Social-media star visits local middle school

EAST COUNTY — As she waited for faculty members of Braden River Middle to introduce her, 18-year-old Bethany Mota smiled at the sound of sixth- through eighth-grade girls screaming at the mention of her name.

She looked up at the two wooden doors just a few feet in front of her — the only thing holding back hundreds of excited almost- and early-teens who couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of someone they had only seen on YouTube.

As part of her nine-location, 14-day trek to Aeropostale store locations across the country, the California native decided to make a change.

She arrived at the East County school Feb. 3, followed by a visit to Braden River High, for the only two stops at schools on her nationwide bus tour, coined Motavatour after her fans’ name for themselves; the name combines Mota and the word motivation.

Braden River Middle School Counselor Traci Cristello, who knew of Mota’s positive reputation withteenage girls, emailed Mota a few weeks ago and asked the makeup and fashion guru to stop by and speak about bullying. The request sparked Mota’s interest because it gave her a chance to meet fans in an out-of-store setting.

Mota spoke to themes of being positive, being conscientious of what others may be going through and being genuine, as she cited her personal experience with bullying.

“It’s OK to be weird,” Mota said. “Just be yourselves.”

After reading negative comments posted about her on the Internet six years ago, and having lost most of her friends as a result, Mota decided to find outlets to express her emotions and keep herself busy.

Having noticed the growing trend of posting makeup tutorial videos on YouTube, Mota decided to create her own channel in 2009.

What started out as a way to occupy lonely, long summer days, with no expectations in mind other than making a few new friends, turned into 5 million new relationships.

“It’s kind of unbelievable, the relationship I have with my viewers,” Mota said. “They’re all my best friends.”
Taking notice of her growing popularity on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Aeropostale representatives reached out to Mota and invited her to create a fashion line for their retail locations last year.

With four months until the December release of her line, she flew to New York, where she worked with a design team of girls, close to her in age, to create looks which reflected her fashion style, and those of her viewers.

Mota provides feedback regularly to followers of her social-media sites who post pictures of their clothing. She responds with tips, and often commends them on what they wear, she said, as they share similar fashion likes and dislikes.

As she fielded questions Monday from girls about how her bullies feel about her now that she has received recognition, and the occasional, “Can we take a picture together?” inquiries, the always-bubbly, fast-talking social butterfly returned to the same point.

“Know at the end of the day that whatever you’re going through will only make you stronger,” Mota said.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].