Discovering Mina Le: How One YouTuber Redefined Research-Based Commentary for Me

I love Youtube. The app is the world’s most popular and widely used social media platform. But, with 63.8 million creators on the app, it is hard to sift through and find Youtubers that resonate with me. Four years ago I was a high school student experiencing lockdown and remote learning for the first time. This meant that I was trying to find anything to pass the time. One day I was scrolling YouTube when I came across a video titled “Why Atonement Deserved an Oscar for Costume Design” by a creator named Mina Le. The title intrigued me and while I had never watched the movie I wanted to hear why this Youtuber thought that the movie had been snubbed for costume design. So I clicked on the video and started watching. What came next was twelve minutes of thoughtful and research based critique that brought in historical references. I was blown away by the quality of her research and the time she took to fully dissect the movie and the deeper meanings behind the costuming in it. I immediately subscribed to her channel and ever since I have watched every video that she has published. 

The reason I like Mina Le so much is because of her use of research and historical data. Whenever she approaches a video, whether it be critiquing costume design or reviewing movies, she approaches the topic with facts and logic. This can be seen in her most recent video “The Myth of the Pilates Body.” In her video, Mina discusses the creation of Pilates starting all the way back with Joseph Pilates himself. She then elaborates on the history of women’s sports and ends with discussing the culture surrounding pilates right now. While this video deviates from her traditional fashion commentary videos she approaches it with the same level of research and attention to detail as she would any other video. 

Mina Le also is a huge supporter of sustainable fashion which resonates with me deeply as someone who cares about the environment. Her most popular video titled “TikTok is Kinda Bad For Fashion” discusses how the increased speed at which trends fluctuate leads consumers to feel as if they constantly need new clothing. But, constantly buying new clothing at a standard price is not financially possible for most of the population which leads to consumers purchasing fast fashion off of sites such as Shein which is known for using unethical labor to produce garments at shockingly low prices. 

Mina continues to use her platform to inform watchers with high quality research based material on issues that are often overlooked by the mainstream media. I highly recommend that you check out a few of her videos and even subscribe to support her and her research.