"I feel like I'm talking to my best friend," fans often say to influencer Monet McMichael. We're on the phone just weeks after she made her way to our offices for her first major magazine shoot. On the video call, she's sitting at her vanity and wearing a soft glam look, a typical scene from her YouTube videos. But during our interview, she seems more timid and reserved than we see her there. Her characteristic bold, carefree attitude doesn't come out until we're deep into our conversation, laughing about questionable fashion trends and gushing about her career highlights. These relatable moments that prompt viewers to call her their "bestie"are what create McMichael's appeal. She's made a career of making 378,000 subscribers feel like they're a part of her life.

"I think the audience that gathered around on my platform made me feel so safe," McMichael, 23, tells Teen Vogue. "I felt like we could honestly just do anything together for the first time. And especially when I'm trying something like waxing, I was like, "No, we have to do this together."

From south New Jersey, Ahnesti Monet McMichael is known as Monet to her subscribers around the world. She's a content creator who's popular for her candor, chatting with the camera with enthusiasm and ease, almost like she's letting viewers in on a secret. This especially shines through in her viral Get Ready With Me (GRWM) videos that capture everything from school, work, and dating to DIY tutorials, makeup hacks, and even armpit hair waxing.

With her community around her, McMichael doesn't shy away from showing things many might keep private -- that's not her style and, apparently, it never has been. "I've always been rebellious," she says, describing her exploration of fashion and beauty as a preteen.

"I've always been a glam girl at heart as far as I can remember. I think everyone in my family -- all my aunties and my mom especially, and my grandma -- have always been the most beautiful women in the world to me. They definitely inspired me in that way," McMichael says, reflecting on her interest in fashion and beauty as a young Black and Puerto Rican girl.

She also had the unique experience of growing up at the peak of YouTube's beauty boom. "Watching all [the] trends and college girls and doing the go-to makeup..." she says nostalgically. "When I got a little older, YouTube was my saving grace.""

With a smile, she fondly recalls watching hair tutorials on the app and trying them for herself. "Growing up in sports too, I'd be the one girl who's doing everyone's hair before softball games and just trying out those things," she says.

It was in middle and high school when McMichael's vlogging journey started. She made her first YouTube video at 12, inspired by the creators she liked to watch. And while she's known for being open about her mental health, insecurities, and other struggles, McMichael says she didn't always have the confidence to be so candid on camera.

Although McMichael made her first post in 2009, it wasn't until 2021 that she captured widespread attention with a slow-motion video of herself flipping her hair. (She said that video was actually just a happy accident, shot and edited by her brother.) Her followers seemed to like the inside look at her formerly less-than-glamorous life: She showed her viewers her time as a nursing student when she'd go to class and work at the hospital during the day and work on her career as a content creator at night. Many viewers found it relatable and in the comments section of those videos, fans shared their own work experiences, telling her that she felt like their big sister. McMichael graduated from nursing school in 2022, but her career as an influencer has since taken off, so she's leaving the scrubs behind for now.

In the process, McMichael has also documented her path to self-love, the one that allows her to let her fans in on just about everything. At first glance, you might not expect that McMichael would struggle with self-love. She's undeniably pretty, her comment section is filled with compliments, her pictures are used for beauty inspiration, and her face is at the center of several beauty campaigns. But for McMichael, it goes back to her childhood. It's not immediately apparent in her early videos, but she revealed glimpses of her insecurities here and there.

"It was definitely wholesome and fun at first in middle school, and then I retreated and got a little more self-conscious in my high school years," she says. "I broke free from that or I just learned how to love myself unconditionally. It was more so like, "Girl, let's just share it. Let's just find more love in it. Why are we being scared right now?"

"I think my self-love journey was definitely a long one, especially just my experience being a teenage girl who was very different in my high school," she says, reflecting on her upbringing in south Jersey. Her attractiveness didn't protect her from feeling othered because of her race. "[My school] was majority white and I felt like such an odd one. My entire life, I was in the mindset of I don't fit in."

But among her family, McMichael said she found comfort and acceptance. And social media allowed her to grow a community of people who looked like her. " I think I got a lot of confidence from social media and just having people in my comments that looked like me and just related to me," she says.

Now, viewers have watched McMichael's confidence grow. In one video, she talks about being insecure about her teeth. Later, we see her embrace her smile by getting tooth gems.

McMichael still keeps it real in her videos, like taking viewers to her bikini wax appointment or spilling major life updates while doing her makeup. But, after getting a major brand deal in February 2022 that allowed her to take her influence full-time, she can be found heading off to a photo shoot, red carpet, or Fashion Week in a major city. "It started at my beauty desk in the comfort of my home, and now it's so amazing seeing the opportunities that are possible," McMichael says. "I just had no idea that I would be able to experience these things.""

Two certainties remain: She still takes her camera with her almost everywhere she goes and she's kept her signature open, honest dialogue, ready to show and tell her viewers anything. She's acutely aware that her new lifestyle is a rare one and she's leaning into it.

"I love to share as much as I can because it's such a small percent of the world that gets to do things like this," she says. "I would want to know if I was watching myself, like, "What are you doing? How do we get here?"" I spill all the tea. I think it's fun."

This year alone, McMichael bought a house, attended New York Fashion Week, made her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week, and went on plenty of brand trips. Yes, even that one (the viral Tarte trip). She explains, "I think this year has definitely been my discovery year and just trying new things." Of course, there are pros and cons to every job. Embracing these realities has allowed McMichael to maintain the candid personality she's known for, even now that she's playing in the big leagues of beauty and fashion. Over the past few weeks, McMichael has been honest with her fans about the difficulties she has been facing, especially criticism of her style. That has had a profound influence on her outlook as a content creator in the fashion industry.

"I think there's definitely another layer of pressure, a good pressure, just to really express [and] have fun with expressing how I'm feeling, and also physically with my makeup, with my outfits, with my feelings," she says. "I think it's just with my internal fears and stuff, I feel like I've let a lot of that go and [I'm] embracing it."

"Sometimes, I look back at myself and I definitely cringe, but most of it I'm just like, "It's so cute," McMichael says. "She helped us get here..." And to the naysayers, McMichael has a simple message: "I'm like, "It's not serious, let's just have fun."" We all express ourselves differently. It's like, "What can you really say about how I want to pop off?"

McMichael is following the legacy of early YouTube influencers she admired growing up, like Nazanin Kavari, Desi Perkins, and Bethany Mota. "At just 14 years old, I turned to Bethany and Desi for fall aesthetics and looked up to Naz Kavari for prom season inspiration," McMichael says. Following their lead, she's brought back some of the pillars of classic beauty influencing -- talking directly to the viewer, seemingly presenting candid, unfiltered thoughts.

As the beauty influencer industry becomes more saturated and more influential, the barometer of an It girl continues to change. She has to stay real and grounded while simultaneously finding new, exciting ways to keep and draw in viewers. Yet, she has to maintain a chic, polished image that will make brands want to invest in her. Now at the top, McMichael faces the challenge of maintaining that balance, especially as she ventures deeper into the luxury market.

With that in mind, McMichael is ready to take on even more. "I feel like back when I hit a thousand subscribers, it felt just as big as these bigger milestones," she says. "I'm excited for half a million. We'll keep going. We're just going to keep going, we're going to keep pouring into it."

For McMichael, she says her success isn't just her own. The community she's fostered on her platform has created a space for young Black and brown kids to see someone who looks like them in an industry that's been gatekept for so long. "I'm doing it for the younger version of me that I see in my cousins and my siblings and the girls that get it."