The Daily Dot is celebrating Woman Crush Wednesday, better known as #WCW on Twitter and Instagram, by highlighting female creators on YouTube whose work we admire.
“Lesbains Explain What Vaginas Taste Like,” “Gay Porn Stars Watch Lesbain Porn,” “Straight Girls Explain: Oral Sex vs. Penetration”—this is just a first taste of videos to come from LGBTQ advocate and educator Arielle Scarcella.
Scarcella started making YouTube videos in 2009 after moving back home to recover from an illness. She had just graduated from Pratt University with an art degree and left an abusive relationship with her first girlfriend. For the first time in two years, she was single and craving to fulfill her high school dream: Using art to help teens build confidence, and in the process combat bullying before it has the chance to begin.
After leaving corporate marketing for freelance design, Scarcella began noticing the rise in viewership to her YouTube channel. Originally just a hobby, her candid and humorous videos about sex, sexuality, and daily life began receiving thousands of views and establishing her as a pioneer among the LGBTQ community online. On Sundays, for the past six years, Scarcella has created a space where sex—specifically discussing LGBTQ sex—is just a part of normal conversation. Her videos are highly collaborative, often calling upon the experiences of other LGBTQ creators and allies such as Hart Beat, ElloSteph, Hannah Witton, Jelly and Day, and Ashley Mardell.
While her content is comical and entertaining, at the core, each of her videos are vital in combating heteronormative sex-education systems that often alienate and fail the LGBTQ community. Without creators like Scarcella, many LGBTQ youth would be left to learning about sex and relationships through porn which can be misogynistic and unrealistic.
On top of her YouTube channel, Scarcella is both a published author, life coach, and founder of the Toasty Project, a nonprofit creative outreach program working with teens to build confidence and healing through art. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, After Ellen, BuzzFeed, Autostraddle and the Advocate.
The power in Scarcella’s work lies in her passion for removing taboos surrounding sex and the female body. On her channel nothing is off limits and in a month, viewers can learn about masturbation, pubic hair, climaxing, or simply how to be comfortable being naked. It’s everything you were afraid to ask growing up.
Scarcella has created a resource that is reliable, diverse, and available to viewers all around the world. With more than 73 million views on her videos, it is clear that Scarcella’s voice is not only changing the YouTube landscape but empowering the hearts and hormones of her thousands of fans.