YouTube is the domain of the young. Maybe not to the same extent as TikTok – where those born in the late 90s and early 2000s were tongue-in-cheek referred to as the older generation – but the big name creators, the videos that get So Many Hits are things that connect with screen-savvy Gen Z folks.

So if you want to discover who the younger generation are idolising, seek out the highly followed under-20s. Late in Level 4 lockdown, I discovered Emma Chamberlain.... and I was hooked. I can try to blame the fact that I work in a teen-oriented industry (kids books), but ultimately, I just vibe with her unabashed franticness. There are vlogs, there are cooking videos, there are collabs with Louis Vuitton. She burps and farts on camera, she talks about her mental health, she's obsessed with iced almond milk lattes and her cats and Coachella. And she's hilarious.

It's an insight into a world I've aged out of, and I can't get enough.

Look, if you're a seasoned RuPaul's Drag Race fan, this year has been good – maybe too good – to you. We've had Season 12, All Stars 5, Canada's Drag Race and even Drag Race Holland – and Celebrity Drag Race too, if we're being thorough. We were spoiled. And now we need more.

Good news! YouTube has you covered. There's WOWPresents, the production company's channel, full of hyper camp music videos of varying calibres, fashion takedowns, various talking head web series featuring RPDR alumnae and behind the scenes clips from the various shows in the Drag Race library of TV.

It's also where you'll find UNHhhh (yes, four Hs), the original YouTube outing of Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, two of my favourite queens – and yes, I know that's hardly the most original choice, don't come for me. Said favourites can also be seen on the Netflix YouTube channel's I Like To Watch, where they sit in full high drag sipping from teacups and dissecting Netflix original content. It's every bit as ridiculous and hysterically funny as you'd hope.

I don't know if I watch Mama Doctor Jones to be entertained, to learn, to feel satisfied that I already know things, or just to be reassured that there are medical professional in the US who are doing what they can to look out for people with uteruses.

It's a little of all of them. My Call the Midwife stanning first brought Danielle Jones, MD to my attention when a CtM-focused episode of 'ObGyn Doctor Reacts' clip popped up on my suggested videos. I soaked it up and immediately followed it up with another episode in her 'ObGyn Doctor Reacts', this one focused on the birth of Sybbie on Downton Abbey. And then, confident in Danielle's politics and perspective, I jumped into a rabbit hole of more reaction videos (I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant features prominently), tips about gynaecology appointments, perspectives on COVID-19 in pregnancy.

If you're after something less uterus-centric, Dr Mike makes for pretty decent medical-oriented viewing too, but to me, Mama Doctor Jones ("OB-Gyn and mom to four") has an extra sparkle.

The first Vogue 73 Questions interview I watched was GOAT gymnast Simone Biles – which gives you further insight into my YouTube viewing habits that aren't touching on here. The most recent one I watched was Lizzo. Other recent viewings include Awkwafina, Dan Levy, Daisy Ridley, Michael B. Jordan and Greta Gerwig. Olivia Colman is my only repeat view to date.

There are some questions that recur, but the team behind the videos clearly does their homework to tailor the interview each celeb to create a fit-for-purpose 73 questions to walk and talk around the subject's house, hotel room or neighbourhood. Joe Sabia, the creator of the series, is an excitable voice behind the camera who seems to really keep the stars engaged and entertaining in their responses.

Even Anna Wintour herself has participated. I also note that there are currently 71 interviews on the 73 Questions YouTube playlist – WHO WILL BE THE 73RD? Anna, Joe, it'd be better be good.

There are a whole lot of 'slow TV' videos on YouTube, some of which have gotten media attention in the past. Norway is where it seems to have originated, with real-time videos of train journeys through outrageously beautiful Scandinavian countryside.

But if you're not in the mood for a multi-hour gentle travel escapade, my pick for a short form slow TV is this video of Amber Hunt from the English National Ballet preparing her pointe shoes. It's got an ASMR quality to it, as she boils the kettle and darns the toes and squashes the toe boxes of the shoes. But mostly, it's just a calming window into a performer's routine – in stark contrast to the high octane day in the life videos you can find on other YouTube channels.

And it's interesting! If you've had any significant ballet experience or exposure, you'll know the palaver that goes into making a pair of pointe shoes fit just right, and if you haven't had that kind of exposure, this video will give you some insight into this weirdly specific process. Warning: you might end up like me and find yourself blinking blearily in a darkened room, six videos deep into similar pointe shoe preparation videos. It's weirdly compelling.

You can find a lot of stuff on YouTube that pertains to British panel and quiz shows – some official, some less sanctioned, but no less appreciated by the off-shore trivia-mad masses.

How else would we twist our brains in knots at Jeremy Paxman's questions and the curl of disdain on his lip when none of the students from either Oxbridge team know which Verdi opera a specific aria is from? How else would we know the thrill of success at correctly answering an Only Connect question after the first clue?

And how else would we watch official compilations of every LITTLE ALEX HORNE intro in Taskmaster history?

We are indeed indebted to YouTube.

I was a relative latecomer to the world of Billie Eilish, but I'm glad that I'm here now. Not long after I took the plunge, the third iteration of her recurring Vanity Fair interview was released, and in the last couple of weeks, the fourth iteration came out.

It's a really fascinating insight into the brain of someone who is an artist, a mega celebrity... and a teenager. She answers the same questions, but also reflects on the answers she gave in previous years and how she has either held true to those feelings or evolved.

And it's really reassuring to see that no matter how much money and fame and talent a person has, they still cringe at the things they said at 15 or 16.

Across her two channels, British twenty-something Hannah Witton manages to encompass everything from sex education to top book choices to organisation hints to wardrobe re-dos to – and this is what first drew me to her – busted guts.

Hannah has ulcerative colitis – I have Crohn's colitis. She has a ileostomy – I used to have a colostomy. There are a few YouTubers out there who talk about IBD (inflammatory bowel disease, i.e. Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis) and/or being a young person with a stoma, but Hannah's the one who I connected to the most. I have such an appreciation for her candidness and her willingness to open up to an audience that signed up for the sex ed but got an unexpected dose of gut issue education to boot.

If you have some sort of specific chronic condition, it's really worth doing a bit of homework and seeing what YouTubers tickle your fancy. There's nothing like a bit of relatability and humour when it comes to things going wrong with your insides.

I think my favourite videos on all of the wide sprawling world that is YouTube might just be Daniel M. Lavery*'s phone calls between Joan Didion and Anna Wintour.

They are short, irreverent, and the eminently quotable. I'm obsessed.

"Oh, hello, Anna Wintour. I like your oversized sunglasses and glittering sheath dress."

"Oh, thank you, Joan Didion. I like your oversized sunglasses and glittering sheath dress. It makes you look like an attractive scarab beetle."

"Why thank you, Anna Wintour. I, Joan Didion, enjoy feeling like an attractive scarab beetle too, very much, also, as well. Sacramento."

His Male Novelist Jokes piece is also an absolute masterpiece, with the added bonus of being able to see Roxane Gay chuckling behind him.

*the YouTube channel has not had its name changed since Daniel changed his surname to his wife Grace's.