Meghan Camarena known by her online pseudonym Strawburry17, is an American YouTube personality and television host. She has worked on a number of videos, web series, and films, gaining popularity as a YouTube star, and participating as a contestant with fellow YouTuber Joey Graceffa on The Amazing Race 22 and The Amazing Race: All-Stars. She was an on-screen host for video content at Teen.com and was the backstage correspondent for season 2 of the TruTV talent contest Fake Off. in 2017, she and fellow YouTuber Jimmy Wong co-hosted the video game themed variety showPolaris Primetime which was part of Disney's inaugural "D XP" summer programming block on Disney XD.
Career
Camarena was born in Fresno, California and grew up in Modesto, California. In her Draw My Life video, she said she had two older half-brothers from her parents' previous marriages, and younger twin brothers later. She would often take care of her younger brothers while her father was away and because her mother had suffered a bevy of physical problems and was on medication a lot. She graduated from Davis High School in 2005. Although she said she did okay in school, because of her mother's hardships, she said she was fairly depressed, had taken up drinking, and in college she had an on-and-off relationship with a boyfriend. Her grandmother took her to church where she made peace with God, left her boyfriend, and joined a Bible college internship program. During this time, she learned video production for her youth group. She was inspired by some YouTubers, and began making home videos. She started up a YouTube channel called strawburry17 in 2007 where she would do video blogging, lip dubbing, and would later have videos on "unboxing cutesy Japanese toys, taste-testing weird foods from around the world, and reviewing apps and games." Camarena said that she chose her AOL screen name based on a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon, and that her birthday was on the 17th, but since "strawberry17" was taken, she went with a different spelling. She has since stuck with that screen name for her projects and branding. Her first music video was a lip dub of "I'm a Gummy Bear" and featured her brother. Her videos soon became popular and she was getting offers from record and media companies. In 2010, she began corresponding with YouTuber Joey Graceffa who was located in Boston and who was planning to move to Los Angeles. In 2011, she met YouTuber Jimmy Wong who had encouraged her to enter a YouTube video contest called Next Up where the prize was $35k. She said she entered that in the last minute. She was selected as one of the 25 winners, and attended a YouTube boot camp in Manhattan. Using her Next Up money, she moved to Los Angeles In 2012, a YouTube upstart company called Big Frame arranged for her a trip to India where she made videos for the nonprofit organization Water.org. In Los Angeles, she produced videos for Teen.com and also hosted their YouTube channel along with Graceffa. The same year, when Google updated its analytics to throw out inactive and closed subscriber accounts, Camarena said she started treating her YouTube channel more like a company rather than just an Internet channel. She likened the YouTube channel to a startup, and when she hired staff for production and marketing, she said she was able to take on acting projects and do appearances at events. She had produced videos five days a week. She would also prepare videos in a large batch for the season, so it could run over several months. She and Graceffa participated in season 22 of The Amazing Race, where they competed as "Team Cute". Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan said "They are young and street-smart and savvy, and they get on very well. I could see them going a long way". The team was eliminated in the tenth episode and finished fifth overall. They would return for the All-Stars season, where they were eliminated in the third episode and finished ninth overall. Also in 2014, she produced a zombie-themed short film called The Grey Road which was funded by Ron Howard's New Form Incubator program. In 2015, she was the backstage correspondent for the second season of Fake Off, which was a talent show broadcast on TruTV. She signed a deal with Disney's Maker Studios where she worked on creating online content in the entertainment industry. Her YouTube channel went over 1 million subscribers. In October of that year, she and other YouTube creators made a project called Spider-Man Murder Mystery which ran on Instagram. Camarena played character Gwen Stacy, who also goes by "Spider-Gwen". She starred as one of the eight correspondents of Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed, a multi-part documentary on video games, where she followed people involved in e-sports. In 2017, she and Wong were selected to co-host the video game themed variety show Polaris Primetime which was created as part of Disney's "D XP" programming block on Disney XD. In 2018, she and YouTubers Markiplier, Jacksepticeye and LuzuGames launched Twitch channels. Camarena has appeared at several conventions including multiple VidCons, SXSW, Playlist Live and various Comic-Cons. In 2016, she was an L.A. Biz Women of Influence honoree. She cited Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as some of her biggest influences and inspirations. She and YouTuber Jacksepticeye hosted the Level Up! games panel at the D23 Expo 2017.
Personal life
Camarena is half-Mexican and half German-Irish. She lives in the Los Angeles area. When she had moved to Los Angeles in 2011, she was dating Wong but they broke up in 2013. In addition to attending YouTube related conventions, she has participated as a cosplayer, an activity she has done since 2011. She, Graceffa and YouTuber Catherine Valdes had also created a band called The Tributes with music video parodies based on The Hunger Games film series.
