Vanessa Van Edwards is a bestselling author and creator of viral social-hack videos who started her YouTube channel in 2007 while struggling with loneliness and social anxiety. Her first viral hit came in 2011, four years of weekly posting later, leading to a 2015 breakthrough that brought a book deal and TED Talk.
Hi, I'm Vanessa. I'm a bestselling author and recovering awkward person. If you're seeing this, welcome to my little corner of the world. You might know me for my viral videos on social hacks, weirdest social experiments, or awkwardly relatable communication moments. Today, I wanted to just reintroduce myself and share a little bit more about who I am behind the scenes. I accidentally stumbled into this weird career actually trying to be a writer. Even though you see me on camera a lot, I'm actually an ambivert. Meaning I can socialize but need lots of recharging. Most people don't know this about me, but I struggled a lot with loneliness and social anxiety. I put out videos just as much for you as for me. I started talking about this as an experiment on YouTube in 2007. That's 2007. And didn't get my first viral hit until 2011. It was a long 4 years of side hustling and trying to make ends meet. But I kept posting a video every week and had one big goal: be aggressively helpful. We had another viral moment in 2013 and then again in 2015, and that one got me my big book deal, which got me my TED Talk, and then so many incredible partnerships. It's been a wild ride. I now have the absolute privilege of working with many amazing companies, speaking on stages, and most importantly, connecting with you. I have an amazing team at Science of People, and we get up every day asking, what would be the most helpful For people looking to connect. My goal is to help you feel less alone and give you tools to communicate as your best self. So thank you for being here, for supporting my long, crazy journey, and for allowing me to share my wild ideas with you. I am so grateful.
