With 'Haters Back Off,' I'm creating something that I want to make, and I'm not focused on, 'Is this gonna trend, is this gonna be popular?' I'm just focused on telling the story.
Colleen Ballinger
I love music, and playing ukulele and singing makes me really happy.
Life isn't always wonderful.
The only reason I have any success at all in my career is because of the Internet.
For me, Miranda has always been a much deeper character than the three-minute videos I put online.
I would do whatever the haters said they didn't like. They'd say, 'I don't like your lipstick,' so I'd put on more.
In the beginning, people watched me to hate on me. They thought Miranda was a real person. People just couldn't understand why this strange girl was so confident. And then slowly, I started getting fans.
I started out poking fun at this YouTube thing.
As a vocal performance major, I went to school with a lot of singers who were cocky and not very nice.
I'm pretty sure I don't want a camera in my face when I am in labor.
It's fun to just be an awful human being.
I've always been very open and very honest with my fans. I want them to know that I'm genuine, and I am who I am, and I'm not faking it for the camera.
How it works: it's like I have a tour, so there's, you know, some income from that. We have merchandise. There's income from that. Then on YouTube, there's ad revenue... so, you know, YouTube puts ads on the videos, and we need a little bit of that.
Clowns are meant to make people smile. That's my goal.
Miranda is confidently untalented at singing. Very off-putting. Shrill. But she thinks she's wonderful, so power to her.
Nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes with a YouTuber.
My fans are my family. I love them so much.
I don't regret anything I've put out there.
I've been singing since I was a little girl.
Anyone can sing badly, but to sing badly on purpose and make it believable is harder. I listen for the actual melody in my head but sing right underneath or above it out loud. It takes a lot of concentration.
I have a whole new perspective on pregnancy and motherhood now that I'm experiencing it. Just because it's so hard and so confusing and so exciting. Women are so amazing that their bodies can do this and that they're strong enough to do this. I can't believe almost every woman goes through this, because it's so hard.
I have no hard feelings towards Disneyland. I love Disneyland so much. I want to go every day. I loved every single day that I worked there.
I definitely think we're living in a world or generation where we need constant gratification and adoration with Instagram and likes, and we base everything on attention.
Everything was based on my life and the way I grew up. Some of the bits I'm most proud of in 'Haters Back Off' actually happened.
Getting onstage and trying out all of my material and what works well with audiences and what doesn't, what works well in different atmospheres, has been the best training.
I hope that memes jump out of our computers in the future.
I think for me, the best comedy comes from when something feels real and genuine, so even though Miranda is this wacky character, there is a real vulnerability to her that we finally get to show in 'Haters Back Off,' and I think that's what makes this comedy rich and more fulfilling, at least for me.
I really tried to take advantage of my 15 minutes of fame. And I've gotten lucky - those 15 minutes have become several years.
I try my hardest with my live show and YouTube to make it appealing to all ages.
I got a lot of hate mail, and that's where the term 'haters back off' came from because I got all this hate.
I'm very open with my life, and I don't regret it because it's what got me here.
I travel a lot for work and have people waiting outside my hotel or call my room constantly or show up at whatever restaurant I'm eating at because I Snapchatted. It is a little terrifying.
I love and enjoy vocal performance, but I also have a huge passion for comedy and improv.
I feel so lucky to have the career that I have. I can travel the world and be a goofball and make people laugh.
Whenever a hater said they hated something about Miranda, I'd do it more.
My audience is like my family at this point.
I love every Netflix original series, because they're so creative and different, and they really believe in trusting the creators of these shows and in their vision and passion.
It fascinated me, these kids who would sit in their living room or bedroom or kitchen and sing to the camera and act out the song fully as though they were onstage. Because a lot of musical theater kids... do that alone in your bedroom when you're a kid. But for someone to go and put that online? That's just so embarrassing!
People ask me if I'm worried that I'm going to be stuck in Miranda forever. I'm not, because how could I complain about what I've been given?
I couldn't comprehend why someone would film themselves alone in their bedroom and put it online. I thought that was so bizarre. Now I can't imagine not putting my life online and talking to a camera alone in my bedroom; it's become my life.
I'm always so terrified that tomorrow no one will watch me anymore or care anymore. Every day, I say that I can't believe this is happening. It's so crazy. Because of that, it makes me work so hard every single day.
When I was in college and reading music and doing ear training, I was a little more advanced than the other people in my choir classes. So to entertain myself and kind of annoy the friends around me, I would sing just under the pitch or just above the pitch.
I trained to sing well, but now I sing poorly for a living. That was money well spent.
People didn't go on YouTube to get famous back when I started.
My fans have been so sweet and supportive.
To have the ability to look back on the problems that weren't big problems after all is something I think we can all learn from.
I'm the luckiest girl in the world.
The fact that I went from making a minute-and-a-half video in my bedroom to doing an hour-and-a-half live show is just crazy.
Miranda is extremely tacky. I personally want to edit my videos well, but I have to keep Miranda's character in mind, so there are bad angles, flashy cuts, and sparkles everywhere.
Miranda, my character, cannot sing, cannot act, and is really inappropriate.
