Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
Crystal Bell is the Digital Culture Editor at Mashable, where she leads coverage of the creator economy, internet culture, and digital life. Her work focuses on the people, platforms, and communities shaping modern entertainment, from YouTube creators and livestreamers to fandoms, social media trends, and the evolving relationship between technology and culture. She also oversees the Mashable 101, the publication's annual list recognizing the internet's most influential creators.
VidCon is a premier global convention for content creators, influencers, digital media brands, and fans. The event features creator panels, networking opportunities, live entertainment, meet-and-greets, and discussions on trends shaping the creator economy.
VidCon 2026 welcomed content creator Michelle Phan into its second class of Hall of Famers, alongside Markiplier, Philip DeFranco, and Blogilates founder Cassey Ho.
A pioneer in the beauty content creation space, Phan began posting makeup tutorials on YouTube in 2007. On top of spawning an internet beauty empire, her tutorials led to partnerships with Lancôme and L'Oréal. Phan also launched her own brands, including beauty subscription box IPSY and EM Cosmetics.
Phan started her career long before words like "YouTuber" or "content creator" became household terms, and she's witnessed the internet go through a drastic shift in terms of attitudes towards creators.
"Today, people know that the moment you turn on the camera and you're dancing in front of it or filming, they don't look at you weird," Phan told Mashable digital culture editor Crystal Bell.
"When I was being a YouTuber, people would look at me strange when I had my camcorder out and I'm filming out in public. They thought, 'Who is this person doing this weird thing?'" Phan recalled. "But today it's so normalized. Everyone's making content, and I think that's a beautiful thing, because everyone has a story to share."
That shift is clear at VidCon 2026, which has grown leaps and bounds since Phan first attended in the convention's early days.
"It was so surreal just to see how massive it is now and all the different creators," Phan said. "I would say I feel like I knew that it would become bigger like this, but it's so surreal to see that we're here now."
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
Crystal Bell is the Digital Culture Editor at Mashable, where she leads coverage of the creator economy, internet culture, and digital life. Her work focuses on the people, platforms, and communities shaping modern entertainment, from YouTube creators and livestreamers to fandoms, social media trends, and the evolving relationship between technology and culture. She also oversees the Mashable 101, the publication's annual list recognizing the internet's most influential creators.
Previously, she was the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped expand the brand's coverage of fan culture, K-pop, and the internet's most passionate communities. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.
She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.
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