Growing up is hard, for everyone. Millennials seem to be the only ones whining about it though.
Transitioning from youthful rebellion & crushing fear into a sustainable member of society: thats the struggle many young adults are going through right now, and they are finding that many paths through this journey lead to ruin. Ethan and Hila Klien, the personalities of H3H3 Productions, found a path so storybook that I'm shocked it hasn't been optioned for a feature yet (dibs). With their genuine values, adaptive creativity, and undeniable hustle, the youtube power couple can be seen as a great light in the dark for many wandering millennials trying to live in this crazy world.
Before he met his better half, Ethan Lien was your typical college kid: awkward, anxious, depressed, all the side effects of entering adulthood. He's told stories about deciding to go on his Birthright trip to Isreal in spite of this crippling anxiety. In retrospect, this was one of the best decisions in his life. Grabbing opportunities that present themselves in the face of unavoidable fear is a great lesson we can all learn from Ethan.
Born and raised in Israel, Hila was serving in the Israeli army at the time of Ethan's trip. Her troop got a week off of duty and happened to join up with the same group Ethan was travelling with. His recounting of the moment he first saw Hila is the most adorable thing, you can watch it here.
The group visited many historic sites throughout Jerusalem, including the Holocaust Museum. This is where Ethan made his move. They struck up a conversation and that was all she wrote. For the rest of the trip they were inseparable.
When Ethan went back to California, Hila and him would skype all the time, not letting the distance destroy them. A year passed and Hila made the move to California to live with Ethan in Santa Cruz. The two of them really had no plan. Just to live, and to help each other through it all.
Ethan had just graduated University and was struggling to land any kind of job. Hila, just out of the military, was in much the same position. They tell stories with pride of their brief stint as drug dealers during this time, doing whatever it took to make ends meet.
Things got better and the couple eventually moved to Israel together where Hila started attending College. She took a film course, and would often include Ethan in her projects. Legend has it that Hila showed Ethan a video one of her classmates had made, he wasn't impressed, saying something to the effect of, "thats it? I can do that".
And thus H3H3 was born.
They began by making simple little videos of Ethan reacting to other people's videos and putting them on youtube. While veering away from time to time, their videos have always somewhat stuck to this formula. And it really works too; Ethan's reaction videos are some of the best content on youtube. The personality of Ethan combined with the genius of Hila behind the scenes os a winning combo, and the two are now some of the most respected content creators on youtube.
Whenever I watch an h3h3 video I am always struck with how genuine it all is. Ethan and Hila feel like the same young outcasts they describe barely being able to afford groceries just a few years prior. None of their success has gotten to them.
In a sense I suppose, all good youtuber's have a sense of this genuine feeling in their content, thats the appeal of the medium really, but some (PewDiePie for example) have been compromised by the success more than others.
h3h3's content has changed and adapted to the climate, but it has not suffered. Ethan and Hila have always held their integrity together where it would have been both easy and advantageous to sell it away. For young people on the come-up thats a tough offer to pass on.
Millennials going through the same struggle that Ethan went through are everywhere: Fresh out of college, no job, no direction. It's easy to hold false idols in this kind of headspace. Young men are easily influenced by loud, imposing characters, and work towards emulating their "success". A Conor McGregor may seem like a great hero for example, he does what he wants and makes millions from it. But these kinds of characters are really caricatures of themselves. But Ethan is as real as they come. His vulnerabilities are right out on the table. He succeeds in spite of them, not because they don't exist.
Above all though, it seems Ethan and Hila are not interested in making millions as much as they are in making each other happy, and that is a great thing. Love is a great motivator for success in life, and Millennials looking for a purpose often cling to things that don't matter, and don't drive one nearly as well as a loving relationship does.
Ethan and Hila aren't without thier flaws (lay off Ethan Bradberry already), but flaws are a sign of humanity. I hate perfect people, my heroes are dirtbags, and Ethan is the sweetest one of all.
All Hail Poppa John