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  I dedicate this book to all of my incredible fans, who have supported me endlessly. You’re all the reason why I do what I do, and everything I do is for you. Thank you for continuing to inspire me every single day. You’re my biggest motivation and I can never thank you enough. I love you all so much! This book is for you.

  INTRODUCTION

  Hey, guys, what’s up!

  Do you ever wonder which YouTuber said that first? Whoever it was should have trademarked the phrase, seeing as how 98 percent of us now use that same line to kick off a video. The person would be filthy rich by now!

  Or not. What’s so cool about YouTubers is that I don’t think many of us would ever be that stingy. The beautiful thing about YouTube is that it’s all about sharing! Collaborating and group participation are what we thrive on, and in that spirit, this book that you’re holding in your hands is not just me telling a bunch of little stories about my life. It’s also a chance for us to do some fun stuff together.

  It’s a pretty simple concept—each section within each chapter has a challenge that’s related to the subject I’m writing about, along with an extra totally random challenge thrown in for good measure! I’m going to be doing every single one of them, and you should do them along with me! If you complete one, put a photo or video of it on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or YouTube with the hashtag #FOLLOWMEBOOK, along with the hashtag assigned to each individual challenge. I’ll check it out and then repost it! Plus I’ll be posting my favorites along the way on my YouTube channel.

  When I first came up with the idea of doing a book, I knew I didn’t want to put something out that people would read and then place on their shelf to gather dust over the next ten years. I wanted something readers could keep coming back to, so I divided everything up by theme. This way if you ever find yourself in the mood to make a big change in your life, go back to the Ambition chapter and read my story on Self-Empowerment. Or if one day you’re feeling sad for any reason, flip to the Bummed Out chapter and check out the Social section. The whole point is to make this a different experience for everyone who picks it up. You’ll learn stuff about my family and my YouTube friends as well as my personal ones, along with my worries, insecurities, greatest memories, and tons more. Most important, I hope that by doing the challenges you’ll learn something new about yourself, too.

  Ready? Let’s do this!

  CHAPTER 1

  Happy

  CHALLENGE

  #DYEFORRICKY

  Dye your hair a crazy, wild color. It doesn’t have to be permanent—there are tons of temporary options out there.

  SOCIAL

  Here’s something you don’t hear too often: I was a happy kid growing up. My home life was awesome. I had parents who adored me and an older sister named Tara whom I was obsessed with because she never treated me like a bratty younger brother, and between band, tennis, and a job at the mall, my life was pretty full.

  We lived in Hoover, Alabama, a large, safe suburb of Birmingham. My dad worked as a pharmaceutical rep, Mom was a homemaker, and in high school I had a bright orange Kia Soul and a best friend named Shelby who was always up for anything. So it wasn’t like I was trying to escape some sort of horrible existence when I first started to meet people and make new friends on YouTube.

  I actually have Miley Cyrus to thank for my discovery of the site. More specifically, Hannah Montana. I was obsessed with the show. Not just for its kooky secret identity plot lines—I legitimately loved the music they played on it. I couldn’t find the songs on iTunes, though, and the Disney Channel hadn’t released any CDs yet because the show had just debuted. What can I say, I’m an early adopter.

  I hit Google up to see if I could find anyone who had uploaded the music to stream, and that’s when I stumbled across YouTube. Not only did I find all the songs from the show there, but people had posted lyric videos, too, so I could sing along. (My favorite was the song “This Is the Life.”) The website seemed cool, but there was no immediate feeling of OMG THIS IS MY FUTURE CALLING.

  A few years later, Ke$ha’s song “Tik Tok” came out, and I loved it. I went back to YouTube to look for the video after hearing it on the radio so I could listen to it as many times as I wanted. That’s when I discovered that tons of people were doing parody videos of it. I quickly became obsessed, and loved watching so many different kids offer their own take on the ridiculously catchy song. I was cruising through a whole stream of parodies on YouTube when I clicked on one by a girl named Braeton Brescia, who went by the username SoCalhco888. I started watching a bunch of her videos and thought they were hilarious, and through the recommended “up next” list that runs along the side of the YouTube screen, I discovered more YouTubers, like iJustine, Smosh, Brittani Louise Taylor, Andrea Russett, and a guy named Shane Dawson. He was singing along to “Tik Tok” on the radio in a car, so he hadn’t technically done a parody video, but he seemed really funny so I watched another one of his clips. And then another. And then another.

  Maybe two hours went by before I came up for air. Here’s the thing—even though I had some really solid friends, I was pretty sheltered. I didn’t go to parties and no one in my circle was particularly wild. Watching YouTubers like Shane, I felt like I’d suddenly made new friends who said all of the crazy, insane things that everyone thinks about inside, but doesn’t have the guts to say out loud. I couldn’t believe that this world existed and I’d never known about it. Actually I’m pretty sure no one in Alabama aside from me even knew what YouTube was at that point.

