Georgia Becker, daughter of DooBop creator Jodie Patterson, found a unique way to rid herself of the frustration that came when looking for YouTube vloggers she could relate to. Her solution: create and develop a website that helps you find your perfect YouTube vlogger based on your skin tone, techniques you want to learn and even your favorite celebrity styles. Read along to learn how she and her step dad Joseph Ghartey, founded a unique site that may change the way we use YouTube.

EBONY: YouTube is a very extensive website full of videos of every possible stripe. What was the process of developing a site that actually filters videos from YouTube?

Georgia Becker: This came naturally to me because even before I Want That Look (IWTL) was an idea, I was noticing the lack of filters on Youtube and how that made it harder to utilize what YouTube offered. My step dad, Joe, and I sat down and just starting spit-balling things that we look for in videos, be it the intensity of the makeup, or the colors being used, and how to make it more efficient for the user. We talked about which sections each filter should go under. After that, Joe began to work out all of the technical things and how to actually make them work on the site.

EBONY: What was the most fun part of creating IWantThatLook.com? What was the hardest?

GB: Actually, seeing the site come together was my favorite part of building IWTL because it became real and I could see all of the effort in one final project. The toughest part had to be scheduling because with my packed school schedule, it was hard to find time where Joe and I could actually sit down for even just an hour and look at the site together and work out all of the kinks.

EBONY: You watched your mother create an online beauty platform as well as an indie beauty line. Do you think that her passion for beauty rubbed off on you as well?

GB: Beauty has always been a big part of my life. When I was younger and my mom still had her store in NoLita, I would go there after school and help sell the products, or dust the shelves, and help out. The more time I spent there, the more knowledgeable I began to become about hair and beauty. Although outer beauty was a big part of my life, at home inner beauty was always emphasized, and as I grow older, I’m beginning to understand it more. My mom is definitely a reason I felt the drive to co-found a beauty website, but so were my friends and family.

EBONY: How do you think this could help Black girls feel more included in the beauty conversation online?

GB: With beauty, everyone has particular needs and concerns, and we are really into letting our users define beauty themselves based on their own preferences. We gave our users a way to filter beauty through their own point of view, making everything more relevant. The conversation gets very personal.

EBONY: Did you have to partner with YouTube to filter their videos to your site, or was this a project that you built with your stepdad on your own?

GB: Joe, our team, and I built IWTL from scratch. We didn’t have any idea on how to make a website that streamlined the way you found beauty videos, but eventually we were able to come up with the product that is IWTL. But the cool thing is, we use Youtube as our resource, so it supplies all of the videos that you’ll find on our site.

EBONY: How have you balanced creating Iwantthatlook.com with school and other extra curricular activities?

GB: It was definitely hard for me to balance school, yoga, the school musical, or dancing with working on IWTL. Sometimes, I just didn’t have enough time in a day to sit down and work with Joe because of my other interests. Having a partner is really helpful, when I can’t do something, Joe does it.

EBONY: Would you say that you’d like to work in beauty when you’re older?

GB: I’m not sure what I want to do when I’m older, but I know that beauty is always going to be a part of my life either because it’s what makes up my job, or because it’s what I’m passionate about, or because my mom is part of it.

EBONY: Did you more enjoy the tech aspect of developing this site or the beauty aspect?

GB: When it came to the techy part of building IWTL, I was lost! I had taken a computer programming class in school, but I was still in way over my head. The beauty part was definitely more my zone, and every now and then I’ll ask Joe to explain something techy to me, but I regret it when the headache kicks in!

Check out I Want That Look and support this amazing young entrepreneur!
-Melanie Yvette Martin