Wm20s
Staying True
Wasting My 20s (Wm20s) is an art collective based in Long Island, New York. One of the founding members, Fradin Louis, talks about how the collective has grown from a travel video series with friends into a full-fledged media brand with photography, special guests, on-screen interviews, and live performances.
Long Island, New York, USA
We’re at a point where the first generation of kids exposed to social media have now grown into adulthood. That being said, you could be doing everything “right” (working hard, going to school etc.) only to go on YouTube and see a 20 year-old who became a millionaire by being a literal piece of shit... Nowadays, it’s easy to feel like you’re Wasting Your Twenties. We just wanted to let people know they aren’t alone.
The WM20s crew started out with Anthony & Fradin, but it grew to include Paul, Alejandro , and Tristyn. WM20s (short for Wasting My Twenties) started out initially as a video series that documented our travels and interactions (that’s still on our YouTube page), then it grew from there. We genuinely enjoyed what we were doing, so we found ways to highlight it as consistently as possible by experimenting with new types of content, such as Better Than Buzzfeed (BTB), and Wasted Studios.
BTB
BTB is a topic-based series we created to highlight the lively personalities of the people around us, organically. We were able to do so by creating an environment that made our guests feel comfortable, which enables them to express themselves freely. The topics are strategically selected to resonate with the people on camera, as well as the ones watching, ranging from Favorite Fast Food to Advice You’d Give if You Could Go Back in Time.
Wasted Studios
Wasted Studios came about by melding our love of music, and our passion for creating visuals. Simply put, we noticed the talent that surrounded us on Long Island as well as the boroughs of New York, and decided to use our platform to highlight a few of those individuals. The performances are carefully selected, and they respectfully speak for themselves. Wasted Studios is a project that we get a ton of personal satisfaction from, because it’s our way of giving back to the culture that does so much for us.
Objectively, WM20s has a lot of potential. We’re creating quality content that’s genuinely & wholeheartedly made with love, and our audience could sense it. They’re the reason why we’ve been growing at such a rapid pace recently. That being said, we believe 5 years from now, WM20s will be a brand known internationally for creating unique content. More importantly, we’d have gotten said recognition while staying true to our essence... THAT’S the real win right there. There’s a bunch of ways to get to a bag, but what good is it if you have to sell your soul in the process? A lot can happen in 5 years, and in life there are no guarantees, but the one thing that we could unwaveringly guarantee is that in 5 years, WM20s will have stayed true.