  I still had my old account from back in the days when I used to watch Hannah Montana videos, but I’d only ever used it to save videos I liked. I noticed that there seemed to be these whole micro-communities within the comments sections, and that the YouTubers themselves would sometimes even join the conversation. I started leaving little comments of my own, and would be thrilled and shocked when someone replied to something I wrote, or gave my messages a thumbs-up.

  YouTube was a whole new way of communicating with the world. I’d lived in the same town my entire life and knew what to expect from everyone around me. There were no surprises. Suddenly the entire globe seemed to explode before my eyes, and it all revolved around these funny, weird goofballs. There was something about the way they acted on camera—totally without shame or embarrassment—that looked so freeing. I couldn’t fathom acting like they did out in the real world, but I felt like I shared the same sense of humor as these people, and the idea of acting as crazy as I wanted, showing my creativity and self-expression without being scared that someone would make fun of me, suddenly seemed like a really important goal to chase. I had to let myself go and show my true self, something I had never really done before.

  I got Shelby into watching YouTubers with me and she loved them as much as I did, so we decided to start our own channel. My nickname at the time was Pickle, owing to the fact that my last name is Dillon. (As in dill pickle. Get it?) Shelby’s nickname was Banana, but only because some random girl started calling her that one day. So we named our channel PICKLEandBANANA.

  Quick side note about P&B: I can’t stand the name now. I feel like I have to explain the origin all the time because so many dirty-minded people thought it had something to do with, well, you know. It was very innocent, though! I swear!

  Anyway, we did a few music parodies. I knew how to use a video camera since I’d always made home movies when I went on vacati
on with my family. Even though I could be shy in real life, I always came alive in front of a camera. I directed Shelby and myself singing and dancing around to Britney Spears, Black Eyed Peas, and Aaron Carter. Unfortunately she got kind of bored with it all because her schedule was already really busy and it usually took all day to make just one video.

  I continued to watch videos in my free time over the next few months, and slowly began itching to get back involved. I kept commenting on my favorite YouTubers’ videos and started to amass a whole new social circle online. I loved my friends from school, but I got something different from these people. They felt more directly in line with the way my brain worked.

  It felt a little creepy telling my parents, “Hey, look at all these new friends I made on the internet!” But since they were on YouTube, I could actually see their faces, so I knew that I was messaging with a guy or girl my own age who genuinely had the same interests as me. As opposed to some pervy old dude hiding behind a fake screen name, pretending to be a fourteen-year-old girl.

  I set up my Ricky Dillon channel at exactly the right time—I’m part of the lucky first wave that got into YouTube early, back when making friends with strangers on the site was much easier than it is now. At that time, there were only a handful of megastars, and they engaged a lot more directly with fans by hosting video contests. You could easily upload your video to their video response section (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore), and if they liked you best you’d get a special shout-out, which introduced you to all of their subscribers.

  I have Braeton and her SoCalhco888 channel to thank for my first few thousand subscribers, which are always the hardest to get. I entered two of her contests with music videos of “Tik Tok” and “Starstrukk” by 3OH!3, and I placed really high both times!

  In that same spirit, the first themed challenge to kick-start this book not only brings back that tradition but encourages you to reach out and make a new friend.

  CHALLENGE

  #FRIENDFINDERFORRICKY

  Reach out to someone you’ve never met before but know has similar hobbies or passions, and collab with them! The project can be literally anything—a challenge from this book, one you’ve seen on YouTube, or something you two make up on your own. Some tips on finding your new friend: Search social media, join an extracurricular activity at school, or scour the comments section on my YouTube page!

  CHALLENGE

  #DOGWALKFORRICKY

  Gather up as many dogs as you can and see how many you can walk at once. Start with your own if you have one and then borrow from friends and family. Just make sure each one actually likes other dogs first!

  FAMILY

  My family has always been really active, and starting when I was around age seven we began an annual holiday tradition of hitting a ski resort for a week. Every year, we’d pick a different destination, and never went back to the same place twice. Not because we never enjoyed ourselves, but because we loved adventure and liked trying out new places and mountains. We traveled to Colorado, Arizona, West Virginia, and my all-time favorite, Deer Valley in Park City, Utah. The mountains up there make you feel like you’re on top of the entire world. All you see around you for miles are these white-crested peaks of pure wilderness, and you really get a sense of just how huge and beautiful America is. It’s pretty humbling.

  Those vacations are some of my best memories growing up. I was only in second grade when we started, but my parents trusted that I was old enough not to face-plant on the bunny slopes, and it turns out that they probably could have started me out much younger. I took to skiing like a kitty to catnip—it gave me a natural high.

  It’s odd that I was so good at skiing right off the bat, because when I’m walking around on my plain old feet I’m normally pretty clumsy. But I remember taking one class on the kiddie hill, looking at all the other children toppling over before they even started down the four-foot slope, and being all like, “Nope, give me the mountain.”

