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BY SYDNEY ADAMSONSummer
McKeen
S
oon enough, you’ll find yourself
sliding into your newly assigned
seats and scanning syllabi on the
first day of school as you’re hit with
one very sad realization: Summer
doesn’t last forever.
That is, unless you’re actress and
YouTuber Summer McKeen—and
you’re currently starring in the hugely popular
(think: millions of unique viewers in its first season)
Snap Original series Endless Summer. The show’s
second season, which launched in June, follows
the events of Summer’s life in Laguna Beach, Calif.
after her breakup with longtime boyfriend and
fellow creator Dylan Jordan.
While the show is mostly scripted, it’s based
on real-life events. So the emotions are totally
genuine—which made some of the scenes extra
difficult to film for Summer.
“Dylan and I had just recently split, and then
we had to relive that experience for the show.
We had these deep, hours-long conversations on
camera, which brought back up a lot of feelings we
had only just gone through,” reveals Summer, who
also starred in Brat’s Afterschooled. “It was a super
nerve-wracking and vulnerable position to be in.”
Beyond Snapchat, Summer posts constantly
on her health- and lifestyle-focused YouTube chan-
nel. From dreamy beach trips with bestie Maddie
Ziegler to makeup tutorials and try-on hauls from
her bedroom, Summer shares it all with her 2.
million subscribers in her chatty and honest vlogs.
If that sounds fun and lighthearted, it should.
Summer’s made a conscious decision to
ensure that her content focuses on the positive,
something she sees as super important—especially
when posting on a platform that’s teeming with
clickbait and cancel culture.
“I don’t like to talk about negative things
unless I can bring light to it in some way,” Summer
says. “Life is too short to get caught up in negativ-
ity.” That’s part of the reason why she dropped a
hugely popular video last fall about self-worth. In
the 13-minute viral vid, Summer lamented about
the pressures to be perfect—especially when it
comes to what you post on social media.
“It’s crazy how hard we girls are on ourselves
about the way we look. I feel a responsibility to
my followers to be a role model. I want so badly
for them to know their worth as human beings,”
Summer shares. “That video was a way to get that
message across. There’s no one out there who’s
exactly like you—and you should embrace that.”