1. Jenny Nicholson – queen of the nerds. <3 I have seen most of her videos a ridiculous amount of times. my subscription to her patreon is honestly the best money I spend each year for how much joy I get out of it.
   She’s funny, smart, original. The perfect youtuber.
2. Contrapoints – again, rewatching her videos every couple of months (for many years at this point) has become kind of a ritual of mine. Her sense of style and aesthetics in unmatched (on yt at least) and in a time where so many video essays just feel like AI slop with zero effort put in, the amount of research she puts in hers becomes increasingly more impressive.
3. H3 Podcast – I know he’s far from perfect. Very messy and kind of unlikeable at some points. But when the podcast’s good, it’s sooo good. The show really lives off of its crew and community. And the more time you’ve spent watching it (for me ~12 hours a week, for years) the more attached you become. I cannot bring myself to quit even though it has become increasingly hard to watch in the last year or so.
4. Lindsay Ellis – RIP. I miss her so much (she’s not dead, she just quit youtube). I feel like if I were a youtuber, I’d make the same type of content she does. Witty, well researched video essays for film and pop culture nerds about kind of random topics she’s passionate about. Also I credit my relatively newfound love of musicals completely to her.
5. Mike’s Mic – immediate click every time he uploads. He’s so funny and likeable. It’s ridiculous. I want to be his friend sooo bad!!
6. Todd in the Shadows – If it’s a crime to have a huge crush on a guy who’s entire youtube persona is built on the fact that he doesn’t show what he looks like, so your crush is just based on his voice, wit, knowledge of music history and how much of a hater he is…well, then lock me up.
7. D’Angelo Wallace – Best. Commentary. YouTuber. Ever. I hope his mental health allows him to return to making content soon. I really miss him. Also I feel like the youtube-sphere needs his takes on things more than ever right now.
8. Hbomberguy – Again, I’m very biased because of a huge parasocial crush I have on him, but come on, you can’t tell me he isn’t the sweetest guy to have ever existed. His energy is so likeable and non-threatening. And his last couple of videos were top tier level quality. I hope he drops another one soon. We’re overdue for a hbomb return.
9. Mila Tequila – Probably the least known youtuber on this list with the fewest videos. I randomly discovered her years ago at the beginning of her youtube career and have watched all of her videos she made since, immediately after release.
   She’s very unabashedly girly and obsessed with Y2K popculture and drama. Which I love.
10. You suck at cooking – Most unpretentious silly cooking channel that just lives off of editing tricks, running jokes and a mysterious narrator with a very attractive voice. Also he has cute dogs, which are featured in a lot of the videos.

Honorable Mentions: all the true crime youtubers I haven’t watched much recently because I didn’t feel like listening to stuff about violent crime as much as I used to: That Chapter, Stephanie Soo, JCS and many more.
Emily Susanah (my favorite nail art youtuber) , Down the rabbit hole/Frederik Knudsen, my guilty pleasure Filthy Frank, FD Signifier and The Tofu Guru (very obscure vegan cooking channel from ages ago).