  Most ski resorts use a color/shape rating system to determine the difficulty of different slopes. A green circle means easy, while double black diamonds means possible death. Tara, my dad, and I would always go for the single black diamonds, but sometimes we’d come across a double black trail that both Tara and my dad could definitely handle but I was still too young to take. I’d be able to tell that Tara wanted to follow my dad down the mountain, but she always chose to stick with me instead and take the slightly easier route. She’d use the time to help me get even better at maneuvering my skis. Since I looked up to her so much and wanted to be like her, I memorized everything she taught me and was soon tackling harder and harder trails.

  Sharing the thrill of downhill skiing only reinforced my relationship with Tara. There’s nothing that compares to the feeling of conquering a mountain. You know how when you’re running down a hill, you’re still exerting energy? When you’re skiing you’re just kind of sitting there and letting the snow take you along, kind of like a roller coaster on the ground. It might look and sound terrifying to some but it’s utterly relaxing for me. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to flying without leaving the ground.

  In all my years of skiing I only fell three times. They were never bad spills, although there was that one time when I fell and lost a ski and had to slide down the rest of the mountain on my butt. It was embarrassing, but also kind of fun.

  My mom liked the easier slopes and would usually go off on her own, but she enjoyed the alone time. At the end of the day we’d all gather in the lodge and drink cocoa and play board games. We were super into anything that involved trivia, like Taboo, Blurt!, and Outburst. Everyone in my family has a pretty healthy competitive streak, and since we all had our individual strengths in different subjects we’d draw names from a hat to see who got paired up with whom, just to keep things interesting and different for each game.

  We’d also watch holiday-themed movies on television in our lodge suite. There was always one channel that would play tons of Disney movies in a row, but my favorite holiday films are the first two entries in the Home Alone series. I liked to think I could be as brave as Kevin if I ever got left behind and robbers tried to invade our house!

  Some years Tara would invite a friend to come along, and when she got older, her boyfriend was allowed to join us. Even in those years she’d make sure to spend a lot of time with me. I think that a lot of older siblings would choose to ditch the annoying little brother. But not her. Things weren’t always perfect; she definitely teased me sometimes like any normal older sister, but never in a malicious way. Tara taught me so much about loyalty, and in a way I think she’s the reason I feel so close to my viewers. She taught me that if someone looks up to you, then you should always show respect and take the person seriously.

  Looking back, what I love most about those trips was that they created a tradition, and traditions are a big part of what bonds a family together. You create memories that you can share. Once you leave home, they give you something to look forward to each time you visit.

  We eventually had to stop going on our ski trips because Tara got a volleyball scholarship for college, and if anything happened to her physically she could have lost the money, which would have affected her education. It didn’t matter how good she was, it was still too big a risk to take.

  I hope that one day we can start the tradition back up, though. Today Tara is married with a baby, and there’s nothing I’d love more than to give my little niece those same kinds of memories that I was lucky enough to have growing up. It will be my turn to be the older relative teaching the younger one how to conquer mountains. I’ll stay behind with her if everyone goes off to ski a harder slope. If she isn’t into skiing, then we’ll do something like build a snowman instead. Just like my sister did with me, I’ll let her know that I will always have her back. Being there for her daughter is the least I can give my sister in return for all the sweet things she did for me growing up.

  CHALLENGE

  #OUTSIDEFORRIC
KY

  Get outside! There are so many cool things to do—swim, hike, climb a tree, do handstands on the lawn, build a snowman—just show me that you love the great outdoors as much as I do. Seriously, even if it’s just looking at bugs under a rock or picking a daisy. I want to see you enjoying nature!

  CHALLENGE

  #EMOJISFORRICKY

  Act out five of your favorite emoticons. You get extra love for enlisting a friend to help you pose as the ballerina twins.

  MUSIC

  The first year of middle school is a huge moment in any kid’s life—the big symbolic leap from childhood to preteen. I couldn’t wait for it to start. Anything felt possible! No more dioramas or safety scissors for this guy. I’d spent the past six years wrapped up in an innocent childhood fog full of Game Boys and stuffed animals. The most stressful thing in my life was long division, and even that was pretty easy for me. It may be called junior high, but as far as I was concerned it was the big leagues and I was determined to make the most of it with my friends.

  Except that suddenly my friends disappeared. Bumpus Middle School (weird name, I know) split the sixth-grade class into three groups via a random lottery system. Everyone I knew from elementary school got placed in a different group than I did. We became divided by a large hallway that ran down the middle of the school, but it might as well have been the Grand Canyon in terms of the gaping chasm that separated me from my former source of social life.

  It’s not like I didn’t try to make new friends. The kids in my class were nice enough, but I was too busy going crazy from jealousy about all the fun stories my friends would tell me after school about what they were up to on the other side of the building. They’d all joined band and constantly raved about how cool it was, so solely in an effort to get back in with them, I decided to join band, too. It’s strange how a move that was originally nothing more than a strategic grasp at keeping my social life intact ended up affecting the course of the rest of my life.