Meet: James Boyle, popular deaf vlogger and creative artist!

Hi all! I’m a deaf freelance artist, actor and YouTuber living in the North East of England. I’ve always been a creative person and creativity is at the forefront of all that I do. In 2012, I founded Paradice Clothing, which went on to win Best Streetwear Brand in Virgil Abloh’s 2016 MASTERED HQ course. In my spare time, I enjoy vlogging, reading, exercising and being a part-time father to my dog, Jorge!

As a vlogger, I would say the qualities that make my vlogs unique are my transparency and vulnerability. I don’t really try to come across as the perfect vlogger or try to sugar-coat who I am as a person. I’m very open about my strengths and weaknesses.

I tend to vlog about deaf issues, mental health, human and animal rights, sustainability and fitness. I’m also practicing dance and drama, so you will see more of this in upcoming projects.

I’m also learning how to improve accessibility for those with visual impairments. It’s a work in progress. I use BSL in most of my vlogs, because sign language is my preferred language. It’s a visual language and I want my audience to appreciate the aesthetic of it.

However, as I believe in access for all, I also provide captions which means people are able to read and appreciate my language at the same time. Additionally, using my voice and signing at the same time (total communication) will mean I am not able to use BSL fluently.

Thinking about why I set up my vlog, I’ve always liked the idea of creating vlogs as a catalyst to share my experiences and to encourage positive change, but never really had the confidence to pursue this until recently.

When the first lockdown came about, I was inside my flat for 16 weeks and during this time I started seeing more and more deaf vloggers and social media accounts online. I learned there was a lot of deaf people sharing their experiences and stories online and I jumped at the opportunity to get creative and productive as both a vlogger and artist.

It was terrifying to start vlogging as someone who suffers from social anxiety and being overly conscious about how people might perceive me. I was constantly uploading and deleting my content! I’m used to it now though. So far, I’ve only covered personal topics so people can get to know me, but soon I’ll be starting to do vlogs on different topics that matter to me.

I feel quite lucky, because I’ve had a lot of support from viewers and followers. I’ve had a reasonable number of followers since I was eighteen, so I have experienced hate, threats and both online and offline abuse. However, over the past couple of years things have been pretty good. I think it has a lot to do with how I respond to people, my attitude and how I carry myself online and in life.

Out of all my vlogs so far, my bloopers vlog did really well! I think people enjoyed seeing me make countless mistakes and they found comfort in realising it was completely normal to mess up in front of the camera!

I think my most successful vlog was when I explained why I stopped vlogging over the summer due to mental health reasons. This got 1.3K views within two days. On Instagram my videos get a lot more views, due to the fact I have more followers and more people are engaged with my content.

I think people would expect me to say my mental health vlogs were the hardest ones to cover, however it’s quite the opposite. I’ve learned that there’s no shame in discussing our mental health issues and what we can do to resolve them. Nearly everybody suffers from mental health problems to some degree and we as a society need to become more comfortable with openly talking about our mental health.

We need more awareness and deaf mental health services. I would say the difficult and uncomfortable topics I want to cover are yet to come and I’ll talk about them when I feel ready. Mental health is a big one for me to try and cover more of!

Luckily for me I really enjoy the process of what I do. I enjoy working online and building content on a daily basis. But I would say it’s my anxiety that I struggle with most, so this is my biggest obstacle. Having social anxiety affects my energy, my mood, my sleep, my eating habits which in turn effects my work, my ability to focus and my ability communicate fluently.

In summer I thought I had found the right medication to help relieve my anxiety, but unfortunately the meds recently stopped working (again). I’m now on a different family of medication and going through the same process as before. I’m learning to embrace my mental health journey and to be grateful that I know what to expect this time round.

Although there’s pressure in social media to be constantly available, I would say we need to remember that we don’t owe our time to anybody. I used to be in the habit of saying “I will be uploading a vlog this week/next week!” etc, and then I’d put myself under pressure and frantically try to get the vlog finished in time so I didn’t disappoint people.

Making your content accessible means extra time and extra work too, so I would sometimes be up until 4am in the morning trying to finish a vlog.

I had to stop and ask myself, “Why are you needlessly putting so much pressure on yourself to please others?” and I thought “That’s the type of person I am? I want to make others happy and to be consistent”, but then I realised my mental health is far more important and that you can still make great content without putting pressure on yourself.

I now try to create vlogs whenever I feel like it and well in advance. I do usually like to update people, but if I want to take 3 months off without saying anything, I unapologetically will.

Vlog wise, I’m also really determined to start talking more about veganism and sustainability. In today’s climate it is incredibly important to spread awareness and to discuss these topics in depth. I’d also love to get into vlogging my art.

With everything that I do my family and my best friends are my role models. I learn a lot from them every day. I have many other role models, the list is endless, but to name a few I absolutely love Terry Crews – he is a legend.

Deaf vloggers I am loving at the moment are:

Elena MF Ruiz @elenamdruiz, Leila Hanaumi @todayiawaken, Giovanni Maucere @giovanni.maucere, Cobi Sewell, Renca Dunn @reallyrenca, Patrick McMullen @patrickmmcmullen, deaf twins @being__her and Cheyenna Clearbrook @cheyennaclearbrook.

Hearing vloggers I enjoy are @joeycarbstrong, @earthlinged, @earthyandy, @colorbyfeliks and @sharkgirlmadison.

Going forward, I feel I’m a multifaceted artist and have so many ambitions. I like to act, dance, perform, create art and write etc. I want to work with a diverse spectrum of talent. I want to act in several films and appear in several TV series. The dream would be to have a leading role within the Marvel Studios universe. I would love to work with Keenu Reeves and Helena Bonham Carter. I’m still exploring all of these areas and learning more about myself.

Coming up soon, I will be on BBC Seehear talking about mental health. I’ve also got some big news to break, but I can’t say much at the moment! I am dying to share the news and you’ll find out in 2021! I think it’s also worth mentioning that I’ll be filming a feature-length vlog about the process of the project, so that my followers can watch my journey behind the scenes. It’s going to be such an incredible experience and I want to capture the magical process in it’s entirety.

 

You can follow James on the links below:

Website: www.jamesjosephboyle.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamesjoeboyle
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamesjoeboyle
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesjoeboyle
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/THEJAMESBOYLESVIDEOS