Can you collaborate with a box? In July 2018 I was the very first creator to open Jeremy Wright's #TheUnboxingProject, a box travelling from YouTuber to YouTuber around the world. It arrived in the south of Italy looking like it had been through a war.
The idea
Jeremy Wright wanted to create the largest YouTube collaboration ever, with creators from all over the world. His idea was beautifully simple. A box travels from one YouTuber to the next. Each creator unboxes it on camera and keeps the gift meant for them. Then they add a gift for the next person, plus something that stays in the box for good, like a letter or a sticker. Everyone uploads their video to their own channel and to a shared folder, and the box moves on.
What was in the first box
I'd been waiting for this package for a long time, so I was really pumped when I picked it up from the post office. It had come all the way from the US and was a bit battered, so I promised to fix it up before sending it on. Inside I found a great sticker (now I need to find one from Apulia), sweets that are a Salt Lake City speciality, which I hid in my drawer so the kids wouldn't find them, and a bag of coffee roasted in Utah. There was also a letter from Jeremy thanking me for taking part and telling me to keep creating, because the world needs more people like that. That really touched me.
An honour to go first
It was a great honour to be the first one to unbox the first box of the Unboxing Project. Yes, that sounds strange, but that's what it is. I already had a few ideas for what to put in for the next creator, and I had a hard time deciding what would continue the journey and what would stay in my house. The project was open to ideas, so we invited everyone to join in with the hashtag.