THE MONTH IN ART, SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHY, BOOKS AND MUSIC

in EDITED BY SHAHNAZ SIGANPORIA

SPOTLIGHT Superwoman returns Part real-talking wing woman and part cyber sage, YouTube’s highest-paid female artist and millennial star, LILLY SINGH, tells AARTI VIRANI how she built her empire and reigns over it like a ‘Bawse Lady’! HAIR: PATRICK MELVILLE TRACEY MATTINGLY USING GOLDWELL PROFESSIONAL. MAKEUP: REBECCA RESTREPO TRACY MATTINGLY USING ELIZABETH ARDEN; MICHELLE MATHEWS USING M.A.C COSMETICS. SPECIAL THANKS: DUNE STUDIOS THANKS: DUNE SPECIAL COSMETICS. USING M.A.C USING ELIZABETH ARDEN; MICHELLE MATHEWS MATTINGLY RESTREPO TRACY REBECCA MAKEUP: PROFESSIONAL. USING GOLDWELL MATTINGLY MELVILLE TRACEY HAIR: PATRICK

Photographed by KREERATH SUNITTRAMAT Styled by DAVIAN LAIN www.vogue.in VOGUE JULY  99 in

To say Lilly Singh, better age-infl uenced gems such known by her digital moniker as ‘Sh*t Punjabi Mothers Superwoman, is sleep-deprived Say’, before delivering would be an epic understate- more universally appealing ment. On a recent phone call sketches, like ‘How Girls from a hotel room in Manches- Get Ready’. ter, England, one of the 34 “In essence, the videos stops on an international od- were just me trying to make yssey to promote her fi rst myself happy,” Singh says. book (which released this “I guess they made other The fi rst episode March)—the New York Times of ‘Girl Love’ people happy, too.” A rapidly bestseller How To Be A featured Kathryn expanding fan base led to Bawse: A Guide To Conquer- Hahn, Kristen Bell star-studded collaborations Ting Life (Ballantine Books)— and Mila Kunis (Michelle Obama, Seth Ro- the magnetic 28-year-old gen, James Franco, Dwayne confesses to setting an hour- Johnson and Priyanka ly alarm running through the previ- Chopra, to name a few), a ous night. It was an earnest attempt world tour, a behind-the- to ensure some precious video foot- scenes documentary that chronicled age (the lifeblood to her YouTube the said world tour, a People’s Choice channel and its over 11 million sub- Award, and the launch of #GirlLove, scribers) was smoothly transferred to Singh’s ambitious campaign to wipe her Los Angeles-based team in spite out cyber bullying and girl-on-girl of a rather fi ckle internet connection. hate, proceeds of which were donat- Even Superwoman, it seems, can’t es- ed to primary schooling for girls in cape the perils of patchy wi-fi . Kenya and the Malala Fund. “It’s so ridiculous, I know,” she says Priyanka Chopra joined of her draining all-nighter. “I’ve just Singh on the ‘How To Be A BAWSE LADY always had the need to do things super Good Wing Woman’ video Her latest endeavour, or “the extra, above and beyond. And I don’t bawse book,” as she dubs it, is a know if it’s a strength or a weakness.” collection of 50 bold mission statements (“Get Coming from anyone else, that state- Uncomfortable”, “Eff Protocol”, “No Piggy- ment might reek of pretention. But from Singh, backs”) spiked with Superwoman sass, the pow- whose formidable digital dominion—1.5 billion er of believing in unicorn island and life advice views and counting—comprises a series of au- she’s culled from tête-à-têtes with artists like thentic confessionals and bi-weekly videos that “In essence, MIA and Selena Gomez. “I had a very romanti- animatedly tackle everything from gender cised idea about how writing would go,” she ad- stereotypes and racism, to poop and periods, the videos were mits. “I thought I was going to be fabulous, take it’s just another endearing admission that just me trying four months off, and hang out by a fi replace.” makes her the quintessential Everygirl. to make myself The cosy sabbatical never came, and drafts were happy... I guess often punched out at the end of days with over- THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS fl owing to-do lists. But that’s not code for slop- Even though the plucky Indo-Canadian’s strat- they made piness. “I’ve revisited chapters so many times, I ospheric ascent from bhangra team captain to other people truly have the book memorised,” she says. “In internet royalty mirrors the revolutionary suc- happy, too” fact, the other day I told my friend to read me cess of YouTube itself, she didn’t exactly set out any sentence and I could identify the chapter,” to become the millennial-in-chief. Singh discov- —LILLY SINGH she adds, referring to rapper and fellow ered the fl edgling web platform during her last YouTuber Humble The Poet. “I was six for six.” year at ’s , in 2010, Singh doesn’t mind that her nerdy side is on where she was wrapping up a psychology de- display. As a self-described analytics freak, gree and grudgingly considering graduate she’s charted the stats on her YouTube channel school. “I was convinced I had to live this very to recently discover that her audience, aka linear life and was going through a really rough Team Super, is growing up with her. “People time,” she recalls. Intrigued by the sheer sim- have gone from saying, ‘Hey, I hide in class and plicity of online video—“literally, just being watch your videos,’ to ‘My husband and I watch human on camera”—Singh drew on her Sikh you every day,’” she explains. “They’re evolv- upbringing for one of her initial contributions, ing with me,” she continues. “And right now, a rough-around-the-edges turban-tying tutori- I’m just really about dope content that

al, which she then followed up with other herit- evokes emotion.” ■ IISUPERWOMANII

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