Meet the team behind the Americas YouTube Shorts Creator Community
Mar 07, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
Behind every creator and YouTube video is a person making it all happen. Our priorities in 2023 are aimed at going even bigger with YouTube Shorts and continue helping creators grow through our YouTube Shorts Creator Community. Through our Shorts Community, we develop programming to educate, uplift and amplify creators while fostering connection among creators. Some sneak peaks of what’s to come in 2023 include weekly sessions for the community to learn about Shorts strategies and connect with one another, trend inspiration sharing, 30-day Shorts sprints, and more. (If you’re interested in applying, you can designate here to join our waitlist!)
So who's behind all this work to help this group of creators grow? We asked the five YouTube team members to share a little bit about them and tell us about what they look forward to the most for their Shorts community members.
North America
Amanda Agyapong
Amanda is a Community Partner Manager based in New York City. She is incredibly passionate about building creator connections and relationships amongst those in the Shorts community. She is also dedicated to building out diversity, equity and inclusion here at Shorts. She is best known for launching the Creator City Representative program, leading Black History Month programming and planning a whole host of events which allowed creators to meet face to face and finally get to know each other in real life.
Social channels: YouTube and Instagram
Fun fact: Amanda is the 7th of 22 children in her family!! She has 16 sisters and 5 brothers.
Favorite trend on Shorts: I absolutely love tuning in to the black girl luxury and soft life content where creators take us through their days as they try to live their best life!
Most excited for the Shorts Community this year: I am excited to build out programming that allows creators to connect with others just like them globally. I would like to expand on the global virtual session that we kicked off during Black History Month where creators in the community from all around the world got a chance to meet and share their experiences as creators in countries like the U.S., Brazil. South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Up next will be connecting female creators from all around the world for Women’s History Month in March!
Alyse Overweg
Alyse Overweg is a Community Partner Manager based in Los Angeles. She is best known within the Shorts Community for creating 30 Day Challenges such as #Shorts30 and #Shortsmas that bring creators together for 30 Days of education and motivation. Alyse is also passionate about amplifying female creator voices and helping them grow their channels!
Social channels: YouTube and Instagram
Fun fact: Last year, Alyse completed 100 Classes at Barry’s Bootcamp!
Favorite trend on Shorts: I love the health and wellness movement currently where creators are giving an inside look at their day to day to share their tips to living a healthier and happier life through food, movement and wellness practices!
Most excited for the Shorts community this year: I am excited to continue to see our creators achieve their goals and hit incredible milestones! One of the most rewarding parts of my job is moderating the Road to a Million sessions, where creators share their journey to hitting 1 Million subscribers. I always leave inspired to continue to create meaningful sessions for our community! I can’t wait to see our community continue to thrive, have fun and get paid along the way in 2023!
Sonali Karmarkar
Sonali Karmarkar is a Community Partner Manager based in NYC. She comes from a background in marketing, advertising and brand building, with a passion for small businesses and helping up-and-coming creators turn their creativity into careers. Within the Shorts Community, she has launched Twitter Spaces Creators in Conversation to provide a platform to tell the stories of rising stars on Shorts and has pioneered developing an exclusive Virtual Creator House for the Shorts Community to connect and educate creators across cities.
Social channel: YouTube and Instagram
Fun fact: Sonali also is the founder of a hand-painted hair accessories brand, Soieli, which has been featured in British Vogue, Forbes, & more. Check them out on social here!
Favorite trend on Shorts: I am obsessed with outfit transitions! It was recently fashion week in New York and I loved seeing how everyone would creatively showcase their looks.
Most excited for the Shorts community this year: I am very excited to continue connecting creators in our Shorts Community across the country with more virtual programming and creator-to-creator learning sessions so creators can learn from one another!
Latin America
Laura Mendez
Laura Mendez is the Creator Partner Manager for the Spanish Shorts Creator Community and is based in NYC. She works to empower Shorts creators in Latin America with the tools and resources they need to be successful. As a Latina, she feels passionate about giving underrepresented communities a voice, and making sure her community is heard and represented globally in the media. Laura has over 6 years of experience working at YouTube. Before joining the Shorts team, she managed some of the biggest Latin YouTube creators and Public Figures.
Social channel: Instagram
Fun fact: Laura has an identical twin sister
Favorite trend on Shorts: As a fellow curly, I am absolutely obsessed with the natural hair movement that is taking place on Shorts right now and all the beautiful creators who are embracing their natural hair and educating others on how to care and style their curls.
Most excited for the Shorts community this year: I'm excited for our Shorts creators to get paid in 2023 for all their hard work! Also looking forward to continuing to create moments for my Hispanic Community to come together virtually and in person.
Brazil
Allan Portes
Allan is a Community Partner Manager in Brazil, creator and vinyl collector. He likes to say that he’s in a long term relationship with YouTube and the reason is that he’s been creating content here for the past 11 years. His journey on YouTube started when he created his channel Pixel Tutoriais, an educational hub where he shares videos about technology. Since then, he has never stopped creating content and helping the YouTube Community. Creating content on YouTube literally changed his entire life and being here as a manager is one of the best things that ever happened to him.
Social channel: Pixel Tutoriais
Fun fact: I'm a vinyl collector and someone passionate about music. My house has more than 10 instruments and if you visit me one day, we can start a band together.
Favorite trend on Shorts: Currently, I'm spending hours watching Shorts teaching how to cook. Especially videos with fast transitions.
Most excited for the Shorts community this year: Seeing the community growing and being able to monetize their content is something that excites me. It was because of YPP that I was able to pay for college and finish my studies, so I know how this program has the potential to change creators' lives.