---
title: 'Social Media for Writers, Without Showing Your Face'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GFCw9H5ctWk'
video_id: 'GFCw9H5ctWk'
date: 2026-08-15
duration_sec: 780
channel: 'Dal Cecil Runo - Writer'
---

# Social Media for Writers, Without Showing Your Face

> Source: [Social Media for Writers, Without Showing Your Face](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GFCw9H5ctWk)

## Summary

Dal Cecil Runo, a blind storyteller, addresses the misconception that writers and artists must show their faces to succeed on social media. She explains why faceless content creation is a valid, often preferable, approach for many creators and offers practical alternatives.

### Key Points

- **The Misconception of Face-Centric Branding** [00:35] — There is a common misunderstanding that success requires showing your face, workspace, kids, and dog. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution for artists.
- **Safety and Privacy Concerns** [01:29] — The internet is borderless and can be dangerous. AI cannot protect individuals with unique vulnerabilities, making faceless content a way to avoid needless anxiety and malicious attention.
- **Lack of Space and Gear** [02:15] — Not everyone has a shiny studio, good natural light, or a great camera. After the pandemic, many lack resources to invest in a 'YouTube starter pack,' so they turn to animation or presentations.
- **Separation of Identity** [02:54] — A pen name is worthless if your face is everywhere. Keeping your personal life separate from your creative career protects job opportunities and personal bias from HR departments.
- **Low Self-Esteem** [03:35] — If a creator doesn't feel photogenic, it's more productive to find an alternative to filming their face, reducing anxiety and avoiding overproduction of their appearance.
- **Ageism in the Creator Niche** [04:17] — Society is obsessed with youth, and older creators, especially women in certain niches, face bias. Being too authentic can hamper growth, so some choose to hide their face.
- **Avoiding Unwanted Attention** [05:01] — Some creators, like asexual women, want to avoid unwanted types of attention. The less face shown, the better, allowing focus on sharing stories and novels.
- **Artists vs. Influencers** [06:29] — Showing your face is more of a must for influencers, but artists are different. They must turn away from generalized advice and find what works for their art and audience.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Animation** [07:05] — Use animation or cartoon poses (e.g., with Illustrator or Blender) for a unique brand. Hire someone if you lack the skill.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Stock Footage** [08:20] — Use free or affordable stock footage websites with voiceovers. This format is successful on many channels.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Commentary** [08:36] — Create commentary videos about popular shows (e.g., Overanalyzing Avatar), understanding fair use, to connect with audiences through mutual appreciation.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Hands-Only Videos** [09:19] — Show hands doing craftwork, tarot readings, or other manual activities. Combine with your art form, like Carrow Brown's AuthorTube tarot readings.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Unboxings and Reviews** [10:03] — Review products like keyboards or writing software with a voiceover. The audience is there for the product, and a personal touch in the script adds value.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: ASMR and Scary Stories** [10:34] — ASMR content has an audience, and horror story channels (e.g., 'scary stories' search) are huge without showing faces.
- **Faceless Content Ideas: Nature Walks** [11:13] — Pair nature walks with voiceovers, using a stabilizer for quality. This is harder but can be done well, reminding that nature goes well with writerly content.

### Conclusion

Faceless content creation is a viable and often necessary path for many artists, offering safety, privacy, and creative freedom. By trying different approaches and maintaining coherent branding, creators can reach their audience without compromising their identity.

