Hi everyone! Today I want to share with you my experience at meetup I recently had with some AGtubers at the American Girl Place Washington D.C./Tyson's Corner. I was planning on going there on my birthday to do the bistro birthday package with my family, so I posted on Instagram (http://instagram.com/fivedollstars) that I would be there from 12:30 to 1:45 if anyone wanted to stop by and say hi. It turned out that about 10 people were planning on coming (which may seem like a small number compared to many other meetups, but it's a big number to me!), so I guess it turned into a meetup!
Fast forward to the day of the meetup. I had just turned thirteen that day. That morning, I put Crystal and Cecile into a bag along with my camera to bring along. Then I grabbed my violin and headed to church to play a few pieces. Church ended up running about 10 minutes late, so it was 12:10 and we still needed to head to the AG store! I was a bit late, but everything was fine. My mom dropped me off in front of the store, and I headed to the front entrance. There are many windows near the entrance of the store and just as I was about to walk in, I saw a group of girls huddled in the corner of one of the windows. One of them spotted me (they could tell by what I was wearing.) and pointed in my direction. All the other girls around her started jumping up and down excitedly. "Well, I think I found my group," I thought. I hadn't even entered the store yet and I was already spotted! I smiled and walked into the store. All the girls in the meetup group immediately surrounded me saying things like: "FiveDollStars!!!" "I love your videos!" "Can I get a picture with you?" It was all so incredible. I hugged and greeted them and even recognized a few of my AGtube friends that I had met at past meetups. I chatted with everyone for a while, took pictures, signed notebooks and doll feet, and recorded some videos on my camera. We all lined up our dolls to take a photo, along with a group photo of all of us. A few girls handed me birthday gifts, which was so sweet. I opened a few in a corner of the store, with many cameras and cell phones pointed in my direction capturing the moment. xD One of the girls also showed me a stop motion she made about the meetup, which was so creative and cool.
We were having so much fun, time really flew by! It had only felt like I had been there for 20 minutes, but time was creeping closer and closer to my reservations at the bistro. I was feeling very disappointed about having to leave, when my mom came up to me with wonderful news. She had talked to the person in charge of the bistro, and since it wasn't being occupied at the moment they let me and my meetup group hang out in one of the private party rooms for about 30 minutes! I even got extra time before my reservation. We didn't eat in there, but I got to hang out with my new AGtube friends a little longer. We hung all of our dolls on the doll holders that were on the wall. It really felt like an actual birthday party! I had always wondered what it would be like to have a doll-related party with friends. I don't have any close friends at my school that love dolls, but that's the beauty of AGtube and meetups. You can find new friends and people in your area that have the same passions as you! It was the best birthday party I could ever ask for.
While we were in the party room, one of the girls came up to me and said something that really made my day. I don't remember what all of her words were, but I know she said that whenever she felt discouraged about dolls or making stop motions, she just watched one of my videos and immediately was inspired. She thanked me for being such an inspiration and for making my videos. I get a lot of messages like this through social media pretty often but hearing someone actually say it to me was really quite eye-opening. It made me feel very thankful and lucky for my fans and viewers. I now realize that what I experienced that day was something that not many other people get to experience. I felt like an actual celebrity! But seriously, I am very grateful for all of the kind people that watch and comment on my videos. Whenever I feel discouraged about a stop motion that's not going well, I think about how many people are inspired by my videos and I realize that I have to keep going. I find it amazing because I'm just a normal person, but the moment I log into my YouTube or Instagram I am surrounded by fans who, not even knowing me in real life or what I'm like, are inspired by me just because I make videos with my dolls. I am not any different than the rest of you: I'm not popular in school, I don't have a ton of friends, I'm kinda shy around people I don't know, and I spend a lot of my time reading or listening to music in my room. But I also have a hobby that most people don't have, which is making stop motions with American Girl Dolls. And because I decided to try that hobby, I now have many fans who support me. I just wanted to give a big thanks to whoever is reading this, to everyone who came to my meetup, and to all of my subscribers/followers. I love every one of you and you all inspire me every day.
Love,
FiveDollStars
