You may have seen on social media that last week I was in Germany. I was invited by the apps Clue and Babbel to their event The Berlin Affair, which took place at a castle in the German countryside.
The Berlin Affair
50 female YouTubers from all over the world were invited for this event that felt more like a retreat. I was the only YouTuber from the UK there and although everything was in English, I was one of the few English-speaking channels. It was definitely an eye-opener to the larger global scale of YouTube and its influence.
I am very much in the British/American bubble of YouTubers and it can feel like that’s the most important YouTube community because we have VidCon, Playlist Live, Summer in the City etc. But that’s not the case.
Some of the women I met were hugely famous and influential in their countries but I’d never heard of them because I can’t speak their language. I actually have tried to watch French vloggers from time to time but my French just is not good enough to understand them. Sad times.
I made loads of great new friends so if you speak any of these languages please check out their channels! I can vouch for their personalities, they are wonderful people!
- Bruna Louise (Portuguese from Brazil)
- Loretta Grace (Italian)
- Matu Garces (Spanish from Colombia)
- Sini (Finnish)
- Sury (Spanish from Mexico)
- Sabina Decireé (Swedish)
- Tuta Stella (Arabic from USA)
(me and Loretta)
Talks and Workshops
Most of our days were made up of talks, workshops and eating good food. We heard from so many incredible women and their stories including Ida Tin, co-founder and CEO of Clue. She was incredible. I have to say I fangirled around her a bit because she is such an impressive woman! In these Fireside Chats we learned about being a woman in the media, facing our fears and the taboos of female health. It was such an open, warm and safe space to talk about these topics.
My favourite workshop, however, was when we got to do some arts and crafts. I don’t do crafting at home much because it requires planning and supplies and space and time which I don’t have a lot of. But out in the middle of nowhere Germany I did a marble art workshop which was brilliant. I got so into it that I just kept going making more and more until I ran out of time. I made a whole bunch of cards that I’m going to send to family and friends on birthdays and such. But I also thought it might be fun to do a giveaway!
GIVEAWAY!
I will send one of these handmade (by me) cards with a handwritten note inside to one of you. The competition will run on Twitter and all you have to do is follow me and retweet this tweet to enter. I will announce the winner on Twitter on Monday 19th September and then you’ll get a card in the post 🙂
Clue and Babbel!
Just so you know this is not sponsored. These lovely apps did give me a free trip to Germany though and put on this wonderful event and I want to shout them out!
First of all, Clue is an app I’d heard about loads before and since starting The Hormone Diaries video series a lot of you having been telling me to download it! It’s an app that let’s you track your menstrual cycle so you can understand your body better and feel more in control. The staff at Clue are fantastic human beings – I love them so much! And their office in Berlin is very cool. Very Pinterest. I’m not lying when I say that if I wasn’t a YouTuber, Clue is the kind of company I would want to work for. Pioneers in female health and just such a lovely bunch of people! You can download Clue for free here.
And thanks also to Babbel! The Babbel crew were also just some of the warmest, loveliest people I’d ever met. We sneaked off to the lake for a cheeky swim in the middle of the day! Babbel, like Clue, is a start-up based in Berlin and is a language learning app and has 14 different languages so maybe soon we’ll all be able to watch French vloggers! Being around so many international people who can speak perfect English has inspired me to get back into learning French! You can get 3 months free using this link. Merci!
I had such an amazing few days in Germany. It really cemented for me the purpose of what I’m doing on YouTube. I made new friends, learnt new skills and represented the UK well (basically by drunkenly trying to sort my new friends into their Hogwarts Houses).
What an incredible experience! Have you ever been on a retreat? This has given me a taster and I’m kind of tempted by the ones with no internet… What do you think?
I think this article (can we say this in English? Idk) is pushing me to try Babel. I have a part of my familly who lives in Mexico and they only talk in Spanish, so I have to learn this language to communicate with them (because i’m a french-canadian who only talks French, obviously, and English with some errors and an horrible accent 😂)
Thank you Hannah, I hope that this app will help me to learn Spanish faster than now 😊
It sounds like you had a really great time in Germany and had your horizons widened! Good for you. I’ve been on retreats before, but mostly they were my own travel escapades. I went on an artistic journey to reach new levels of inspiration and didn’t even use tour guides. I used my mind to figure it all out.
I went on a church retreat once when I was 16, I think (maybe 15). That was back before there was an Internet or cell phones (summer of 1986 or 87), but they had everyone take off their watches for the weekend (I never wore one, which they thought was amazing in our “modern” world). I think most people don’t wear watches today because they have cell phones they lug around from which they can get the time. Anyway, it was fun! Lovely experience out in nature. They did have cabins for us to sleep in, so we didn’t rough it, but we were miles from any traffic, noise or light pollution… the stars at night were amazing!! I’d do it again. 🙂