As a Sydneysider from Kazakhstan in her mid-50s, Ella had never thought vlogging could bring her fame. But now with her two YouTube channels that have a combined audience of 230,000 subscribers and over 65 million views, she says she is committed to a higher purpose of creating awareness about cutting household waste.
It all began when Ella first migrated to Australia from Kazakhstan and, in an effort to stay in touch with relatives back home, began uploading videos of her new Australian life to YouTube.
Highlights
- Ella films discarded household items left on Sydney streets, to raise awareness about the need to cut household waste
- Tens of thousands of people watch her videos and many fail to understand why Australians discard perfectly functional and even valuable items
- Ella says a Russian TV channel portrayed her as a "loopy" woman dragging trash to her home. But she says she is committed to raising awareness about the need to cut waste
Back then her audience was 20 or so people, and the subject of her videos was mostly exotic flowers and Australian birds.
“I love birds and wanted to share my love with the audience,” Ella tells SBS Russian. “You could say it all started with the parrots.”
But it wasn’t just the lorikeets that attracted her a massive audience.
One day Ella was filming on a Sydney street when she stumbled on a stack of objects waiting for hard rubbish pick up. With her camera still running, she went through the rubbish that was up for grabs.
Evidently, the Australian household waste was more interesting for her audience than the country's flora and fauna, with the video bringing Ella a thousand new subscribers in one night.
“I received messages from people asking to film more and show what Australians throw to the bins,” she says of how her channel took off.
Source: YouTube
Who’s watching?
Her audience is Russian-speaking, mostly from Kazakhstan, and commenters certainly seem most interested in why Australians would throw away perfectly operational and even valuable possessions.
"It’s sad that no one thinks that that good item can be given to the second-hand stores, maybe hospitals need it too," a YouTube viewer commented.
"I can understand when people throw away furniture, clothes or toys,” says another. “But why to throw away perfume and accessories? Can't they just give it away to friends and family? I can't understand this mentality...”
While several people commented from around the world, Ella remembers one that brings tears to her eyes, which came from an oncology centre in Russia.
“They said they put my video on for the patients every evening from five to six and for another hour they discuss it. During this time they forget about their pain.”
Waste not, want not
Source: Submitted by Ella Australia
“We walk past this rubbish thinking it’s crap, but open your eyes - some of it is new,” she says.
“I urge Australians to not throw good things away. There are so many people in need and to see this waste is just hurting.”
Vilified on Russian TV
This aspect of Ella’s vlogging was totally omitted when a Russian TV channel aired a story about Ella a few months ago.
She was asked to speak about her YouTube channels and her life in Australia on TV.
But the way it was shown, left Ella appalled. She was presented as a loopy woman who drags Sydney’s garbage back to her home.
“It was blatant propaganda about how terrible life is in Australia for a Russian migrant,” she says. “I am not even from Russia.”
Ella’s supporters from the vlogging community, which is very large in Russian language communities, rushed to defend her, with some even producing videos in her support and calling for a boycott of the TV channel.
Notwithstanding her portrayal on TV, Ella’s main goal stays the same – to reduce the hard waste from Australian households.
“If there was a sponsor who could open a big warehouse in Sydney where volunteers would bring all these second-hand items, it would be the biggest second-hand store you can imagine,” she says. “We could work to save our planet.”
