Michelle Phan tells Mashable how much VidCon has changed since she first attended
Mashable spoke with YouTuber and EM cosmetics founder Michelle Phan at VidCon 2026 as one of the inductees of the Hall of Fame.
VidCon 2026 welcomed content creator Michelle Phan into its second class of Hall of Famers, alongside Markiplier, Philip DeFranco, and Blogilates founder Cassey Ho.
A pioneer in the beauty content creation space, Phan began posting makeup tutorials on YouTube in 2007. On top of spawning an internet beauty empire, her tutorials led to partnerships with Lancôme and L'Oréal. Phan also launched her own brands, including beauty subscription box IPSY and EM Cosmetics.
Phan started her career long before words like "YouTuber" or "content creator" became household terms, and she's witnessed the internet go through a drastic shift in terms of attitudes towards creators.
"Today, people know that the moment you turn on the camera and you're dancing in front of it or filming, they don't look at you weird," Phan told Mashable digital culture editor Crystal Bell.
"When I was being a YouTuber, people would look at me strange when I had my camcorder out and I'm filming out in public. They thought, 'Who is this person doing this weird thing?'" Phan recalled. "But today it's so normalized. Everyone's making content, and I think that's a beautiful thing, because everyone has a story to share."
That shift is clear at VidCon 2026, which has grown leaps and bounds since Phan first attended in the convention's early days.
"It was so surreal just to see how massive it is now and all the different creators," Phan said. "I would say I feel like I knew that it would become bigger like this, but it's so surreal to see that we're here now."
You can watch the whole interview above, and for all things VidCon, Mashable has you covered.
