Oliver chuckles and I roll my eyes as we head to my room. I text my uncle quickly before closing the bedroom door. We kick off our shoes and plop onto the bed.

‘We’ve gotta get more subscribers.’ Oliver lies on his stomach, holding his phone, our channel, Keep Kind, open on his screen. ‘This number is stressing me out.’

Sundays are our YouTube filming day. We started the channel together because Oliver is applying for work experience at Viola Films, a famous film production company, and when he trawled through the application process he realised they’re looking for not only an impressive body of work but a strong social media presence—having over a thousand subscribers is a given. He says thousands of high-school kids will apply, but if he gets chosen, the benefits roll on. The winning candidate will get to intern on the set of a major production next summer. It will also give him a real chance of getting into the competitive New York film school he wants to go to after we graduate next year.

But while he’s focused on making the best films possible and attracting the most subscribers, I have other things in mind. Inspired by Stella and her work, I want to use our channel to raise awareness about animal cruelty and make a difference. I’m taking the lead on what subjects we cover, consuming reams of articles on different topics. I’m following all the advice I’ve read and trying my best to make it newsworthy, light and interesting, while Oliver does the filming and editing.

We covered a team of poachers-turned-wildlifeprotectors; a real feel-good news piece. I loved watching the videos of elephants roaming. The research process was harder for our first video, when I wanted to write about the live export industry. Hundreds of sheep died from heatstroke, squashed into ships from Australia to the Middle East in the height of summer. Stella’s articles on the history of the ban-campaign helped me enormously, and Oliver was sure that video would be a hit; it’s a huge topical issue. But nope. To say our channel hasn’t attracted much attention is the understatement of the century.

‘It is embarrassing,’ I agree. Sixty-three followers is about low as you can get. Some people who haven’t even posted a single thing have more than that. I lie next to him, laptop in front of me, following the directions to sign Stella’s bear petition. I refresh my feed and share a post from a page called Expose Them.

‘Sky?’ Oliver prompts.

I look up and realise he’s holding his phone up to me. I wriggle closer. ‘That’s, what, sixty-four? Better than last week!’ I try to sound positive, but he nosedives into the covers.