Face or No Face: That is the question

I do not show my face in my Youtube videos. Here is why I made this choice, and what were the consequences.

I created my Youtube channel to make science accessible to the youngest children. I aim to provide videos for simple science activities that can be easily replicated at home. Fun, engaging videos that contain step by step instructions for parents and kids to watch each step, pause the video, follow the step in real life, unpause the video, continue watching the next step, and so on. My goal is to encourage science play in parallel to the video. But without using my face in them. Here I present the idea of my channel, the reasons I avoid showing my face, and the consequences that arise.

The idea

The idea goes back to when my kids and I followed cooking recipes on Youtube from Akis’ Kitchen, a celebrity Greek chef. We would all gather in the

kitchen, watch part of the video, pause it, follow the instruction in real life, unpause the video, continue, and so on until the recipe was complete. It was a great activity because my kids and I both had so much fun, bonded, laughed, and learned. I wanted to recreate the fun experience, but for early-years, science education.

BUT I did not want to show my face in any of my videos.

Using my face would probably be pleasing to the eye. It is something we are used to. Facial expressions would allow me to project my excitement for the science experiments, transferring my emotions to the kids, and creating a natural bond between me and the viewers. It would also help kids to have a face for their online science “play-friend”.
But, I wanted to avoid showing my face (or my kids’ face) to preserve the privacy of my family. In a hypothetical and desirable scenario that my channel grew, I wanted to make sure that my young kids are not affected. I did not want any hurtful comments about my videos, or myself, to be expressed in the presence of my children or at my children directly. I did not want anyone from my family to be linked with any negative aspects of my creative side. I wanted my children to have the right to anonymity and the freedom to be children.

Could I still create my dream Youtube channel but without using my face?

As I started thinking about how to film my videos without my face, I was very confused. How could I create videos that would engage with kids and encourage them to play with science activities, without showing my face? Using just my hands in an entire video, wasn’t a good enough option because I wanted to project my happy and vibrant personality through the videos. I wanted to show my joy and enthusiasm for the activities, encouraging families to correlate science play with fun and happiness. Just like cooking, when we are all together, cooking, bonding, and having lots of laughter.
When my kids and I play with science activities, we usually move around, gather items, get excited, clap, some times even have a small dance in between. During our science play, our kitchen is filled with sounds of giggles, clapping, singing, jumping, and so on. For our family, cooking and science are all about the excitement to explore, have fun, and learn on the way but in a playful, joyful way. And this is what I wanted to project and encourage through my videos.

How could I film such videos without using my face or my kids in them? The answer that came to my mind was simply recording myself just as I would if my face was in the video, but cutting my head out of the video. Simple I thought! Could this work? Let’s just give it a try.

I created one video, showed it to a few parent friends, and asked for their feedback. And the feedback was rather interesting! My kids watched the video and didn’t even wonder where my face was. They laughed when watching it and they remembered a few of the lines I used in the video and repeated them while they were replicating the experiment. My neighbors’ kids didn’t believe it was me in the videos until I showed them the red dress I was wearing at filming. Maybe not using my face isn’t such a big deal for kids. So I uploaded my videos on Youtube and waited for reactions.

I shared the videos in a few Reddit & Facebook parents’ groups and the feedback started coming.

Several parents found the entire idea of filming without my face very disturbing, especially because of my feminine body and movements.

“IDK, but maybe it’s me, but the lack of face there, is a bit disturbing, especially since the focus right in the middle of the screen is your (rather noticeable) boobs. This might prove a distraction to a 4-year-old, especially if they were breastfed. I know that sounds Freudian, but I think not.”

Other parents felt the exact opposite, suggesting that the lack of face in the videos is working for young kids.

“Kindergarten teacher and mum here, these videos are great! This is perfect bcuz some kids will be able to follow this independently. I like the close-up shots of the activities and that you do not use your face. My kids were sure it was me who participated in the videos and felt an instant connection. So I think you made a smart choice in how you shot the video.”

I am not going to present the entire selection of negative and positive comments, but I will focus on the two sides of the coin. People’s reactions belonged in these two opposites:

1. People who felt the lack of face in videos is disturbing. This group did not share the videos with their kids because they were very unpleasant to their minds/eyes.
2. People who felt the lack of face was working for them and the kids. This audience understood the reasoning behind not using my face in the videos. They stated that kids could use their imagination and imagine whoever they wanted for the main female figure. They reported that kids usually imagined a familiar female figure they play in the house, such as their mother or teacher.

The truth is, some negative comments were painful to read, but also understandable as this is such an unusual way of presenting kids’ science activities or videos in general. But, I love my videos. I love that my face is not in them. I love that I can still transfer happy, joyous, and playful feelings to young kids through them. I love that I can see kids dancing and clapping and getting excited over an experiment they did through my channel. I love receiving all the positiveness from parents who tried these quick videos with their little ones and enjoyed their moments of science explorations. I love that these families created positive memories, through small, engaging videos that help kids learn through play!

It’s my opinion that the lack of a face works well for kids, and it is only disturbing to the adult mind who correlates body movement and dancing with sensuality. Had I done these exact videos with my face in them, smiling and being excited, I would probably not get so many, negative comments (and maybe, my channel and idea for parallel science play to videos, would have done much better).

But, then again, I would be going against my own beliefs.

For me, this is an interesting experience.
I wonder, can we see beyond our stereotypical norms of a female dancing body and focus on the point of these videos? OR Is the lack of a face combined with a feminine dancing body too much for our eye/brain that takes away from the aim of the videos? Is the lack of a face too disturbing we simply can not see beyond it? I don’t know yet!

Let me know your thoughts.

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