Much of our culture is the product of Black creativity, but that creativity does not always receive the recognition it deserves. Online video trends have evolved to become the driving force of pop culture. But do you know who’s creating them?

"Flowers" is a three-part series amplifying Black stories that showcases the outsize influence Black creativity has had in the formation and evolution of modern pop culture.

Despite having an outsize influence on modern culture and being a driving force behind many viral trends, Black Creators do not receive enough credit for their creativity in the digital space. The series’ objective is to give credit where it’s due to Black creators, and to celebrate and inspire other Black creators and users on the platform.

“Flowers” features three creators and gives them their flowers, here and now, for their significant contributions to culture as we know it.

The first episode focuses on sWooZie’s role in creating the storytime animation format that has become integral to animation on YouTube. The second episode spotlights how Nyma’s series, “The Darkest Shade”, sparked a conversation on YouTube around the need for inclusion in the beauty industry. And the final episode features Bianca Bonnie’s multifaceted talent and contribution to the viral dance culture “Chicken Noodle Soup” which became a blueprint for the dance trends that followed.

This series amplifies YouTube's mission to give everyone a voice and show them the world. Providing a place for underrepresented voices to be heard is an essential part of living up to the story YouTube tells about our platform and its purpose.

The strategy behind the series is to create an engaging series and showcase how Black creativity fuels YouTube and modern pop culture.

Utilizing data and insights provided by the YouTube Culture and Trends team, we identified viral internet trends and the untold true stories of the Black creators and culture behind them. From viral dances and storytime animation to transforming the beauty industry via a content series – there have been numerous Black Creators who have lent their creativity and passion to the YouTube platform, inspiring millions and fostering entirely new communities. YouTube’s Culture and Trends data confirms that these trends have gone global and resulted in billions of views on the platform.

The “Flowers” series not only celebrates creators’ accomplishments and validates the work that they put into creating content, but also engages their respective communities and gives them an opportunity to be recognized and celebrate their favorite creators.

A cinematic approach makes this series distinct from other viral-media formats and provides a premium quality that emphasizes the significance of these stories and YouTube’s investment in the Black creator community.

In crafting "Flowers", a combination of storytelling techniques were employed to create an engaging short documentary series that celebrated the featured creators’ overlooked contributions to digital culture. Face-to-face interviews combined with data-backed storytelling and archival footage, intertwine the creators’ inspiring personal narratives with a clear unfolding of the trends they played a role in and their impact on culture. Using mixed media, like archival footage and animations from YouTube, provides a visual celebration of this impact and the larger communities participating in these trends. The use of evocative B-roll and score, underscores each story's highs and lows. The song that accompanies the closing credits is Flowers by Tayla Parx, a member of YouTube’s Black Voices Fund class of 2022.

Since it launched 4 months ago, the three-part series amplifying black creators and stories has accumulated over 2 million views and significant positive engagement from audiences. Some of the top comments include “Thank you Nyma for the inspiration and your contribution to making dark skinned women included in the beauty space” and “this [Chicken Noodle Soup] dance sparked the whole Get Light movement..that style of dance literally influenced most modern day dancers”.

Featured creator sWooZie gained 29,206 followers during his portion of the campaign and commented on his video, “joining YouTube is hands down one of the best decisions I've made in my life! […] If you're on the fence about creating, consider what I would've missed out on if I never started posting videos and the same could be applied to you.”

These unique stories garnered coverage in Blavity, SIlifestyle, The Futon Critic, Morty’s TV and Tomilli, thus far.