## Transcript

Once I was at a marketing for writers panel and someone in the chat asked how to go about You clicked on this so you’re probably wondering the same. Hello there, humans, I’m Dal Cecil Runo, a blind storyteller.
My mission is to make content that not only helps me reach a bigger audience but also, I want to remind you of your humanity and help you reclaim your creative time. There’s no one size solution in the life of an artist, and there shouldn’t be only
Let’s discuss social media for the more private folk on the internet. The ongoing misunderstanding is that you have to show your face and your work space and
your kids and your dog if you have those, and then your brand will be successful. I mean, if you want to be that kind of celebrity with no privacy, go ahead, have fun. I’ve been through this several times, searching for advice in the wrong places from people
It’s true that creating content without showing your face requires more time gathering stock footage and more time editing, and some people may wonder why would anyone go through
that hassle instead of just filming themselves and presto! Here are a couple of reasons why some people may wish to keep themselves out of their online The internet is a big place.
There are no country borders or restrictions and people from all over the world can connect. That is awesome, and it could also become dangerous. No matter how hard the online platforms try to protect their users, these are just robots.
AI cannot protect you as a unique individual with unique circumstances from the more malicious Being a woman with a notorious disability, I know well what I’m talking about.
People with notorious vulnerabilities are easy targets, so I avoid needless anxiety Not everyone has a shiny and beautiful space for a YouTube studio. I know the idea of starting a channel or an Instagram page with casual pictures and chat
vlogs on your couch is a good one, but not everyone wants to have that approach, and Some people are poor, some people maybe aren’t so poor but they live in very small apartments
and there’s not good enough natural light from a window and so on. Some people have older phones and the camera isn’t that great. There could be a million reasons why not everyone has the space or the gear, and trust me, after
a global pandemic, not everyone has the resources to invest in a YouTube starter pack. So they might turn to animation or presentations and other solutions I will share with you Separation of identity.
What’s the worth of a pen name if my face is constantly all over social media and I become easily identifiable on the streets or easily found on google and then I maybe
lose a job opportunity because Mr. Squaremind from the HR department has a personal bias I like my personal life away from my creative career for many reasons, and I write sci-fi.
Now imagine writers of more spicy genres…hiding their face from their day job colleagues might Think about it, you don’t know if your Geography teacher writes spicy erotica in the evenings,
Low self-esteem. A person’s self-esteem is not any of our business as a bunch of internet strangers,
If the creator doesn’t feel photogenic enough, or good-looking enough, wouldn’t it be better, at least, productivity wise to find an alternative for content creation? It would be less anxiety-inducing to just find a more relaxed way to make videos and
graphics instead of spending hours trying to overproduce their face. I don’t know, I feel alright in my body, but that’s not the case for everyone and they have the right to try other approaches instead of an entire group of people pushing
Ageism in the creator’s niche. Our society is obsessed with youth, and older creators know it. Not at all.
But I see this all the time in some niches, especially with older female content creators in niches where the more common demographic is people half their age. Sometimes in certain spaces being too authentic and open can hamper your growth as a creator,
I’m not saying I like this or this is the right way to go, but they know like I do that no one is going to change the world in one day, so they might as well do their thing
Avoiding undesired types of attention. I know, this is a weird one but I see it with some, not all, but some ace creators, and I as an asexual woman try to avoid those unwanted types of attention that women get online.
It’s not what I came here for, so the less you see my face, the better. I’m here to share my stories and novels as I publish them. Yes, we need certain guidelines and knowledge when we are true novices and have no idea
how to go about writing, or marketing our work. The problem arrives when we begin to fall in specific boxes, preaching the way that worked for us as a law that everyone has to follow, like showing your face and putting
your face on your YouTube thumbnails because of human connection and blablabla. There are many ways to establish human connection. If not, there wouldn’t be any feeling at all while we listen to music without a music
Of course people like to see other people’s faces, and while it’s true that there are people who play music as background noise and never listen to the lyrics, or people
who don’t read books and would rather watch the movie, luckily that’s not my target Treating my audience like a one-dimensional monolith that only responds to one specific type of content is a disrespect to their intellect.
Always remember that when creating content. Showing your face on social media is more of a must if you wish to become an online There I admit that it is harder to be an influencer if you don’t show yourself.
Artists are a different type of creator, and we have to turn away from generalized advice to find what works for us, the type of art we create, the audience we want to reach, So here are some ideas that you could try for your writer or artist career.
If one doesn’t work for you and your circumstances, hopefully there is at least one on the list This already gives you a unique look and feel for your artist brand, and when the content
is well produced with nice audio quality for the voice overs, your channel can reach a Terrible Writing Advice comes to mind. You could make a couple of drawings of a cartoon in several poses and use those poses for all
You can make it as simple or as complex as you wish using software like Illustrator or the 3D open source platform Blender or something else I don't even know about. What you need here is a powerful enough device, some apps or programs and some time and creativity.
If you want to take this approach but you don’t have the skill to do this, you can That’s the quick and easy but maybe not so good solution for all these suggestions:
hire someone to do the work for your videos. No problem. No problem.
There are free and affordable stock footage websites where you can find awesome visuals YouTube is full of successful channels using this format. I’m doing a combination of these first two examples.
I love Overanalyzing Avatar’s channel. I’ve never seen that dude’s face and I don’t need to. He is totally playing to his strengths.
To take this approach you must understand the rules of fair use, but it is a viable approach and it reaches huge audiences because there’s the connection between you the creator,
the viewer, and the mutual appreciation for a popular show. If you are crafty, or you like tarot, or some other type of thing to do with your hands, you could make a space on a table, put a nice cloth if you want to add some specific color
to your videos and do some craftwork or tarot reading for the month or such things that The tarot niche on YouTube is full of these hands only videos. For an example of a mix between tarot and something writing related, I've mentioned
Carrow Brown’s AuthorTube tarot readings before, and I like how she combines two of That’s an important note, always bring things back to the type of art you’re making.
Music, writing, painting, whatever it is that you do, bring thhis other thing back to the Unboxings and product reviews. It could be a new keyboard that you bought, it could be a new writing software on the
market, your video could be a review of the product and a voice over. The audience is there for the product itself. This works best when you add that personal touch on your voice over script, so whoever
is watching gets to know something about you as the writer. Those how-to and educational videos are great, but if not done well, it could become transactional, but for now I am only giving you suggestions of faceless content you can create.
I don’t know much about this, but I know ASMR content has its audience. It could work for you, depending on what you write and the type of audience you want to
This is something I do, but if you want an example of huge channels, look at the horror Just type scary stories in the search bar here on youtube and amaze yourself with the
No one is showing their face over there… For this one you will need a video stabilizer, so there’s gear involved, but if you can,
and you live near beautiful nature, and you like to go on walks, you have the perfect I say pair with your voice over because of the quality of the production. With the concept of creator economy exploding, I know that things have to be top notch productions
in 2022 and beyond, because competition grows with the size of the platforms, and not many will put up with a video where there’s a lot of wind noise and a shaky camera and the So this one might be the most difficult one to do and do it well, but it’s not impossible
so I wanted to include it, just to remind you that beautiful nature goes well with writerly You could try one or many of these, so long as you maintain a coherent visual branding Also, let me know in the comments if you want to know more about a specific topic and I
I want to make videos that are helpful to those who find me. I just want to remind you that if this blind writer can, so can you. I’m aware that everything in our world is mostly visual, and instead of going against
it, I’ve been learning to find my own way to create content to reach my audience through This has been a long process, and I had to learn techniques to organize my time. If that’s another thing you’re struggling with, I made a video about time management
tips for people with low energy levels and it’s on screen right now so you can check I’ll see you in my next one, and thank you for your support.