What started as a hobby during college eventually became a career that brought Rei Germar to places she once only dreamed of reaching. In an Instagram post, the content creator took a moment to look back on how far she has come, reflecting on the journey that began with simply sharing pieces of her life online.
Years before she became known for her beauty, fashion, lifestyle, and travel content, Rei was a college student who enjoyed watching YouTube videos. This eventually led to her deciding to create videos of her own. Her first upload came in December 2016. At the time, becoming a full-time content creator was not part of her career plans.
“I never thought it was going to be something that I was gonna do as a living or, like, as a profession,” Rei previously told Cosmopolitan Philippines.
She initially treated YouTube as a hobby, sharing beauty and fashion-related content because she genuinely enjoyed creating and talking to people online. That changed when one of her early videos gained unexpected attention.
Her “Divisoria Haul” vlog became a turning point in her journey. Before the video, Germar had around 700 subscribers and was getting fewer than 5,000 views per upload. She recalled being surprised when the video suddenly attracted a much bigger audience.
“I never expected that video to blow up,” she said in an interview with MEGA.
The sudden growth opened doors that Rei had not anticipated. What began with filming videos as a college student eventually developed into a full-time career, allowing her to work with brands, build businesses, and grow a community of viewers who had followed her journey through the years.
In 2022, Rei recalled how she once did not even realize that vlogging could become a source of income. During one of her first events, she was surprised when someone asked if she had a dollar account for her salary.
“What suweldo? I didn't know I could vlog for a living,” she recalled in an interview with Preview.
But beyond the numbers and opportunities, Rei’s journey also became a story of personal growth.
She has previously spoken about how she was once insecure and hesitant to take risks. Spending years in front of the camera pushed her to become more comfortable with herself while also becoming more conscious of the influence she had over her audience.
“I slowly learned how to appreciate everything that I am,” she said in her 2021 MEGA interview.
As her content evolved, so did she. Her videos eventually expanded beyond beauty and fashion into lifestyle and travel, reflecting changes in both her interests and her life. She also ventured into entrepreneurship, including her comfortwear and nipple-cover brand Tapies, while continuing to collaborate with different brands and build her presence as a creator.
Today, the college student who once simply wanted to share her thoughts and experiences online has built a career around doing exactly that. And perhaps that is what makes her journey worth looking back on.
For Rei, the journey was not something she could have completely planned from the beginning. She simply started creating, and years later, she gets to look back and see just how far that first upload took her.