Top 10 YouTube Lifestyle Influencer Channels We Love!

 

Julie and I have both found ourselves watching YouTube perhaps 80% of the time we view TV. The attraction to YouTube is learning (how-to, documentaries, etc) and lifestyle (watching people's lives). 


There are so many fantastic lifestyle influencers and what is so popular about them is they are showing us a life we aren't living right now. Perhaps we are stuck in the city and they are homesteaders in the country or they are glamorous models or surfers and we are just regular folk in the anonymous population. In some cases, they live as minimalists, nomads, or organic vegan farmers. 


The attraction is a world we never get to see, unscripted, real, and shared with us in a more one-on-one vibe than television "reality" shows, as the hosts address us and take us in on life moments like birthing a calf or shoring up a tiny home for a hurricane approach.


As Julie and I develop our YouTube channel, we learned our focus of skills and obsessions leads us to helping folks see their world and experience it in new ways. A great lifestyle channel shows you worlds you didn't know existed, to get involved like you would a soap opera, and immerse yourself in escape. Our goal is to help you take what you have, where you are, and find the mystery, beauty and excitement. It's all about repurposing what you have. 




Some lifestyle influencers are just bougie posers wanting us to admire their skinny bodies or their jetsetting lives, but then there is this genuine side of it where people show they are taking huge risks to live dreams instead of just filing them away in the "chance lost" file folder. 

Something about seeing them do what we haven't dared to do or seeing that it's possible to chase a dream, makes us dust ours off and reevalaute them. 

There is NO reason not to chase a dream, especially in these times that are so unsure that we are all having to recover. 

Julie and I share our top 10 favorite lifestyle influencers and why - 




Living Off Grid with Jake and Nicole

This is the best addictive pleasure, awaiting a new vid from this couple that moved to an island in British Columbia and set up an off-grid homestead with a yurt, then a garden, then kept adding on more and more amenities with a goal of eating 100% of their food from the earth. The videos are long and beautifully filmed and you get very involved in the evolution of their off-grid compound.

 

The Positano Diaries

We follow Nicki and her adventures living on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. She has a charming life up on the cliffside and grows a huge organic garden, makes yummy foods, travels the roadways of Italy and shares the lifestyle from boating to hiking, family get togethers and the like. It's a dreamy life and an amazing getaway. 



I (Sharon) admit this one is my favorite guilty pleasure. I am known to have this channel running in the background all day. It gives me energy, excitement, the alternate life you always dreamed of having (wanted to be a surfer since I was a skateboarder as a kid). These are three brothers sharing the Hawaii and surfer lifestyle, from cleaning up beaches to riding the waves, from healthy organic eating, to their Sunrise Shack business endeavor. I love their energy and that they love their lives so much. So many of us can't really say we think we are living the life we were meant to. 



Ghost Town Living 

We follow this unbelievably committed guy who admittedly is doing what he loves at great risk financially and yet he can't walk away from buying a ghost town above Death Valley and restoring it, making it into a history and artist mecca, and preserving history. This is his path and it's fascinating beyond belief! 



Wonderhussy is just gosh-darned sassy western fun. This lady is entertaining but also educational as she travels to the most remote western locations. 


The Cottage Fairy


She's an artist with a childlike wonder at nature and living a simple life. There isn't a time we watch this channel without sighing and dreaming of a simplified life where we have time to focus on what we value. Her gorgeous natural setting, simple cottage, and artful routines really harken to a time long lost for humanity.

Jonna Jinton

This Swedish magical woodland fairy is a spectacular artist living in the most scenic places in Northern Sweden. She is adorably childlike, strong as a Viking, and able to take us into a world we can only imagine. It is a great getaway and once again shows us that people can and do live their dreams, just perhaps not in the suburbs.



Christine McConnell

If Martha Stewart was likeable, graceful, and took us into a world of handmade Victorian wonders, spooky delights, and delicious desserts, this would be her. Christine is one of the most multitalented visionaries. Her soothing voice, her ability to construct anything, and recreate a Victorian moody palace are just some of her amazing talents.


Fairyland Cottage

Striving to have a simple no-waste, minimal life in the gorgeous green hills of Ireland, this teacher of all things holistic and sane, makes us stop, sip tea, wander the garden, watch her bake cookies from scratch and teach us how to go back to the basics and fill your life with thoughtfulness and gratitude. And, it doesn't hurt that her lilting voice makes you feel like a beloved mother is telling you tales.


Trout and Coffee

There's a reason why this content creator and nature-loving New Englander got tapped by LL Bean. He shares the most gorgeous vistas, country roads, time with childhood chums, family pup at his side, riding around in an old pickup truck and building an off-grid cabin. You begin to long for a long-lost time and it really makes you ponder how you don't need a lot of money to live an honest family-and-nature-based life. You just have to have gumption to do something other than cave in to tract-house zombie-working routines. 


There are lots of honorable mentions that we watch frequently - 

Eamon and Bec (they used to be digital nomads but now have a cabin to fix up themselves)
Robuilt (my fave for AirBNB and glamping business inspiration)
Miss Mina (she and her adorable mother taste test things around the world)
Sanne Vlot (ever wonder what it's like to live as a top model in California?)
Ellen Fisher (vegan mom in Hawaii)
Christine Kobzeff (Tucson lady who knows her cacti and minimalism)
Girl in Calico (simple living as if in another time)
Jamie and Sarah (adorable couple that has side hustles refinishing and reselling items)
Late Bloomer (fantastic hostess for all things gardening)
Katia Nikolajew (seriously boho with amazing style and crafting/fashion)
The Unexpected Gypsy (this adorable artist is not only talented but you see the life of an artist intimately)


Pick any subject you enjoy and you will find lots of great lifestyle influencers.


 I like to watch some modeling ones because I used to model and I still love the jetsetting and fashion and lifestyle. I also adore surfer lifestyle and artists. I love tiny living, off-grid, minimalism, herbalists, permaculture, and the like. 


Julie enjoys crafting and art, Italian art/garden lifestyle, off-grid lifestyle, road trips, antiquing, homesteading, and upcycling/repurposing. 







Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Dale, you have to HAVE A LIFE before you can have a LIFESTYLE...😊

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  2. Yes, all these people, and still more, are worth the watch. I have learned so much from them.

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