • The Curious Disney Security Guard • The Girlfriend Fairy
Animations
Am I Dating Someone? • BeeFwee • Can You Solve My Secret Code? • Come See My Spooky Tree House • Dumb Things I Do • Flight of the Valentine • How to Creep Out Your Favorite YouTubers at Conventions • I Am a YouTuber?? • If YouTube Animators Actually Uploaded Weekly • My Embarrassing & Weird Old Art • No Mouths?! • Over the Moon • Phone Notifications • Slumber Parties Are Witch Gatherings • Stuck in a Bank • The Sochi Hotel Games • Things Animation Girls Say • Things I Would Do if I Had the Time or Money! • Too Much • Welcome to Let Me Explain Studios! • Working Late • You Think I'm Stupid?!
Music videos
Animated Outtakes (Dumb Things I Do) • Barcarolle • Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen • Carol of the Bells • Chewy Fingers • I Sang a Song for Hurricane Harvey Victims
Subscriber milestone specials
1000000 Subscribers Extravaganza • Draw My Life
VidCon recaps
2015 VidCon Recap • 2016 VidCon Recap • 2017 VidCon Recap • 2018 VidCon Recap • 2019 VidCon Recap
Vlogs
Basset Hound Puppy Steals Shoe • Don't Listen to the Demon • First Father's Day Without Him • Father's Day Video & Inside Out • Girlfriend Fairy Halloween Costume • How I Found Self-Esteem Through Animation • Loopy & Sleep Deprived Office Tour • My Most Embarrassing Halloween Costumes • There's 20000 of us! • VidCon Panel Audition • What the Hell Anime Is This? • YouTubers I Want to Sing With
Drawing videos
Drawing Animators into Over the Garden Wall • Ruining Your Favorite YouTubers
Firebug Chats
My Sultry Voice Gives You an Update • What It Was Like Having The Virus
Selected Outtakes
LastVidCon Bloopers • SlumberParties Bloopers
Announcements
Quick Birthday Update • VidCon Update & Snake • Update Central
Behind the Scenes
Stuck in an Emo Band (behind the scenes) • YouTube Rewind, PAX South and more
Advertisements
DELETING SOON! Discount on Halloween MERCH! • DONATE, you cowards! #HopeFromHome • Pin Theatre • Pokémon Parody and We've Moved
Rebecca Explains
Rebecca Explains 1 • Rebecca Explains 2 • Rebecca Explains 3
Animatics
Down With the SICK
Animations (rare)
Children • Ed Edd n Eddy Crack Parodies • Ed Edd n Eddy Grim Grinning Ghosts • Ed Edd n Eddy Sing the FCC Song • Ed Edd n Eddy Showtune Parodies
Animatics (rare)
I'm a Star • Inventure • Ode to Mother • Ode to Dad • Pissing People Off • Quest for Storage • Rachel's Birthday Animatic • Raiders of the Lego Man • Sling Shot • Tis the Season • Trick or Retreat
Animations for other channels (rare)
Angles Song • Stuck in an Emo Band (animation) • Time Song
Animation reels (rare)
2012 Demo Reel • 2013 Story Reel • Flash Animation Demo Reel
Animation tests (rare)
2D Dance • Artie Animations • Emotions Lipsync Test • Push/Pull Exaggerated • Push/Pull Natural • Silhouette • Swinging Lip Sync • Tobuscus Animated Lip Sync • Waiting • Walk Cycle
Vlogs (rare)
70 Random Things Found in my Room • Freaking Myself Out While Filming the Halloween Video • Tea with Mat Hatter and Alice