Spreading Positivity through Youtube: Interview with the Libyan Female Youtuber Rasha Alseleni

Youtube has become one of the most transforming digital tools in our time. You can learn anything if not everything from this platform. It has given the chance for millions of people to share their ideas and solutions with the world. You can learn and study from people who upload lessons videos, I myself studied a lot through Youtube and I still do. This platform is very influential. People who use this platform to share their content are called YouTubers. In this article, I am sharing my interview with a Libyan female Youtuber who managed to spread positivity and good change through her Youtube channel. She has managed to reach out to so many people, inside and outside of Libya, her home country, and she is someone who believes in doing good in this world and has a true purpose. This inspiring woman is called Rasha Alselini. 

Rasha was born in 1995 in Tripoli but was raised in Darna. She is an only child. She loves to challenge herself and learn new things on a daily basis. She is, as she used this term to describe herself, ‘’multi-passionate’’. She has many interests and hobbies. She thinks that time is not enough to learn everything in this world and it can be controversial for some people. It is a waste if we don’t discover everything in life and it can be confusing for her sometimes. She wanted to make a change on so many levels and not only for humans but even for animals. She volunteered with many organizations like the Red Crescent organization in Libya. She started an initiative in Darna to help stray cats and dogs and it was an online initiative.

  She has a dream when she is financially stable to start a charity organization to help others develop but she wondered how she can help even without making this dream a reality yet. It is how she decided to start her own Youtube channel because, at some point, she wanted to listen to someone who can help her out with advice and new ideas. The target audience wasn’t specified, she wanted to reach out to the world as she started in English but later on, she incorporated Arabic in her videos because she wants to satisfy people who use Arabic as well.

It wasn't a smooth journey all the time. She faced many issues and one of the struggles she is facing until now is that she doesn’t have a professional camera. She still uses her phone but she couldn’t get a camera to help her out yet. Another problem was her laptop which was very old and it was one of the obstacles she faced in her early beginnings and the editing software was windows movie maker which was very basic and outdated. In addition to this, she faced many technical issues but she managed to push through regardless. Also, she was shooting the videos in Darna, thus, the internet connection was so weak and it was expensive to fix it as she lived with her mother solely so financially, it wasn't always easy. 

Sometimes, in order to upload a 4 minutes total video, she needed to wait for four days while keeping the computer open so the video can be uploaded and the connection disconnects halfway through and it was so frustrating to her. However, she was supported by her family and close friends. They like and share the videos with their friends. For society, she noticed that support differs from one city to another which is a very interesting notion. For example, in Darna, she faced a lot of criticism as being a Youtuber can be considered a sin. While in Benghazi, she had so many supporters and for Tripoli, she didn’t face a lot of criticism because we can’t use the term society as it differs from one city to another in Libya. Especially that she provides a positive and life-changing content. 

She was hesitant for so long and she accepted so many negativities before finally launching her channel. Her advice to Libyan women who want to start their channels is to start as long as they are confident and passionate about their content and there isn't a successful person in this world who wasn’t judged by others. Remember that you won’t satisfy all people and only be YOU and she said and I quote ''let’s see you have an impact on the world''. You can follow her on Instagram where she has almost 18K followers and on Youtube with over 2K subscribers. 

Her Youtube channel: Rasha Alseleni
Her Instagram Page: rashaalseleni