Michelle Khare doesn’t plan on leaning into the influencer-to-fighter pipeline anytime soon.
“Unfortunately, we’re not in the same weight class, so I’ll pass!” Khare, 32, said jokingly to Us Weekly during a break from filming her new “Challenge Accepted: 90 Day Black Belt” episode in San Pedro, California, when asked about the possibility of fighting brothers Logan or Jake Paul in her next YouTube video.
But the docuseries host, known for her YouTube show Challenge Accepted, isn’t new to a competitive atmosphere and regularly pushes herself to the limit in challenges on her popular YouTube channel, which consists of 4.76 million subscribers and garnered 30 million views in 2023.
“Whether it’s training like a chess grandmaster for eight months and really flexing those brain muscles or something like learning Harry Houdini’s deadliest magic trick and learning how to hold my breath for three-and-a-half minutes,” she said. “Each of the challenges pushes me mentally, physically, spiritually in a different way.”
On top of the pressure she puts on herself, the self-titled “YouTube’s Daredevil” opened up to Us about the competitive nature on the internet.
“I think that what makes it special is that YouTube is a free platform. The only barrier to entry is the upload button. It’s not, ‘I’ve got to get in line with 300 other people and audition to host the show. I want to host and hope I beat on everyone else.’ In this world,” Khare said. “On YouTube, all 300 people can make their own show, can produce it, host it and put it online, and the algorithm is our form of democracy to see what rises to the top.”
However, it’s not a competition all the time as Khare said the YouTuber space is full of creators who want “help” and “support” each other.
“The biggest turning point for me in my channel was when I challenged myself to reach into the creator community more and I wish I had done it sooner. I definitely felt intimidated because as you’re growing, there’s a lot of pressure,” Khare explained. “But what I love about the creator community is that people are so willing and open to share their experiences, their business struggles, wins, learnings, failures. And when I really started tapping into the YouTube community was when I saw a tangible change.”
The sense of community Khare built with other YouTubers is what she credits to helping her channel change “quantitatively” when they started to reach out, give each other feedback and provide support, and Khare name-dropped some people that she admires.
“Some creators that I love are Ryan Trahan. Defunctland is an incredible documentary filmmaker,” she said. “I love Niko Omilana who is just fabulous and HopeScope is another female creator that I really love.”
Khare added: “There’s definitely an amazing sense of camaraderie [in the YouTube community]. And I can’t say that for every industry that I’ve been a part of, it’s very, very special.”
This week Khare has her own very special contribution to share to YouTube. Her first feature-length episode, “Challenge Accepted: 90 Day Black Belt,” was filmed this summer, and Us Weekly was on-site as Khare attempted to earn a black belt after 90 days of guidance from world-renowned taekwondo Grandmaster Simon Rhee with no prior training. Khare’s friends and family will see how she fares in a private screening before the episode premieres at the Montclair Film Festival on Friday, October 25, and Michelle’s YouTube Channel, free for public viewing, beginning Sunday, October 27.
With reporting by Lanae Brody
